Clawing new furniture

[Rosalita]

Hi,

I am new ti these boards. My cats want to claw the new furniture that I have worked YEARS to buy. Any clues on what
I can put on the cloth to keep them at bay??

Thanks

[dogncatluvr]

Hi Rosalita,

I have heard that putting blown up balloons all over the new furniture is one way to stop the scratching. If a balloon pops it is supposed to scare them away.
Another way is foil paper all over the furniture for a while. The crinkling is not supposed to sound or feel good to cats. Just be sure they don't want to eat it first, otherwise there might be a big vet bill.
Also supply them with many scratching posts and rub cat nip on them to make them more attractive than the furniture.
I also cut my cats' nails every 2 weeks to keep them short (indoor cats). This helps me a lot.
I'm sure there are other methods also.
Good luck!

[Rosalita]

Thank you so much for the help. I will monitor the activity this weekend and see if it continues. You see, I was gone for 5 days and brought them back from the Vet and when I let them out of the carriers, they disappeared for a bit. About an hour or so later I see them brazenly claw the new couch....right in front of me!!! They gave me this look as to say "Ha, Ha, that's what you get for taking us to the Vet". I had never seen them do anything like it before. I have a scratcher with catnip and keep the nails short. Wish me luck!!!!

Originally posted by dogncatluvr:
Hi Rosalita,

I have heard that putting blown up balloons all over the new furniture is one way to stop the scratching. If a balloon pops it is supposed to scare them away.
Another way is foil paper all over the furniture for a while. The crinkling is not supposed to sound or feel good to cats. Just be sure they don't want to eat it first, otherwise there might be a big vet bill.
Also supply them with many scratching posts and rub cat nip on them to make them more attractive than the furniture.
I also cut my cats' nails every 2 weeks to keep them short (indoor cats). This helps me a lot.
I'm sure there are other methods also.
Good luck!

[dogncatluvr]

Bad cats!
I do wish you luck with this. If you are going to supervise them, a spray bottle with water in it may work too. Shoot the water at them from a distance when you see them get ready to go for the furniture.

[EileenKay]

Both of these links contain excellent suggestions on how to avoid scratching
problems and retrain cats to appropriate scratching areas.
http://lisaviolet.simplenet.com/cathouse/declaw.html
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/P...52/declaw.html