Cat clawing furniture

alie

Help, just got a new suite of furniture and cat is clawing it . I was wondering if anyone knew of something i could use to stop her destroying it. Thanks.:rolleyes:

Sam Kade

Put the cat out.;)

Run_to_da_hills

My ex splashed out almost 2k on a red three piece suite and the cat has destroyed it

Intothesea

Hello there. You always have the option
to place cat-scratch posts around your
house and direct your cat to them when
any interest is shown in the furniture.
I would regularly rub catnip into the posts
to ensure feline interest HTH.

luckat

And put big sheets of cardboard around the furniture for the first while until the cat gets used to using the scratching posts.

And keep your cat out of that room when you're not in the house.

And just stop the cat from sharpening her claws on the furniture when she starts - walk over and put your hands gently on the paws and say "No, puss", and she should stop and walk away. (You may have to lift her away the first few times.)

Run_to_da_hills

Intothesea wrote: »

Hello there. You always have the option
to place cat-scratch posts around your
house.

I have seen these on special in Lidl.

The Artist

cats in lidl?:p

Themadhouse

You can get tape in the pet shop that is double sided. They wont be long in stopping the scratching once they get their claws stuck!

hadook

If the cat is an indoor only cat I'd highly recommend softpaws as something to prevent damage while you're teaching the cat not to scratch the furniture. I used them for that and also on one of my cats who'd sit on your knee and knead with full claws extended. :rolleyes:

I spent 4k on my couches and spent weeks teaching the cats not to scratch them. Then the Dane dug through one of the cushions to bury a pigs ear in it one day :mad:

MsFifers

They look hilarious Hadook! Those cats look like they feel so groovy with their lovely blue nail varnish!

stovelid

We have a old pouf (sp?) that they like to scratch on. Move them to something like this (or a post) when they start.

alie

She has scratch posts and severel toys and a cat house but refuses to use them. She is indoor / outdoor cat. I thought there may be a spray or a natural product that i could use.

fatmammycat

Water pistol, scratch, squirt, repeat as necessary. Even the marklar here eventually got it and he's not the brightest of animals. Of course you need to catch them in the act, otherwise it's utterly pointless. Also I bought my cats a scratching post before which they enjoyed ignoring as much as possible.

The Artist

fatmammycat wrote: »

Water pistol, scratch, squirt, repeat as necessary. Even the marklar here eventually got it and he's not the brightest of animals. Of course you need to catch them in the act, otherwise it's utterly pointless. Also I bought my cats a scratching post before which they enjoyed ignoring as much as possible.

Thats cruel imo.

fatmammycat

Oh please. You need to look up the definition of cruel.

fatmammycat

It's water, a squirt of water, not acid or anything horrid. it's a nano second and the cat associates it with the action. I notice as I type this one of the cats is hanging off the end of my desk and the other two are ASLEEP on the sofa. They learned quickly and efficiently, scratching= squirty water. they don't like squirty water, so they don't scratch. I also said you have to catch them in the act, not go about randomly squirting your pets.
Seriously, it's not cruel. If you're okay with all your furniture being scratched to pieces so be it. I'm not.

Run_to_da_hills

fatmammycat wrote: »

Water pistol, scratch, squirt, repeat as necessary. Even the marklar here eventually got it and he's not the brightest of animals. Of course you need to catch them in the act, otherwise it's utterly pointless. Also I bought my cats a scratching post before which they enjoyed ignoring as much as possible.

