Cat Scratching Furniture

Have you thought about de-clawing? Ive never owned cats & he might be too old for that but what if for a while you moved that particular chair and put it in a closed off room and put a scratch post in its place.

You have to clip his nails. How do you cuddle with your cat if he has dagger sharp nails? I know not all cats will let you do it (ours are persians and very docile) so you can get it done at the groomers. Please don't declaw, it very traumatic for the cat.

R., I have 5 cats and use a product called Feline Away Repellent available from the local pet store but it is very expensive about $50 a bottle, it is not harmful to pets or children, but I would test the fabric of your furniture and flooring choice. You spray it on the area where you dont want your pet to scratch and after a few times the cat should stay away. It may take up to a week but the cat will not go near it then reapply about once a week to keep them away. Sometimes tin foil works if you tape with double sided tape.The spray also works great if your cat has marked a spot. Also a scratching post with catnip should be introduced to avoid having the cat scratch your woodwork in the house because they need to scratch it is a natural defense mechanism. Keep their nails cut short either you can do it or a groomer for a nominal cost. Good luck with your problem hope it helps. K.

DOUBLE STICK TAPE!!! Put it where the cat scratches and it will "pull" his foot hair but not harm him. They hate the pulling. He may move on to a different chair so also give him a scratching post or pads. "Sweeten" them with some cat nip and he will go there rather than furniture! A.

Try covering the area with aluminum foil, but beware, he may pick a new scratching piece of furniture. Buy one of those scratching posts also and put it next to the chair.

I'm not sure what they are called, but the pet stores do sell play units for cats to scratch and climb in and around on...they come in all sizes and designs depending on how much room you have to place one in.

Try putting double sided tape on the chair. You can get some at a hardware store, it is used to tack carpeting down. I use this when I have had a cat that wants to scratch furniture and door frames. They don't like it when their feet stick to the tape and stop right away.

There are two things you can do, doing both at the same time works even better. The first is to cover the "scratching area" with tin foil. Cats hate tin foil. Also, get yourself a fly swatter and whack kitty on the bum when he/she scratches the furniture. However you must also profide a scratching post, to make it more appealing, try rubbing some catnip on it. Once the scratching cycle is broken and the cat has been using the post, you can remove the tin foil from the furniture - it won't harm the furniture at all.
PS I have 6 cats and have had as many as 7 at one time. Be firm, they understand you more than you might think.

A few have mentioned already the double stick tape... It's the ONLY thing that worked for us. They don't want to scratch anything we buy for that purpose. They keep coming back even if they get squirted. Clipping nails doesn't help because they just want to sharpen them again, lol
Please don't declaw. It could be fatal to the cat if it ever gets lost outside...
The wider the tape the better. If you can't get the specialty pet ones, just use some packing tape...wrap it around itself. GL!

The only way I got my cats to stop scratching was to wrap a sheet tightly over the chair. (So tight that the kitty can't scoot up under it.) Looks terrible, though! :(

We tried the claw covers, and they were great for about 3 weeks. Then both cats chewed them off, and we found little claw "gloves" all over the house. Plus they're so expensive!

Tape balloons to the chair, kitty will try to scratch the balloons and BOOM. Also get a scratching post and put some cat nip on it to encourage him to use it.

Hi R.
I have 4 cats and I know what you are going through.
All the cat trees and cat scratch items in the world will not keep them from scratching your furniture.
One thing that I did find worked was orange peels....
Yep, orange peels.
You have to peel the orange skin off and rub the white fleshy part on the furniture that the cat is scratching on.
It really does work, but you have to refresh the area with more orange peel rubs every couple of days. Cats HATE citris!!
It doesn't soil or stain your furniture either.
I have white/cream chairs and had no problems at all with stains. I just got tired of eating oranges after a while.
But it truly does work.
One other thing you can do is to get the clear packing tape or duct tape and kind of roll it so that it is double sided. One side adheres to the chair and the other stays sticky on the outside. Once the cat stretches up and gets stuck on the tape, he will run away.
Again, I didn't notice any discolorations of the fabrics, but I didn't leave the same piece of tape on the chairs for too long a time....maybe once a week I changed them. (So that the glue on the tape did not get old and turn yellow).
When company is coming, just peel off the tape!
Good luck,
I hope these methods help you!!
P.
P.S. PLEASE DO NOT DECLAW HIM.....I did that to one of my cats and I swore I would never do it again.
He was in agony for weeks and couldn't even stand at his dish to eat or drink. I had to feed him off of a spoon and I had to wash his face with a washcloth b/c he could not use his paws to clean his face. He is now 14 years old and he still has problems. The paws are smaller after they are declawed b/c they snip off the first knuckle. He has had terrible back pains b/c he was a big cat and it was hard for him to walk with hs size on those small feet. (He was not obese, just a big and very long male cat).
Just wanted to share my experience with declawing!!
Take care!
P.

"Sticky Paws" is basically double stick tape that you can put on furniture (you could probably just use regular double stick tape too) - and it doesn't have to be permanent, just during the "training" time its usually enough to get them to stop... they hate the sticky feeling.
I work at a cat-only hospital and have seen people have success with this - but deterring them to another appropriate scratching place is important too because its a natural behavior they will do no matter what - get a few different kinds of scratching posts, put them near the chair and put catnip on them and see which one your kitty likes.
Definitely wouldn't recommend declawing at this age (i'm not a huge fan of it at any age, but sometimes its necessary if elderly or children are getting injured)... older cats have a MUCH more difficult recovery time than kittens, no matter what pain meds or precautions you take.
Good luck!!

Ahhh...so with you on this one! We have 2 cats w/claws. We try to keep them trimmed and found that tin foil helps. We tried all sorts of natural sprays, etc and also cat nail covers. They worked for a bit but was a three-man operation to get them on. Our vet said they can trim for fairly cheap or put the covers on.

Hi R.,

Maybe you can try a rolled up newspaper since the water trick didn't work. Whatever you do, please don't "declaw" the cat. It's inhumane. They actually remove the equivilant of up to the first knuckle. So, please keep trying non-surgical means disciplin.

Take care,
A.

You should buy a scratching post for the cat and put catnip on it. There is also a spray called "Keep Off" which you can use on your furniture.
Hope this helps
K.

declaw the cat, if that doesn't seem too inhumane. i think all vets do this now. otherwise, i have no idea, my mom has 4 cats and they scratch everything :o)