Save Your Furniture in 8 Easy Steps
Last week’s Catster poll was “Declawing. What are your thoughts?”
I’ll spare you the declawing screed, and segue straight in to 8 steps you can take to render declawing unnecessary.
I’ve always felt that people who are too fussy about their “things” should maybe rethink having pets or kids. When hubby and I first consolidated our households and his nice leather sofas came to live with us, I was in a dither over whether or not the cats would shred them to pieces.
I needn’t have worried. Whether it was because the material wasn’t appealing to the cats as a scratching post, or because they were enticed by better alternatives, the sofas have survived unscathed. Yours can, too. Here are a few tips on how to win the battle of the scratchers.
1] Provide a sturdy untippable scratching post
Fluffy is unlikely to use a scratching post that tips over on her. The post you select should be strong and stable. Cheapo single-post scratchers with small bases are likely to be pulled back on top of your cat when she gets a really good scratch going, at which point she’s unlikely to use it again. PurrFect Posts are good examples of well-engineered scratching posts that won’t fall back on top of your cat.
Our cats have a couple of cat trees that are supported by four scratching-post columns. They’re impossible to tip, and they’re the favorite scratchers of three of our four cats.
2] Select a scratcher that fits your cat’s preferred scratching orientation.
Some cats prefer vertical surfaces; others prefer horizontal. Slanted 45-degree scratchers are also available. If your cat doesn’t take to one, try another orientation. Sprinkling the surface with catnip can entice them to use a new scratcher.
3] Find a scratching material that your cat likes.
Like orientation, cats also have preferences when it come to the scratching surface. Sisal, cedar, carpet and cardboard are the most common materials used in making scratchers. Sisal rope is easy and inexpensive to replace when it gets ratty. Even better, sisal material (looks like carpet) withstands years of scratching while still looking good as new, although you’ll pay a premium for it. Some cats will only scratch wood, in which case a wood-based scratcher is best. Cardboard scratchers are extremely popular with my cats. If you have multiple cats, an assortment of materials will ensure that everyone’s happy.
4] Is your post tall enough?
Generally, a scratching post should be tall enough for your cat to stretch out fully when scratching, since scratching and stretching go together. Unless your cat is extremely small, your post should be at least 28-inches high. Higher is better, but make sure it can’t tip when used.
5] Do you have enough scratchers?
Cats don’t just scratch to keep their nails in shape; they also mark their territory through scent glands in their paws when they scratch. If you have multiple cats or a large home, you need more than a single scratcher in the back bedroom. Distribute them throughout the house. And, if a scratcher is not getting used, try relocating it.
6] Consider nail caps
Nail caps (like SoftPaws) are a miracle solution to the scratching problem. 
They allow cats to continue scratching behavior with no damage done to the scratching surfaces.
Developed by a veterinarian, nail caps are small soft plastic tips that fit over Fluffy’s nails. They are super-glued on. Honestly, unless your cat is very placid, it’s easier to have a groomer apply the caps. It’s not difficult to do, but in my experience, it requires two people – one to hold the cat, and one to apply the caps. When finished, the cat must be held still for at least ten minutes while the glue dries (an Elizabethan collar helps with this phase). Once dry, the caps will stay in place for about six weeks. Bonus: they come in fanciful colors as well as clear. DO NOT put nail caps on cats who go outdoors, since, like declawing, it leaves them defenseless.
Nail caps are especially good for reducing the incidence of injuries from cat scratches. If you have young children and/or your cat tends to play rough, nail caps ensure that you’ll make fewer ER visits.
7] Deter scratching with tapes and sprays.
There are tapes (Paws Away, for example) that specifically deter cats from scratching sofas, stereo speakers and other furniture. Cats hate the sticky surface, and avoid taped areas.
Herbal sprays like No Scratch can also act as a deterrent.
8] Try Feliway to reduce the urge to scratch.
Feliway uses calming, analogue pheromones (structurally similar to feline facial pheromones) to reduce instinctive urges to mark and scratch. Click here for info on how to get a free sample and a coupon for $10 off a Feliway diffuser.
[PHOTOS: Drs. Foster and Smith; PurrFect Post; softpaws.com; Drs. Foster and Smith.]
