Help! My Cat Won’t Stop Scratching!
While you know the value of your beloved $5000 sofa, your cat sees scratcing as a natural part of life, and your sofa as the ideal subject. Do you know your cat is actually telling you something important? He is telling you that he needs a good something to scratch!
In the wild your cat would scratch as part of their natural behaviour, and anything would do. Of course, in the wild there are lots of handy trees to scratch on. Don’t take his scratching personally – he just needs to sharpen his claws.
Since you don’t have a handy tree in your home, your cat will just look around for anything else that is wooden, for instance table legs or a door frame. He will keep on doing it for all of his life unless you take some action.
Some people go as far as declawing their cats. In the UK this is not even legal, but also it renders your cat harmless. Which means if you allow your cat outside and he gets into a fight, he is going to lose. He cannot return the attack. You have just let your cat get killed. You may say, well my cat is an indoor cat. But accidents happen and you know your cat could one day just slip out of the door.
So what can you do to protect your furniture? The answer is simple, you just set up scratching posts around your home. Your cat will easily be trained to use the scratching posts. He will be happy to use them and they are best suited to his needs.
by eva101 under CC-SA Cats also use scratching posts as a stress reliever. The behaviours that go with scratching will not go if you have him declawed, he will still go through the motions, it just means that his stress levels will be higher.
You cat could be the sort that plays with his scratching post, battling it to the ground until it truly surrenders. If it is too wobbly then he may decide that your nice firm chair leg would be a better scratching post. Your cat may prefer a scratching post that is at an angle on the floor, or you could by a wave shaped scratching post which is more ergonomic for your cat.
If your cat uses his scratching post when you are at home to keep an eye on him, but when you are out uses the chair for his claws, then you need to use his skills against him a bit. Cats have a highly developed sense of smell and if you put a good spray of room deoderizer on the chair then that will turn the cat right off it. You could use a cat repellent hung over the back of it. Anything to turn the cat away from the chair.
Once your cat is happy with his scratching post, put it somewhere where he can play with it as well as use it for scratching. Often cats like to scratch as soon as they have woken up, so it is a good idea to put it near where he likes to sleep.
If your cats scratching post looks a little worn, do not throw it away just like that. Buy a new one and put it near the old one, and when it starts to look as though your cat has used it you can throw the old one away. Cats take a little time to get used to new things and you want to keep your furniture in good condition, so take this advice and keep them looking good.
It is always as well to let your cat express himself and his natural behaviours with a cat scratching post.
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