Ruined Furniture From Cat Claws… Some Fixes

There are tons of methods out there for getting your cat to learn what’s OK and what isn’t OK to claw on. The best thing to do, since it’s a natural behavior for cats to use their claws, is to put things in your home your cat IS allowed to use for its claws.

Obviously, leather furniture would not be part of the “allowed category”. And some training will be involved to teach your cat what isn’t okay without using forms of punishment or abuse.

Like any other animal, cats are receptive to positive training methods and are intelligent enough to learn the difference between “their” furniture, and yours.

I’m personally not a fan of the way most cat furniture looks, but many come fairly custom designed to look well in your household. You can also try the kitty posts.

Aside from furniture made especially for cats and their need to claw, there are also a variety of toys you can place around the house to encourage your cat to get the clawing out on it. Lingering catnip around the toys and furniture will also help attract your cat to the preferred area and AWAY from the non-preferred.

There are also cat safe furniture repellents that can be used on your furniture to shy away the cat because of its scent. They vary from $5 and up per can. A few sprays in the area should do it, as long as you can stand the scent!

• Here is a link to some spray on repellents.

I personally have a single cat toy that seems to do the trick, and it sits aside my chase in my den. It’s a simple toy with kind of a cardboard middle with a single ball that goes around the outside (and can’t come out). My cat LOVES this toy, and we pull it away from the wall a little to make her the center of attention when she uses it to let her know everyone is watching (since she loves that) it helps let her know that’s the RIGHT spot to be doing that!

The toy looks like this. It keeps her off everything else without the need of special training or spray repellent.

Another solution are called “cat nail caps” and they are clear covers that go OVER the cat’s nail so it can’t do any damage. You can learn more about those here.

Tags: cat, cat claws, cat furniture, clawing solutions, darby, furniture, spray repellent