how do you stop a cat from scratching your furniture?

Question

this cat has tore up my leather dining room chairs and his working on my leather couch what should I do before I kill this cat

Answer 1

WHAT TO DO:
- Provide your cat with a variety of scratching posts—cardboard, carpeting, wood, upholstery, etc. Some cats prefer horizontal posts and others prefer vertical posts, while still others favor slanted posts. Some cats like pile carpeting, while others will only scratch on sisal. Some prefer a longitudinal grain for raking, while others like a latitudinal grain for picking. Once you ascertain your cat’s personal preferences, provide additional posts in various locations. All cats should have a sturdy post that won’t shift or collapse when used. Cats also like a post that is tall enough so they can stretch fully—presumably why they like drapes so much!

- Encourage the cat to investigate the posts by scenting them with catnip or hanging toys at the tops of the posts. Take care to place posts in areas where the cat will be inclined to climb on them.

- Discourage inappropriate scratching by removing or covering desirable objects in your home. Turn speakers to the wall. Use plastic, double-sided sticky tape, sandpaper or vinyl carpet runner (turned upside-down to expose the knobby feet) on furniture or on the floor where the cat would stand to scratch. Place scratching posts adjacent to these objects.

- Clip the cat’s nails regularly.

- Consider using plastic caps (Soft PawsTM) for the cat’s nails. These caps attach to the nails with an adhesive so that if the cat scratches, no damage is done. The caps are temporary, lasting about 4 to 6 weeks.

- If, and only if, you catch your cat in the act of scratching an inappropriate object, you may try startling the cat by clapping your hands or squirting her with water. Do this sparingly because the cat may associate you with this startling event and come to fear you.

WHAT NOT TO DO:
- Do not hold your cat up to the scratching post and force her to drag her claws on it. This procedure may frighten the cat and teach her to avoid the scratching post completely.

- Do not throw away your cat’s favorite scratching post when it becomes unsightly. Cats prefer shredded and torn objects because they can really get their claws into the fabric—and best of all, the object is infiltrated with their scent.

add: declawing is the lazy route out of this situation. besides cats use their claws for more than just scratching. they need them for balance when walking on thing and while trying to get to that annoying itch. not to mention they need to for an escape route from danger.

Answer 2

Declawing is never a good solution - it can cause serious medical complications, aggressive behaviour and is just generally inhumane (it's a banned practise in Europe).

Clawing is natural behaviour for a cat, so what you need to do is provide the cat with a surface that it can claw and to make the surface of your furniture unappealing to it.

You should provide your cat with a scratching post - sisal is an excellent material with a texture that cats enjoy. There are also carpet and cardboard scratching posts commercially available. The scratching post should be sturdy enough that it does not move when the cat is using it and tall enough that the cat can extend it's body when scratching.

Start out by placing the scratching post in the middle of a room that the cat frequents. Introduce the cat to the post; you can rub catnip on it to increase the appeal. Reward your cat with a treat when you see her using the scratching post. Once the cat has learnt to use the post you can slowly move it to a more out-of-the-way area of the room.

To deter the cat from scratching the furniture, place double-sided tape on the surfaces that the cat scratches - the sticky texture will be very unappealing to the cat. If you see the cat scratching the furniture use a squirt gun or srpay bottle to give it a quick squirt of water.

Answer 3

First make sure you have plenty of things available that she can scratch. Its also a good idea to regularly clip her claws on a weekly basis but read up on it a bit so you where to clip too because too far of a clip will injure the blood vessels. After that theres a couple products you can get. There are certain sprays you can put on the furinture that will smell bad to your cat and may deter her from scratching. There's also sticky pads you can put on the furinture that the cat will not like the texture of. You can also get a product called safety claws that are like rubber caps for the nails and she wont be able to scratch with those. If your not into buying any products than get a spray bottle with water that you squirt the cat with whenever she starts scratching and afterwards direct her to something she can scratch. This process may take some time so you have to be ready to stick to it.

Answer 4

1st of all, dnt kill it:P 2nd i would suggest u get a scratching post. spray some catnip on it so the ct would be attracted 2 it. bring ur cat over 2 the post, don't put it's paws on the post as that will only confuse it. every time it uses the scratching post, praise it and pet it, mayb give it a treat. if it starts scratching up ur furniture, then spray it LIGHTLY with a MIST of water. DO NOT use too much water or water on a very high pressure. Also u mught wanna put the post near someplace where he/she likes 2 sit or nap or play or...u get the point. Another thing 2 use would be "Soft Paws". I recently lerned about it and it turns out they're are kinds of gloves that come in a wide range of colours. Do NOT get your cat declawed as it is NOT humane. Well hope this helps :)

Answer 5

do you have only the one cat? scratching is often used as scent marking and not just claw maintenance. if you have more than once cat - or lots of cats in your neighbourhood - this could be the reason for the excessive scratching. try placing an alternative, acceptable scratch object next to the objects that are currently being scratched, like a scratching post - maybe one covered in a leather substitute as your cat may really like that kind of surface.

i would suggest having as many acceptable scratching surfaces available in various locations as possible - i have one in the lounge, one in the kitchen, one in each bedroom and one in the hallway for my 2 cats - they rarely, if ever, scratch the furniture now!

you can deter cats by covering furniture with double sided sticky tape for a period of time - the will soon learn that that particular surface is no longer a tempting place to use but you must provide an alternative.

Answer 6

You should get SoftPaws ! We have SoftPaws on both of our cats and it works great. They are caps that go on their claws (front only or front & back if you want) and they can still retract, and do any normal thing with their claws, but they cannot damage anything. We didn't want to declaw because it is a serious operation. If you put the SoftPaws on correctly they stay on quite a while - 4-6 weeks. It is a great solution. Plus you can get them in cool colors, our girl kitty has pink. I got ours on eBay, they are about $15 for 4 applications but it is worth it not to have stuff torn up and declawing is painful and can cause some cats problems afterwords.

Also, trim their back claws.

Answer 7

Anytime our cats ever started to scratch the furniture we kind of just yelled and shook a paper at them and they freaked out and ran away, after awhile they didn't do it anymore, but maybe we just have mild cats. Also we have and old rug thrown down in the corner of a room and they scratch that cause its the only thing we didn't get mad at them for scratching. Some people use a squirt bottle and squirt them anytime they scratch but I just couldn't do that, maybe you might have to. I hope this helped.

Answer 8

Don't kill the cat, just get A SCRATCHING POST OR A PIECE OF RUG SCRAP FOR IT TO SCRATCH ON

Answer 9

I can sympathize! I've had only one cat that I didn't have to declaw because of that. And that's because he was good about using the carpet scraps I kept for him.

Get your kitty declawed. Or if you don't want to do that, trim his nails and cover the tips with these little tips called Soft Paws. I understand Petsmart sells them.

Answer 10

u get ur cat a scratching pad or u just go 2 the vet and get its claws removed
thats what i did 2 all my cats