My cat is ruining my furniture! help!?

declaw it............ that helps

Do you trim his nails? If not, you can buy cat nail scissors at most pet supply stores. It may take some time getting your cat used to having his nails trimmed. The link below will show and tell you how to trin a cat's nails. Your vet will do it for a fee. Clipped nails are unlikely to cause damage, once the sharp tips have been removed. Can you try covering the furniture with a throw that your cat can knead on?

jarad-you chose between cutting off your cat's toes and kicking it in the curb? Don't you know that animals feel pain and suffering? Did you trim the nails, try different types of scratching posts, pads,

You could also try Sticky Paws.

Does your cat also have a tall, sturdy scratching post? If not, it is worth the investment. Get one with a platfrom and set it by a window. However, "making biscuits" is not scratching behavior. When cats "knead" it is a sign of contentment. Trimming the nails and adding a throw cover to your furniture should solve the problem. As you already know, don't declaw (de-toe) the cat. This often results in litterbox aversion (due to pain in the amputated toes) or biting, since the cat has lost its first line of defense and is in pain and feels vulnerable.

If you give them what they need and teach them then they won't destroy furniture. Also I would advise not to get them declawed if that thought pops into your mind. Claws are a part of cats and no one should take those away! I you don't like claws don't get cats! There are some sprays that you can use to spray on furniture to help keep cats from tearing things up. I used the comfort zone spray on cloth furniture when my cat would scratch on it. And they did help out quite a bit. As for leather chairs, my parents got 2 after we had to put our cat Pluffy down because of scratches. Well I saved my cat and she has "ruined" their chairs. By ruin I mean there are scratch marks on them but not because she was purposely scratching them up. My parents would feed her when they were in the chairs so she associated those chairs with good things.She also loves laying and playing in them. You can train cats not to get on certain furniture sometimes. But make sure they have their own furniture in the area too. For that I would get some cat trees or something because they sometimes have scratching posts built in and they are fun to play on. Cat trees can cost some money but check out ebay or amazon. Overall cats are amazing pets! They are better than any furniture you can ever buy!

If you dont want to declaw your cat, then you better clip its nails a lot. It will help some, but not much. If you do declaw your cat, you only have to declaw the front paws. Ask your vet about some stuff you can spray on the furniture to keep them from clawing or spraying at it. There is also some stuff that you plug in to an outlet (kind of like a glade plug-in), that you can get from the vets office. I cant tell you what it is at the moment, b/c I am not at home to look at it.

If he's simply "kneading" the furniture, could you cover it with a throw or provide him with a little fleece blanket (preferably with your scent on it) that he can knead instead? You can't really stop this behaviour because it's an expression of his emotions, but you can re-direct it.

If he's actually sharpening his claws on the furniture, he can be trained to use a scratch post. A decent one needs to be at least 28" tall and musn't wobble when in use otherwise it puts them off. Some cats don't like sisal posts, so offer him a few alternatives such as corrugated cardboard, a wooden log/tree branch, or even the underside of a heavy duty doormat. You will eventually find something he likes to scratch.

Their paws have scent glands, so once they begin scratching somewhere, the smell attracts them back to the same spot each time. You need to temporarily cover the furniture with heavy duty plastic or tin foil. (Cats don't enjoy scratching smooth surfaces and it will conceal the claw scent.) Put a scratch post next to the furniture and encourage him to use that instead. When he does, make a big fuss of him and give him his favourite food treats. Once use of the scratch post has been established, it's then safe to remove the protective covering.

Something else that you can try as a scratching deterrent is Feliway. It mimics the scent found in cat's facial glands and they rarely scratch areas that they chin rub. Spraying the affected areas once a day, for a minimum 21 days, can help discourage them from scratching on furniture, walls etc.

The web site below has advice on encouraging your cat to use a scratch post.

http://www.catscratching.com/

The web site below has lots of helpful advice and suggestions on ways to prevent cats from scratching furniture, wallpaper etc.

http://www.celiahaddon.co.uk/pet%20problems/cats/f...

Be patient, it can take some cats longer than others to get the idea, but it really is worth persevering with the training.

Hope this helps.

I recommend trying SoftPaws. It's a vinyl cover that's glued over the nail and will protect your furniture while allowing his claws to remain intact. It's been my experience that proper application is necessary or they don't remain on very long. A good groomer, either at a vet's office or in a private shop, who is experienced with cats can apply them properly and they will remain in place for 4-6 weeks. My 5 cats wear them and seem to be just fine with it. Two of them were not thrilled in the beginning and chewed a couple off in the first day. I just persisted and had them reapplied. This happened a couple more times before they adjusted, but I haven't had any problems with them since. They've all had SoftPaws for about a year.

One option would be to look into this thing Invisible fence called, In-Home solution. It is a little wireless modem that you can set a range on and you can just set it in the area you don't want the cat to be ruining and it will keep the cat away. Unfortunately the collars are bulky, but it is an option outside of declaw. I work at a vet's office and we highly recommend them to our clients that could us there help. Here's the site...

I have the same problem. I have sprayed the furniture, carpets, door frames and bed mattresses that he likes to claw, to no avail. I have covered the areas. I have provided scratching posts of all types and textures, and he still prefers to claw the things he has chosen to claw. I trim his nails weekly and if anything he scratches more to get those nails sharpened once more. I am not an advocate of declawing. I have had many cats during my lifetime and he is the only one I am giving serious consideration to have declawed. At this point, I feel I have tried all my other options

I clip my cats claws and keep a spray bottle handy to squirt them when they do it. Don't clip them to short or they'll bleed. I just cut them down to a more squared end so that when they do scratch it doesn't make much damage while I'm going for the water bottle. It can take years to break them of the habit, their claws are their tools for survival in the wild it, is so ingrained in their instincts to keep them sharp. This is an uphill battle but stay strong and try to be patient. If you do have a carpeted scratching post and they don't get sprayed for scratching on it, they will eventually prefer to do it there where they don't get wet for it. That worked for me, it just took a long long time.

Don't dismiss the Soft Paws if you haven't tried them. They worked very well for two of my cats for a couple of years, until they learned what to leave alone. I've put them on my cats and other people's cats, including a couple whose owners swore the cat would never let me do it. It takes time and patience to train a cat where to scratch and where not to. If you get a puppy and they chew things, do you have their teeth removed? Nope, you TRAIN THEM, and cats can learn, too.

Please don't give up trying. Sticky Paws (wide doublestick tape) helps as well.

The bottom line, at least for me, is that my cats feel and furniture doesn't. I can replace furniture, but my cats are irreplaceable living beings.

There are sprays you can buy that are supposed to repel animals from the area. I have used them for my cats, and although they do work, they only work for a short period of time. Test a small area on your furniture first to make sure it won't damage it though. Ultimately we went the declawing route, and although it may not seem so humane, it was still better than getting kicked to the curb, which was the next step...