Related Catster Links:
- Catster Poll on Declawing
- Discuss declawing in the Catster Forums
- Browse the Furniture and Fashion Forum
Meowm keeps threatening to get me Softpaws. Lucky for me she hasn’t done it yet!
Junior
I’m about the only cat in the family that uses the scratching posts, and I don’t have my claws – MOL! My claws were removed by my previous Mommy cause my Mawmee now is against declawing!
Declawing is a painful procedure and I’m glad it’s becoming less and less acceptable. However, I do think that when it’s a choice between a cat losing his home and being sent to a shelter or being declawed, it’s still an acceptable solution. It’s easy to be judgmental on such a heated issue, but as with everything else, you have to look at each individual situation before judging a pet owner’s decision to declaw.
I think in addition to getting proper scratching posts/surfaces for cats, one of the best things a new pet owner can do if they adopt a kitten is to get the kitten used to having her paws handled frequently so that future nail trims become easy. Trimmed nails don’t do much damage even when they do scratch at furniture.
Mom also learned that we are attracted to certain types of fabric. We clawed the heck out of our last sofa which was heavily textured. When the time came to get a new one mom did some research and found that we are less attracted to smooth fabric. She bought a microfiber sofa and we haven’t touched it in the year since she bought it. As soon as she got it I started to use our scratching post which had sat unscratched for the prior 4 years.
mommie uses clear packing tape on the back of the new chair
Good points! I had problems with tippy posts and finding the right orientation when I came home as a kitten, so I’ve always been prone to scratching the carpet. I keep mom on her toes! Now we know I like a horizontal surface, which is bad for the carpet, but I will use horizontal cardboard scratchers as long as the carpet spots I like to scratch are kept scented with a citrus-smelling spray. The vertical cat furniture I wouldn’t scratch on didn’t go to waste, because the other kitties in my family use it.
My mommy would like to point out that you don’t have to break the bank to try out different scratching products. The cardboard types that I like are inexpensive. For the more expensive cat furniture, other cat owners are in the same boat, and might have unused scratching posts sitting around. Your local Craigslist is a good site for finding used pet furnishings that other owners are selling.
Talk about inexpensive cat scratches. The human went to the hardware store a few months back and the wood was delivered on logs. The hardware store just throws them away. She asked if she could buy them, and they just gave them to her. They were purrrrrfect for cat scratches. Then the human purchased some rope wound that around one of them, another has an old piece of carpet wrapped around it. ( you can get off cuts at a carpet place) and the third one, we were going to leave as wood, but that hasn’t been used yet. The human added them to the existing cat tree to make it bigger along with more planks.
Mom thinks she is funny. She said don’t buy furniture, except for a futon and only buy cat furniture. Problem solved. We cats own this house!!!!
Skeeze … Your Food Lady gives the most brilliant advice! She truly is an asset to the Blogosphere! Thanks for allowing her to co-opt your forum an’ share with efurryone. Cheers to the ever intelligent FL!
DMM
Echoing DaisyMae Maus & the Feline Americans’ comments, and adding our own: Our wood and leather furniture is as pristine today as when we got it several years ago, and in an 9-cat family, that’s no mean feat! but they just don’t care about that smooth surface and rarely even jump up on the sofa or chairs!
We have lots and lots of cat furniture and scratching posts and pads all over the house, from the living room to the dining room to the bedrooms to the hall. The way we see it, we live here, and anyone who doesn’t like seeing cat furniture wouldn’t be invited to our home anyway.
Cats rule!
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I have had expensive chairs completely shredded, curtains ruined, pictures chewed on, and even microfiber furniture damaged beyond repair. I don’t consider myself “too fussy”, I just don’t like the unnecessary destruction of property. I’ve had dogs all my life and cats forced on my by a roommate… the only thing I need to rethink is having cats. If you want one, send me your address and I’ll have the most destructive one delivered and see how much you like it. And before you suggest soft paws, he does most of the damage by chewing. None of my dogs have ever done a percentage of the damage as these cats.
i am not worried about the cats doing damage to my furniture or anything else. they run the house! no i just think they need more kitty furniture so i am the one to blame if they do scratch. but perhaps you could start a bunnyster and give me some pointers on how to keep them from tearing up the furniture:) they do far worse damage than the cats.
