Cat Scratches carpet/furniture and chewing her coat

Foodhoarder

Hi All.
I recently aquired a 4 year old cat. She is a lovely thing expect she has picked/scratched my leather sofa and is constantly at my carpets. I have tried telling her off, she looks at me like i am stupid... I tried to catch her and take her to a lovely new scratching post i bought her, she runs away. I even put some cat nip on the post to encourage her to use it, to now avail. I have thoughts about getting a watergun and when i catch her doing it to spray her with it, but i am a bit hesitant to do this as i think it might be a bit cruel and i am a bit worried that she might attack me!

She has also started chewing her coat/fur all long her rear legs and bottom. I took her to vet who said it is not parasites/disease etc and it is a behavioural/nervous thing.

Anyone have any ideas to help me which wont cost the earth?

badmumof1

Feliway spray is a good one to help with nerves and also try rubbing cat nip on the scratching post too as this should attract her to it.

lostinrates

If you use a water gun the idea is NOT to hold them...so that you can reach them at the time of the ''wrong doing''. However, as you cat is already stressed I do not recommend it as a technique. Does she have something else to scratch? Des she show any interest in toys...da bird/treat balls? I'd be trying to distract, play and relax her I think.:)

Good luck

bethie

have you tried different types of scratching posts?


she might not like the feel of the sisal rope, or the actual post/tree may be too big or too small for her.


you can get some which are carpet based (though personally i wouldn't use it as it might encourage them to think all carpets are for scratching), or you can get some that sit on an angle on the floor. There are also some cardboard based ones as well.

no idea why, by my two cats ADORE this one http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/scratching_posts/scratching_pads/36005 .

Flibertigibit

I got an older kitten 2 months ago who found the move very stressful and showed it in his behaviour - staying under the TV during the day for 3 weeks and coming out and creating mayhem and destruction at night! A really helpful site I found was http://www.petforums.co.uk/ One thing I learnt was that where the scratching post is can make quite a difference and that was true for my cat, so move it around a bit and see what happens. I also took him to the vets to have his claws trimmed which helped (I tried to do it myself, but no way!). I also used Feliway (expensive but much cheaper on Ebay, and I was desperate) - read this http://www.feliway.com/gb to learn how to use it and what it does. Whether it was the Feliway I'll never know for sure but within 48hrs of starting to use it, the cat started coming out and eventually playing. Worth a try - don't give up yet. The chewing of her fur is called "over grooming" and is a clear sign of stress. I can understand your frustration but whatever you do, don't use the water thing at the moment - it will just make matters worse. Have you tried restricting the cat to just one room out of the way of main family noise (if you have any) with her food, litter tray, scratch post etc - it might help to make her feel safer and certainly lessen her access to the things she is damaging.

Foodhoarder

Hi, Thanks for all the replies.
I have not used the water gun thing as yet, and have been trying to do the positive behavioural reinforcement thing, giving her treats/attention for good behaviour and telling her off for bad behaviour. I will have a look at the spray and see how it works... a small investment to save whats left of my lovely sofa!
The cat likes cat nip a lot and she does use the post when i put cat nip on it- and flys around the room as you can imagine.

I think restricting her access to rooms will be a good idea. I usually let her take the living room and kitchen in the day when i am working, but i think placing her in the kitchen only will be a better idea then there are less things for her to upset/destroy. I have barred her from bedrooms as she has a tendancy to get in the beds leaving hairs everywhere or hides in cupboards and then she jumps out and scares me senseless!

balmk

Hi, I had a similar problem with scratching and was advised to do the following which has really worked well for me:

1) Ensure that there are sufficient scratching pads in the house - one around where the cat is fed, and another around where it sleeps.

2) You MUST get the smell from the cats paws out of the furniture/items that are being scratched. This is why they keep going back there as they can smell the secretions from their sweat glands (which they use to mark territory). Use a product suitable for your furniture.

3) Once they have been cleaned well, apply Feliway spray to the areas being scratched – this mimics the secretions from the face glands and they don’t scratch where these secretions are present.

4) Rub the cats paws on the scratching posts to get the scent in them, and your cat should then be drawn to it.

5) If your cat is demonstrating signs of stress, you could also try the Feliway plug-in (follow the directions to ensure you have sufficient diffusers for your size of home). Allow a day or two for it to take effect.

I would advise against using a water gun as this will just make the cat more stressed.

Hope that helps J