How to Prevent Cats From Scratching Furniture

“My cat won’t stop scratching the furniture and it’s driving me crazy!”

I remember saying this a few times and if you own a fluffy feline of your own you may have said it a few times too. When my cat was scratching everything I wanted to know what my options were. I had concerns about getting my cat declawed as it seemed to be a costly and involved procedure. I then explored other techniques to effectively stop my cat from scratching our furniture. I talked to one of our Veterinarians at our clinic and she offered me some methods to try.

She told me that I could try trimming her nails myself or bring her in every so often to get the Technicians to trim them for me. Another suggestion was that maybe my cat didn’t have enough scratching posts to use in my house?  I went out and bought a few small ones to place by the area that she is scratching in to maybe entice her to scratch the post instead of the furniture. Both of these things really worked for me and I’m happy to say that my cat doesn’t do any inappropriate scratching anymore.

Now I know that every cat isn’t like mine and one of these options might work a little better than the other for your cat. There is also another option to help curb that unwanted scratching as well. You can buy a product called Soft Paws. We sell these at our clinic and they are essentially a cover that you put over your cat’s nails every 6 weeks or so and the cat can still scratch, but because they are covered by these soft paws, they don’t cause any destruction at all!

If you need help or advice on helping to keep your kitty from destructive scratching you can ask any of our Technicians or Veterinarians.  We want to keep you, your cat and furniture happy!

Written by: Samantha Romaine, ACA