HELP! Cat scratching new sofa !!!!

trudiha

This might be a tiny bit extreme but cats generally only scratch furniture that you actually sit on.

I'm disabled and live on DLA and owing to my crazily extravagant former lifestyle (I'd eat every single day, even if I wasn't really hungry) when I moved into my first flat of my own 3 years ago I could only afford secondhand furniture. I tightened my belt, saved hard and I've been slowly replacing the second hand stuff with new. When I got my brand new leather sofa last year I was so darn proud of it that I wanted to keep it box fresh, so I stuck to sitting on my old arm chair; the cats never went near the sofa either. Although they did scratch at the armchair.

A few months ago my brother came into a bit of money and offered to buy me a new arm chair, he was frightened that the thing was about to give out underneath me, I moved to sitting on the floor and, again, the cats haven't gone near it.

I either sit on the floor or in an old Lloyde loom dining chair, the dining chair is now the only thing that they scratch.

I'm not really putting this forward as a proper suggestion, just giving you something to tell your OH the next time he moans about the throw. It could be worse, much, much worse.

Muppet81

Interesting slant on things. Looks like we are on the floor from now on ... OH will be pleased :rotfl:

Kimberley

If the cat only scratches when your there, can you not put the cat in another room when left alone? Still I guess these are things pet owners have to put up with to have the pet, warts and all.

JAM1376

Have you tried attaching a length of kitchen foil to the parts that they scratch? Either with tape or just weighted down? Cats hate the stuff!

davetaylor

Hi,

I have a gorgeous new cat called Jimmy. Only problem is that he is clawing my lovely leather sofas.

Does anyone have any OS tips to put him off?

I already have a scratching post which he also uses.

Dave

Olliebeak

Trigger spray bottle filled with water? - but make sure it's not used near anything electrical. Some cats will respond if sprayed at the first sign of clawing. Mine only needs to be shown the bottle now and he thinks twice - but then again he's getting old now and shouldn't even be thinking about it in the first place!

Maybe he's not keen on the texture of the scratch pole. How old is he? Is he old enough to be allowed into the garden to find a suitable substitute?

Have you read any books on 'cat behaviour'? They do help to understand things from a 'cat point of view'.

Just a quick thought - have you tried rubbing the scratch pole with catnip (available from petstores, health shops, some supermarkets and some times vets) - it might just attract him to it, instead of your sofas. Word of warning though, it can have a 'strange effect' on cats - check this out:

http://vetmedicine.about.com/cs/obedcat/a/catcatnip.htm

Good Luck!

lil_me

Loads of people I know swear by feliway http://www.petdrugsonline.co.uk/products.asp?sc=feliway&sop=search&gclid=CKv_7oHy2JECFRDsXgodf2hVaA

There is several UK stockists

Distracting with scratching posts I think could only help, might be more suitable to ask the question on the pets board.

squeaky

Hiya

We have a dedicated pet Care board which has a few helpful threads on this, so I'll move your post across for you.

Good luck

Pink.

These older threads may help:

How to stop cats destroying furniture- any advice?

HELP! Cat scratching new sofa !!!!

Cat Scratching Walls

Pink

petangel

All the previous tips are worth a try. Failing these options I use double sided sticky tape applied to the sofa corners vertically- its invisible and can break the habit as the cat won't wanna be stuck there forever.

Good luck