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The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

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Original poster

How can I stop cat from clawing sofa

18 replies

MuddledUpAgain · 23/08/2013 16:46

We have a cat which we rescued but have had her around 2 years now. She has a habit of clawing the sofas if she is bored/wants attention/wants food which has only really started since we got new sofas (used to claw the old one, but nowhere near as frequently)

Does anyone have any advice on stopping her? We have tried a scratching post in the past and it was ignored.

Thank you in advance.

Muddled

OP posts:

KhloeKardashian · 23/08/2013 16:49

I don't know the answer myself.

I have tried cat scratch posts, useless. Marking my place for advice too.

WhoeverHeardOfAWormskinRug · 23/08/2013 16:55

There are these little stick on things called soft paws - you glue them on the cats claws, and they are quite good. They aren't harmful, don't interfere with grooming and shed every few weeks when the cat sheds the outer layer of claw.

Not fun trying to glue them on mind you!

NotAnotherPackedLunch · 23/08/2013 16:57

We managed to break our cat of this habit by putting strips of sellotape on the bits of the sofa she liked to scratch. She hated it and stopped.

Even after the tape fell off she didn't start scratching again but she's not the brightest of cats.

Original poster

MuddledUpAgain · 23/08/2013 17:00

Thank you! Quick responses

Might try the sellotape idea. Ours isn't the sharpest tool in the box either so hopefully this will work!

OP posts:

hugoagogo · 23/08/2013 17:16

Ooh is it just ordinary sellotape or double sided? [excited]

NotAnotherPackedLunch · 23/08/2013 17:20

It was just ordinary sellotape - possibly own brand as it wasn't super sticky and fell off on its own after a while.
Good luck.

dingit · 23/08/2013 17:23

We put an obstacle in front of where she scratches, eg a cushion, until she gets bored of trying. For some reason only my female cats have been scratchers!

Primrose123 · 23/08/2013 17:23

This is what we did.

Every time the cats clawed something we shouted "no" and threw a cushion near them. It wouldn't hit them, just landed near them. Now we just need to shout "no", lift a cushion and they stop.

LadyMilfordHaven · 23/08/2013 18:22

shout at cat

chuck it out

this www.petplanet.co.uk/product.asp?dept_id=302&pf_id=51955&utm_source=ShoppingFeed&utm_medium=cpc&gclid=CPDmpPj7k7kCFXHMtAodgDIAiA
mine dont like it a bit

Lonecatwithkitten · 23/08/2013 20:26

The scratching is marking behaviour. I spray my soft furnishings with Feliway and the cats don't scratch them.

timtam23 · 23/08/2013 21:53

I used double sided sticky tape, it did put them off for a bit but they then started on the bottom step of the stairs...

deliasmithy · 23/08/2013 22:03

I provide several scratching alternatives. The door mat is a favourite of theirs.

I then cover the worst areas of the sofa in four layers of throws.

They still still attack the sofa just less often.

deliasmithy · 23/08/2013 22:24

I provide several scratching alternatives. The door mat is a favourite of theirs.

I then cover the worst areas of the sofa in four layers of throws.

They still still attack the sofa just less often.

On the plus side I've saved thousands by not buying anything nice that I wanted as I knew it would be ruined.

TamzinGrey · 23/08/2013 22:54

I know how stressful this is. We bought new (expensive) chairs and our Old Girl, who had never shown any interest at all in the previous chairs, suddenly decided that her whole purpose in life was to rip and tear the new ones to pieces. We tried sticky tape, tinfoil, and hanging towels over the chairs. The towel hanging thing worked the best, but didn't look very nice and sort of wrecked the whole point of getting lovely new chairs in the first place. Hanging towels over your sofa would be good as a temporary measure though.

The problem has now been solved completely. DH has carefully constructed a home made cat scratching post which she adores. It's very big and very chunky and she loves it. Scratches it to death and completely ignores the chairs now.

Don't bother with the rubbish flimsy scratching posts that you can buy in pet shops. Scratching posts are easy to make, and you can tailor them to your room and of course your cat's personal desires. Look on the Internet for instructions.

Bearcat · 29/08/2013 21:11

Clingfilm.

CatOfTheDay · 01/09/2013 19:57

We got a new sofa a couple of months ago, and two big cat tower/scratching posts at the same time. We laced the scratch posts with catnip to get them interested, and chucked blankets over the sofa to start with so the posts were more fun.

So far so good - they now love the scratching posts and the sofa is still intact! (And these are the same cats that shredded our old sofa - although we just let them as it was a manky old sofa anyway!)

EnlightenedOwl · 03/09/2013 20:44

Right I've cracked this one.
Mine wrecked my last sofa. Ruined it. So I went to DFS and bought a new one. How did I stop him scratching it?
by covering it with throws by covering I mean arms, seats, draped down the front, back all of it. They look fine and there have been no scratching incidents; when he has cliimbed on the sofa he's put a claw in but only pulled the throw (which I bought from Asda) better that than the new sofa!

ClairesTravellingCircus · 14/09/2013 07:33

Op did you find any solution? We have a 4 year old cat who does the same.
She uses her scratch post for her claws, but she attacks the sofa when she wants food, or to be let out. Shouting no doesn't help and chucking her out is what rrinforced the behaviour in the first place!!

She hardly ever miaows for anything just scratches the sofa. Migh try the cellotape thing..

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