New kitten - What do you cover your sofas with?!

[Whatapickle78]

Hi
We are eagerly awaiting arrival of a new kitten! But also starting to slightly panic about prospect of wee/poo on furnishings….
Its our first cat.

What do you all cover your sofas with? Was tempted by faux fur fluffy blankets but are these shite at absorbing any toilet errors?

We would like to at least try to protect our nice wool sofas, but don’t want to end up sitting on towels for weeks…

Thanks!

I never used anything and our kittens never peed or pooped on the couch. They were very good at using the litter from the start

Your kitten should be litter trained unless taken from mum too soon. It's not normal for them to have accidents.

Never had a dkitten pee /poo on a sofa.

Add a few of those cardboard scratching boards to your shopping list!

Despair
You cover your sofas in despair and drop your house proudness standards.
It'll start scratching them soon enough.
Then there's the fur..
Our sofas are knackered. We can afford new ones, but the cat would destroy then instantly.

kittens are usually clean and litter trained. Mine have never messed anywhere.

We have had 9 kittens join our household over the last 35 odd years. We have never had one that peed or crapped on a sofa.

Never had any problems with toileting on the sofa. You should be more concerned about scratching the soft furnishings...!

Dropping a little positivity/hope so say I got my kitten just weeks after splashing out on a gorgeous green velvet sofa.
He came litter trained and never had any accidents, also never scratched the sofa (he's 16 months now) - though the carpet was not safe at all!

Fur is easy to stay on top of with a little handheld hoover each day. I could probably do it far less than that, but the sofa is green and he has a lot of white, and I'm a fussy lady so take the 20 seconds to run it over each day.
Equally, he has a blanket he sits on whilst on the bed, so you could use this principle on the sofa... very easy to train it.

Congrats on your new addition!!

Before you panic, carpet wise was easy to manage out too.
He found a couple of favourite spots to scratch - usually corners - so I just sprayed those with a 'no scratch' spray from pets at home. Seemed to wear off quickly, but once I stayed on top of it for a couple of days, and was hot on repositioning him to a scratching box (he's more horizontal than vertical when it comes to a good scratch), it was problem solved!

Now only does it on the Astro turf outside if he gets excited in the garden.

Scratches.

Kittens arrived at 10 weeks, I showed them where the litter tray was, they used it. If f you’re taking a kitten at ten weeks or above (and younger is not ok) they won’t have accidents. It’s like having a 5 yr old, not a baby in some ways.

That said they do love to scratch furniture. There is no solution except a throw and give them a good scratch post and hope they use it.

At some point they’ll start chewing on wires. This stage doesn’t last long but youay want to wipe any trailing wires with white wine vinegar (they dislike the smell and taste).

About 6-9months old they go thru a bad shedding phase (kitten to adult fur). Plan to deal with that.

One of mine did occasional protest wee/poo somewhere he shouldn't ,doll's pushchair or beanbag or lego box. Usually when denied access to our roast dinner.

If you get a scratching post you can easily train cats not to scratch the furniture

Do you have cats?

@Yarnosaur

Yes two. Why?

It helps if you get really big scratching towers and make a point of sitting comfortably on them yourself in full view of the cat.

Or buy them a second armchair. Might be cheaper.

Because IME it's not always (ever?) easy to train cats not to scratch what they want to scratch, even with multiple scratching posts and flat scratchers. Suggesting it is easy can give people unrealistic expectations of living with cats.

@Yarnosaur

It is easy to train a kitten. Maybe not an adult cat who has been allowed to get away with it for a long time.

My cats were taught as kittens that they are not allowed to scratch the furniture, and they are not allowed to get on the dining table. They don't do either of these things as adults.

Kittens are programmed to learn. They learn from their mother, and then they learn from you.

I have always had cats, more than one at all times, and I have never had to cover my furniture. I do trim their claws, so scratching isn't an issue.

@Yarnosaur

Even with an adult cat, I'm sure that you can use training tape to stop them scratching where you don't want them to scratch. It can't be that hard.

Feliway spray on soft furnishings to stop any scratching and catnip on scratching posts for the first few months and then it became habit. The only time I had an issue with weeing on the couch was when one cat went missing and the other kept weeing in her sleeping spot. The vet said she was anxious and trying to mix their scents as comfort. I used a spray (link below) but after 10 days of continual weeing, we had to order a new sofa 🤦🏻‍♀️ it was more successful with occasional accidents from a kitten who preferred to wee on our door mat.

In all my years of cats owning me () and looking after them I've never been able to train them not to scratch. No matter what I've tried, they'll do it when you're not in the room or asleep.
You have to resign yourself to shredded furniture just so you're prepared. If they don't scratch it then it's a bonus.

Mine don't. I would know if they were scratching the sofa because it's made of the sort of material that would get pulls easily if scratched.

Best thing is to buy training tape and stick it on the areas of the sofa that they like to scratch. Cats hate putting their paws on anything sticky.

Then, whenever you catch them going to scratch, say 'NO!' firmly, pick them up and transport them to the scratching post. Scratch the post with your fingernails, and then put the cats paws on it. When they scratch give them plenty of fuss.

Once trained you can remove the training tape.

@MidnightMeltdown yes I tried all that I tried everything. Like I said they'd do it when I was asleep or out of the room, it didn't matter what was put on the sofas that would just be scratched as well.
My cats lived to good old ages and I never could get it to stop.

Yup. I've only had rescue adult cats for yonks so haven't had a chance to train from kittens for a long long time, but IME this is a bit like first time parents with a baby that sleeps well thinking it's because of their parenting... until they have another child who is a sleep horror, and realise it was luck of the draw.

Some cats are biddable, many are not!

I think it's more to do with the age of the cat when you start the training. I have also had lots of cats, but I've always had cats from kittens, and as I say, kittens are easy to train.

Cats are creatures of habit, so if they don't develop the habit of scratching the sofa, then they don't do it, but if they've been allowed to do it, then it will be much more difficult to stop them