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Original poster

Can you prevent cats from scratching furniture?

25 replies

northerner · 25/10/2006 20:30

I love cats and we have had them before. WE now have a new house and new leather sofas, I would love a cat but dh is against it saying they will claw our sofas. They did do it on our old sofa's and my mum has one that does the same to her furniture.

Can we stop a new cat doing this?

OP posts:

pipo · 25/10/2006 20:31

Probably not in the time it takes to wreck a leather sofa.

2ndtime · 26/10/2006 22:24

We have leather sofas and 2 indoor cats. They dont scratch them at all. I keep their claw short
anyway but they tend to use the doormat to scratch on.

pointyfangedWeredog · 26/10/2006 23:10

Hm. Doubt you could do anything that would be totally foolproof. Try to train it by spraying it with water when it goes near sofa? Provide lots of scratchin gposts?

bloodyhowler · 26/10/2006 23:12

I think cats do exactly as they please tbh Well ours seem to It is part of their'charm'but very annoying too!How do you keep cats claws short 2nd time?

MamaGhoul · 26/10/2006 23:12

Make them wear little velvet bootees?

Hattie05 · 26/10/2006 23:17

My cat has never scratched leather sofas (she scratch anything else but not the leather) they did get a little damage when she was a feisty clumsy kitten and when she'd do that running around thing her clumsy claws would skin on the cushions. But once out of the kitten stage they havn't taken any futher damage.

As i say she did try and scratch other furniture which was material, so i bought a post and used to run her claws down it each time i caught her scratching and it worked.

TheDaVinciCod · 26/10/2006 23:17

hisssssss

mumandlovingit · 26/10/2006 23:18

not sure if it was a betterware catalogue or similar but i saw some clear tape stuff that you stick on the front of the sofa legs and its got something on it that stops them scratching at it.

obviously its not sticky on the outside.it works as my MIL used it.i'll ask her when i see her tomorrow

pointyfangedWeredog · 26/10/2006 23:18

I believe you can clip them. With cat clippers? Don't fancy it myself.

pointyfangedWeredog · 26/10/2006 23:19

Oh yeah mali! Kleeneze (wjat a name) sells plastic shields for the corners of your sofas.

And we tried a cat repellent spray. Dh went mad with it.

bananaloaf · 26/10/2006 23:54

i used to put tin foil on the corners off my sofa, i had cloth which was heaven to a cat, foil seemed to work. mind you i did live on my own at the time so no one else saw!

bottomburp · 27/10/2006 00:25

best hope is to make your own cat scratch post as ones you buy are no way near tall enough.cats need to scratch at full length, my cat is only small but when stretched full length can almost reach worktop so scratch post has to be at least this. best covered with carpet but 'grain' has to be downwards with direction they will scratch in, the string going round the post is shite and they usually only enjoy it when its hanging off and then most people replace them then!

2ndtime · 27/10/2006 12:35

Clip their claws with nail clippers (human kind or special animal ones). Just trim off the clear tips. Avoid the quick (usually pink in pale nails but hard to see in darker haired cats) as it can hurt the cat and bleed like hell!
The cats get used to having a trim and dont make a fuss after the first few times.

zippy34 · 28/10/2006 14:57

We clip our cat's claws (front only) regularly as she's a housecat so they don't get worn down naturally. Blood is usually drawn (mine or dh's though, never hers) and it's a mammoth struggle.

If you get a kitten definitely do it from when she/he is little so they get used to it. Ours was a adult rescue cat when we got her and so is kind of set in her ways. It doesn't scare her though, just makes her very, very annoyed.

Ours only scratches wood (I allow her the ultra cheap Ikea kitchen chairs) and isn't the least bit interested in any type of scratching post, wee besom . She also scratches our nice bedroom furniture if we won't get up on demand in the morning. Sometimes she just assumes the position in a threatning manner if she knows I've got my eyes open...

I have friends who've had a lot of success training their cats not to scratch furniture using a water spray though. You need to be very vigilant and persitent and make sure the cat associates the spray with the act of scratching the furniture and not just you. Ours just legs it if she sees the water bottle so failed again .

DumbledoresGirl · 28/10/2006 14:59

We have had 2 cats for a year now and they have virtually never scratched any of the furniture. The spend a lot of time outside and I suppose they get their scratching done out there. If they do scratch, we just clap our hands and shout no and they run off. It really isn't a problem here.

zippy34 · 28/10/2006 15:04

That's a good point actually. If your cat is mostly indoor they do probably need to scratch something so you need to supply an acceptable substitute as well as training them not to scratch particular things.

I wish we could let our cat out. Makes me feel very guilty but we live in a tenement on a very busy road and I see the results of local free range cats far too frequently . Ours has been indoor all her life before we got her but if we ever get to move I will definitely let her out.

pointyfangedWeredog · 28/10/2006 19:40

@ "free range cats"

zippy34 · 28/10/2006 19:53

Boooooorn free, free as the wind blows

bubbaloo · 31/10/2006 12:07

We have 2 cats,one of which likes to destroy everything with her claws.We have also recently bought a new suite (not leather though) and found that by filling up a plant spray bottle with water and squirting her,if she tries to claw it,seems to have done the job.She still claws the other sofa in the extension though,but hasn't clawed the new one...yet!

CountessDracula · 31/10/2006 12:11

I actually DO know the answer to this one!

here it is

CountessDracula · 31/10/2006 12:13

(and there is 20% off at the moment)

MrsMcJnr · 31/10/2006 12:15

Hello. I have 3 cats. 2 of them have are just under 2 and they have never clawed the leather couches (though we did get insurance in case they did). My older cat used to but I bought those sticky paw pads and put them on and she stopped within a couple of weeks. Hope that helps. I keep scratchposts in different rooms too just in case. All my cats are house cats and I have never trimmed their claws.

MissyZombie · 31/10/2006 12:20

my god, that is GRIM, countess!!!

i have cats and they trashed the leather sofas despite squirting them with water etc. i think it was because they were kittens as they don't really do it so often now and they are now 3 years old. i also have new sofas... not leather!

depends on the cat too by the way. some do it, some don't. my cats love to scratch the new carpet too

zippy34 · 31/10/2006 17:09

Have you used these CD?? I did consider them at one time but can't see my cat staying still long enough to get them on her .

trixymalixy · 02/11/2006 12:12

We trained our cats not to scratch anything but the doormat that we wanted them to scratch.

They release scent from their paws when they scratch things so like to scratch in the same place every time.

What we did was when they went to scratch something we didn't want them to scratch to take them to the thing we did want them to scratch and press their paws into it so that their claws came out and scratched for them.

Obviously it involved not leaving them alone with the thing you didn't want them to scratch until it was an established habit where they scratched.

Don't know if I explained this very well, hope it helps!!

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