I'm afraid to ask on the pets board

izzybella · July 2010

Our cat is 6, and has always been an indoor cat. I'm thinking of declawing her, though, because she won't stop clawing our furniture. We've gotten her numerous towers to claw, but she always goes straight for the couches. I was inclined to let her, since we've never had nice furniture, but my mom gave us a leather couch and loveseat and she's clawing the back of the love seat. How can I get her to stop doing this? I've tried putting her tower in front of the place where she likes to claw, but she just finds a new place. I don't want her to destroy these couches!

akalutts · July 2010

Do you keep her nails clipped? I've found that helps with Monkey.

Thankfully he's never gone after our couch, however he has almost demolished our computer chair (more chewing than clawing.) We toss a bathrobe over it at night and he leaves it alone.

Also, when he wouldn't leave our boxspring alone, I put a fitted sheet over it and he stopped. (DH refuses to let me put a bedskirt on.)

Could you put a cover on the love seat?

Schwandy · July 2010

I don't know the answer, but I would love to know too. My cat won't stop scratching our stairs and we now have to replace all the carpet on the stairs because of him.

andrew's wifey · July 2010

I've heard of people using these https://www.softclaws.com/default.asp
as an alternative to declawing. I think they're pretty hilarious too!

I know there are sprays that deter animals from certain areas, but I probably wouldn't spray a leather couch. Hmmm...

izzybella · July 2010

I've tried clipping her nails and she just ends up clawing me. I'd take her to the vet to do it but they charge $20/clip!

OMG she's completely torn up our boxspring too-- the fitted sheet is a good idea.

I guess I could do a slipcover, but it kind of defeats the purpose of having a nice couch. Although it might help protect them from the kids too. . . I'll have to think about that.

greenclown · July 2010

No, no, no, no, no.

There are sprays that can be used to prevent declawing, which help us. You would need to test it on a hidden part of the leather to make sure it doesn't do anything to the leather. There is also double sided tape that you can put on furniture. It doesn't look the best, but it works. You also need to work on training your cat. Use a squirt bottle to spray her if she ever scratches. Keep her nails trimmed, and if necessary, but something like soft paws on your cat.

I know that there will be many who disagree with me, but declawing is cruel, unnecessary, and barbaric. I don't care if it's a laser version that "doesn't hurt." I don't care how you remove something, it still hurts.

This is a very sore subject with me.

giaM28 · July 2010

try to tape or rig up a way to keep a plastic grocery bag over the corners or where their scratch spots are. my mom does this with her cats (10 & 8). its works. she just takes the bags off when company comes over. if she doesnt have the bags there they will still scratch but if the bag is there they leave it alone

LittleCyndiLou · July 2010

I have heard double sided tape so that they get the sticky side will stop the clawing.

A water bottle maybe, spritz em with water when they start scratching (some cats really don't care about water)

I have also heard an empty coffee can (has to be metal, not plastic) filled with some pennies, when they start scratching shake the can so it makes noise and it usually stops them. Work on dogs too to re-direct their attention.

Declawing is considered inhumane by many. Here is a site that might help you with your decision https://www.declawing.com/

izzybella · July 2010

She doesn't care about water (we've tried that). I usually toss something at her bum to get her to stop, and that works, but doesn't help in the middle of the night. I think I'll try the double sided tape and see if that stops her, and maybe get a cat tower or something covered in catnip

nikisnow · July 2010

greenclown:
I know that there will be many who disagree with me, but declawing is cruel, unnecessary, and barbaric. I don't care if it's a laser version that "doesn't hurt." I don't care how you remove something, it still hurts.

This. When we were dating, my DH declawed his cat. The poor little guy was miserable for a week. It's unnecessary surgery in my opinion.

akalutts · July 2010

giaM28:
try to tape or rig up a way to keep a plastic grocery bag over the corners or where their scratch spots are. my mom does this with her cats (10 & 8). its works. she just takes the bags off when company comes over. if she doesnt have the bags there they will still scratch but if the bag is there they leave it alone

OMG, my cat would be in heaven. He loves to eat plastic, especially bags. We have to be super aware of what we leave lying around or else he starts eating it.

Izzy-- put on a thick sweater and gloves, wrap the cat in a towel and have someone help you. It totally sucks, but eventually they do get used to the trimming and just growl through it instead of attacking. This will help the most with clawing, in my experience.

We put those plastic covers on his claws once- he refused to stand up and walk around. Literally laid there for hours until we took them off.

BamBam510 · July 2010

Take her to a grooming place or pet store for nail trimming. They will be cheaper than the vet. the jar of pennies works well too

Mama_SAS · July 2010

I agree with PPs and want to add -

At Petsmart they have the double sided tape in big rolls that you can buy.

They also have catnip spray, which is cheaper than actual catnip, and it doesn't get all over.

Lastly they have the corrugated cardboard that you can buy for them to scratch if they aren't interested in the post. They are really cheap and worth a try. My cats love the cardboard and have stopped clawing the chair.

MrsC968 · July 2010

One of our cats would claw at the carpet of our old (rented) apartment and we found double sized tape to be helpful. It pretty much stopped him from scatching that area about 99% of the time.

Growing up my cats liked clawing the corners of the couch. My dad put pieces of heavy fabric around the corners so they scratched that instead. This may be a better alternative than the tape if you're worried about ruining the leather. You could get a nice chunk of fabric cut at craft store and attach it to the back of your couch.

Stategrl21 · July 2010

izzybella:
She doesn't care about water (we've tried that). I usually toss something at her bum to get her to stop, and that works, but doesn't help in the middle of the night. I think I'll try the double sided tape and see if that stops her, and maybe get a cat tower or something covered in catnip

Try mixing a bit of vinegar in the spray bottle with water. We had a cat that didn't care if you sprayed him with water, you could literally squirt him in the face with it and he wouldn't stop, but when we added some vinegar that started working. Cats don't like the smell of the vinegar. It doesn't take much, we have a 20 oz water bottle and maybe and ounce of that is vinegar. GL!

armandos_girl · July 2010

We've had good luck using Scat Cat cans to deter behavior with our cats. They sell them at PetSmart and they are little air cans with motion sensors on them. Set it behind the couch where she is clawing and anytime she walks over there it will set off the air can and shoot air at her and scare her off.

It worked so well for us that after a couple weeks we were able to turn the motion sensor off and just set the can down to keep them away from stuff.

izzybella · July 2010

Thanks for all the suggestions! I'll definitely be trying some of these out.

palmbreeze · July 2010

It sounds like her nails haven't been trimmed in awhile since she claws you. Maybe you could find an animal person to do this for you. Someone at a shelter maybe? I'm sure there is a cat lover out there who would do this for you. I would think that would help a great deal! Maybe you could try some catnip on the scratching post to encourage her to scratch there? We have some kind of circle cat scratcher that has a ball that goes around it. We put catnip on that and the cats go nuts scratching it. Do you punish her when you find her clawing your furniture?

LittleCyndiLou · July 2010

Someone mentioned the corrugated cardboard box, I have three of these throughout my house and it really stopped all scratching on furniture and rugs.

The boxes are really cheap at the pet store here is one, but I usually just get the plain flat storebrand ones that are like 6 bucks https://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2754331&lmdn=Cat

And if they get all used up and I don't replace them quick enough, that is when the carpet scratching comes back.

Punishment for a cat is tough, I tell mine no in a firm voice when he does something bad and I think if he could flip me off he would.

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