Discouraging scratching

[texasnurse3]

All the cats I've ever lived with have been at least front paw declawed, but I recently got a kitten and I'd like to avoid declawing her. Trouble is, since I've never had a kitty with claws before, I have no idea how to discourage her from clawing up my carpet and couch. I've clipped her front nails and bought some natural "scratch repellent" spray that seems to do nothing. Her scratching post is sitting on the spot of carpet that she seems most attracted to. What else can I do?

[nycmom18]

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[angie7]

Try spraying her with a water bottle when you catch her. Also is there any way to cover the spot that she seems to like temporarily until she learns to leave it alone? Sometimes if you take them over to their scratching post and show her what it is for, they will get it. GL!

[DogMomforNow]

What is her scratching post made of? Some cats are very particular with what they like to scratch on. You might try a different material. Does she play with toys at all? I have a good friend who had great success giving her cats kongs (the littlest ones for dogs). Kept them occupied and tired them out (they're also gluttons hehe).

Good luck! Scratching can be really frustrating!

[texasnurse3]

Her post is covered in carpet. When I set it on the spot that she's been scratching, she started scratching an entirely different spot.

I'll have to try the squirt bottle thing; someone else suggested that also. I'll update if I have any success. Thanks!

[gingerstar]

My kitties liked the cheap cardboard scratchers (I used to get them at Target) esp when I used the included packet of catnip. So I had several at a time, scattered around their favorite scratching places. Also, if you put double-sided tape where they like to scratch (like, the back corner of a couch) they really don't like how that feels to their paws, and soon choose not to scratch there.
Unfortunately, for us the water bottle thingy only worked when we were right there watching, bottle in hand. As soon as the water bottle was set down, they would feel free to do as they liked! (Stubborn, or smart?)

I had my first kitty front declawed out of ignorance (I'd never had a cat before) and my other kitties kept their claws. I will never do it again.

Perhaps those plastic claw covers might help? Never tried them....

ETA - it did seem to help keeping their claws trimmed quite short - at least they weren't sharp enough to do as much damage, and they didn't hurt as much either! (I miss having a kneading kitty on my lap!)

[Carlin]

Our cats need both horizontal and vertical options for scratching. We have a flat cardboard scratcher for horizontal scratching and tall sisal posts for vertical scratching. The vertical posts also need to be tall enough that they can get a good stretch in too.

[Rach]

We used double sided sticky tape to deter our cats from clawing and it really seemed to work. We also put the tape where we didn't want them climbing (like on top of the entertainment center).

[oneKnight]

Rub catnip on the top part of the scratching post. It seemed to help our cats get the clue "OH that's what we're supposed to play with" kindof message. If you can get her convinced to actually use the post, then the battle is mostly won.

My female cat scratches the couch some, but hasn't done any serious damage. I distract her when I catch her doing it and she usually just loses that train of thought(action) and moves on to something else.

She scratches on the top parts of our cat tree, which is basically like a carpet scratching post. My cats wouldn't touch the cardboard things, after they grew past about 3 months old, but some like it. Also instead of carpet there are scratching posts wrapped in "rope" looking stuff, your cat might prefer that. Some people have sucess getting a nice, cleanish piece of firewood with bark on it to put in the corner for their cat to scratch on.

[texasnurse3]

These are all really great suggestions. Thank you!

[texasnurse3]

The cardboard scratcher (which came with catnip) and double-sided tape on the carpet areas she scratched have completely worked! Thank you!

[MaryLang]

I have been using Softpaws. And they work great. My cats were scratching everything, ruined a set of couches. I find the fact that they can't scratch with these on deters them, even as this first set falls off, I haven't replaced them yet because they just haven't been scratching anything.