A cat will never learn the difference between good and bad. Guarantee if you gave your cat a smack every time it jumped up on to the kitchen table and licked the butter you would never stop it. It may not do it if you were about but you could be sure of it jumping up there as soon as you turn your back. They are the sneakiest and most un trustful of all family pets, My old man hates cats for this reason.

fatmammycat

Hah, well I have no idea what they get up to behind my back-certainly I have never managed to train them NOT to sleep in the hot press on the clean laundry- but I seem to have cracked the furniture problem, at least while they know I'm about.
I don't know they're necessarily sneaky, just cats being cats. The old one I have here is 17, and she's as affectionate as any dog.

lorna100

had the same problem op, get feliway spray, you can get in on the internet or in any vets - its amazing stuff. really works!!

within 3 days she had stopped scratching. completly! our skirting boards, doors, radiator covers, chairs and sofas were all scratched to bits.

cant reccomend it enough!

The Artist

fatmammycat wrote: »

It's water, a squirt of water, not acid or anything horrid. it's a nano second and the cat associates it with the action. I notice as I type this one of the cats is hanging off the end of my desk and the other two are ASLEEP on the sofa. They learned quickly and efficiently, scratching= squirty water. they don't like squirty water, so they don't scratch. I also said you have to catch them in the act, not go about randomly squirting your pets.
Seriously, it's not cruel. If you're okay with all your furniture being scratched to pieces so be it. I'm not.

Yes Cats do not like it at all, and while it may cure one behavior it can cause them to develop another behavior imo.
theres other ways to make the cat stop scratching but squirting water will not work imo.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=666
http://www.pet-tails.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=274
http://www.catscratching.com/

fatmammycat

It did get them to develop a different behaviour, they tear the trees outside to ribbons now instead of my couch and if they're indoors they use the carpet on the stairs, which I don't mind as it doesn't get destroyed. I'm not saying it will work for everyone Alan, I work for home so can usually catch my lot when they're up to mischief, but is an option. And it never made them flighty or nervous.

fatmammycat

By the way the last link on your post suggests the very same method I employed.

luckat

My adorable and very nervous little cat who died last month came to me in a state of deep trauma. The one thing he loved was stropping his claws on a nice Persian carpet in my bedroom.

It took a while, but I got him not to do it by gently stopping him and lifting him off the carpet.

Then he started stropping on a wooden floorboard. I was about to stop him, then thought, what the hell, I can replace a floorboard. Once he was happy stropping there, he always used that one place. The board's in splinters, but nowhere else is.

Cats are very habitual about where they strop their claws. (In fact, I don't think it's sharpening; I think it's keeping their tendons in nice stretchy condition.) Once they're used to a particular place, they'll nearly always use that place in preference to any other.

I'll second the vote for Feliway.

I saw a scratching post in a giant pet shop the other day, but it was (a) expensive and (b) fragile. You might be better to make your own by wrapping and gluing coarse twine around a firmly-based pillar.

Run_to_da_hills

My ex left her Lidl scratching post out in the rain over night, the following day she found it disentrigrated. It was made of twine wrapped around cardboard tubing, something easily done yourself.

The Artist

fatmammycat wrote: »

By the way the last link on your post suggests the very same method I employed.

ok you made you point here.
im just trying to help you.
its like me saying this ok.
if i had a cat and i squirt my cat yes frighten them ok but imo it'll make them start to retaliate,get angry etc.
so if you were doing something wrong and get hosed by water you wouldnt like it imo.
its the same thing if you know what i mean.

FunkyMissMonkey

I highly recommend the use of Softpaws also. They're great, and the cats barely seemed to notice them at all!

It also helped my partner and I identify our new fluffballs when we first them. They're both pure black, no other colours or markings at all, and telling them apart was very tricky to begin with! So we dressed one with blue softpaws, and one with pink!

Now they're older, we use different coloured collars for the same reason

alie

Thanks for all your replies , I will try soft paws .

alie

Alan Ford wrote: »

ok you made you point here.
im just trying to help you.
its like me saying this ok.
if i had a cat and i squirt my cat yes frighten them ok but imo it'll make them start to retaliate,get angry etc.
so if you were doing something wrong and get hosed by water you wouldnt like it imo.
its the same thing if you know what i mean.

As the problem is in the house , i will not be not be squirting her with water,:eek: