Sofa help please!

[90bisodol]

I know this is a very common problem but hopefully someone can help? We have an almost one year old rescue cat, who is determined to use our two couches as scratching posts, despite having two perfectly lovely scratching posts of his own. The couches are only about 2 years old but he has destroyed them with his claws so we are looking to replace them, but obviously we'd like to go for something that he won't scratch on. I've googled and apparently we should be looking for a microfibre or microsuede fabric, but I can't seem to find anything in this. Our current couches are quite a rough woven fabric like a chenille, and when I've been looking at fabric couches they all seem to be either like what we already have or more of a canvas type material, neither of which I think will be much good. Does anyone have a microfibre fabric couch and could you tell me a) where is a good place to look for them and b) if it does actually deter scratching? Thanks in advance!

Is the sofa taller than his scratch post?.

No help other than to suggest covers or throws that can be replaced?

fluffy it's a similar height, his scratching post is on two levels with a little platform in between them, and he does use it sometimes, but I'd really like to find a couch he won't enjoy scratching!

I have a faux suede sofa that the cat's don't seem TOO interested in - they only seem to scratch it specifically to get my attention when they feel I'm ignoring them! I got mine from Harvey's.

You can get corner covers for sofas that are either scratch material so they scratch that, which can be either attached or not so you can move them when you don't want guests to see them , or clear plastic ones that protect the corners. Try searching for cat scratchers on Amazon and loads will come up.

I have a tall cat tree in the corner of the room with a scratching post structure which they like, and I recently attached a sisal covered scratch board to the wall at such a height thet Girlcat has to stretch to full height to reach the top, and that's her number one scratch target now.

We got ours from DFS and they’re probably that material, as whenever the cat tries to claw it, he can’t get them properly stuck in, like the weave is too close, so he slips off!! If he ever does manage to get his claws in, he gets them stuck and can’t get back out again. Doesn’t deter the daft bugger from trying every day, but at least there’s no visible damage. Other DCat pissing on it however...!

The split height thing might be putting him off it.

Pets at home do an extra tall one they can really stretch up to use. They’d use a tree in the wild so you have to provide similar on the house.

There’s a catnip spray you can buy too. They can’t resist catnip spray.

You can get sticky pads that stick to the furniture and put them off scratching.
Paws away or paws off/claws off I think they are called.
Worked with my cat and didn't damage the furniture

Thanks for the suggestions, going to look for protective things to put on the couch for now but I didn't know you could get catnip spray! Will have to get some for his scratcher. I'll also be looking for faux suede couches as nothing much was coming up when I googled microfibre! Cheers!

As I have an extreme number of cats I've had to go for an extreme option. My sofa is actually an iron-framed day bed, with a mattress and cushions on it. It's definitely not what I would have chosen if I didn't have a stupid amount of cats, but it's totally scratch-proof. (It's also handy as a spare guest bed should I ever need one)

If you could break the habit now then they won’t do it on the next couch? So get the paws off things and use them in your existing couch now?

Ours never touched a sofa etc till I got cocky and bought a duresta.

He had a life time ban from the lounge after that.

My cats shredded my Ikea ektorp. But have touched my leather sofa