Lynda – no “rethinking” necessary… with the anger you are harboring, you have no business having cats.
Let them scratch and destroy what they want !! I would be so happy to have claws and scratch with them, I also would be so happy to have furr and a thick skin like them so I can get in cat game fights without bleeding, I would like to have their energy and flexibility !!
Lynda, if you have to re-think having a cat, then you shouldn’t own any at present. Obviously cats just aren’t your thing so I would suggest that you never own any, seeing as you comment holds so much hostility toward them. My kitten Jag loves to claw our furniture and thanks to these 8 easy steps I am sure he will be happier clawing his own things rather than mine! Thanks a bunch for this!
Lynda, it’s distressing to hear so much hostility coming from you, and I can only imagine that the cats are channeling the rage you are directing at them into destructive behavior. Cats are very sensitive and emotional creatures, and will react to situations where significant hostility and hatred is directed their way. It could also be compounded by the cats being forced into a household with dogs and not being properly acclimated to it beforehand. Ordinarily, I would recommend talking to an animal behaviorist, but given the animus you’re exhibiting toward the cats, I think you need to find a roommate without cats.
There are 7 kitties here with me…I clip their claws and have scratching posts and pads. I have some really good wood furniture that none of them bother, although they do sometimes do a quick scratch on the couch. What I ended up doing with the couch, was attaching a sisal scratch “rug” to the couch where they like scratching…Saves the couch while still allowing them to scratch. I have one kitty who is very skittish and doesn’t like being handled at all, so I use softpaws on her front claws. Since I started doing that with her, she has really started to get better about being handled. I think it’s easier on her since they let you go twice as long before having to trim the claws. They can be a challenge to put on the kitty, especially for one person, but I get her closed into the bathroom, and I sit on the floor and kindof close her up in my lap and talk gently to her and move slowly. It’s really helped her trust me – she had been abandoned and probably abused in the past
To the poster whose cat chews things…Try bitter spray from your pet store. It works pretty well. Also, if the kitty is teething or is having problems with their teeth, they can chew, so please have kitty’s teeth checked for problems. If there are no problems, give kitty something to chew on that’s okay and use the spray on other things, kitty will learn what’s okay and not okay to chew on. They just need guidance, just like dogs and kids do
Thank you for the tips, some are already in use here.
We have used offcuts of carpet glued to some surfaces and left 4 foot tall tree stumps around the garden as scratching posts for our 7 moggs.
My cat use to scratches the chair when she was little. So I use the spray water bottle method. I did that for a while. Now she don’t bother with the furniture and got her a scratchpad post as well so now both together work very well.
I have a nice single scratching post that doesn’t tip — I turned it on its side so the cats can sit on it! I also use carpet pieces and inclined cardboard scratchers with catnip. I use a spray water bottle when needed and my sofa has a nice fitted fabric cover.
Years ago, I had a roommate with a dog. Her dog would chew ANYTHING — books, furniture, my beaded necklace. In comparison, there wasn’t anything any cat could do that could equal the destruction.
My cats rule. I never had and never will have any “thing” that I love more than my babies.
Soft paws are great if the cat will tolerate them and not try to pull them off. I have one cat ( that had claws when adopted by my Mother) that is quite content with them. Because I do not believe in having cats outdoors and have plenty of room inside, when I adopt/rescue a cat I limit my search to those that have already been declawed as these cats need to be indoor only cats, something that is not convenient for everyone.
I really think that whether you declaw your cat or not is a very personal thing. Each cat owner must decide for themselves what they think is best for their cat and their household.
However, I must thank you for writing this article because it gives some great advice about the ways that you can try to limit the destruction of your furniture. Just like any other living creature, cats have their own personality and quirky ways about them. So the personality, temperment, activity level are all things to think about also when making the decision to declaw or not.
I refuse to declaw my Honey-Baby and we sort of have an unspoken agreement that if she doesn’t use her nails on the furniture I won’t clip them nearly as often as I had to when she was a kitten. It seems to work well.
The other thing that wasn’t mentioned is to find textures they don’t like to deter them from clawing. Honey //hates// the feel of polar fleece, so I have polar fleece throws thrown over the arms of my sofa. Not only are they lovely colour accents but they keep her from wanting to claw the sofa arms.