Question: What can we do to prevent our cats from scratching our furniture?
Answer: The best way to teach cats not to scratch furniture is to attract them to more appropriate surfaces. Punishment is not effective.
Start by filling your home with a variety of scratchers, such as scratching posts and cat trees — at least one more scratcher than the number of cats — and position them where your cats socialize with the family, nap, and sleep. Make sure each scratcher is stable and tall or long enough that the cats can fully stretch their limbs and backs while scratching. Entice your cats to use them by covering the scratchers with catnip. Pheromones can also help. Apply Feliscratch paw pheromone to each scratcher to chemically lure your cats and visually signal where to scratch. Trimming claws at least once a month helps decrease destructive scratching. Plastic nail caps also work for some cats.
If your kitties persist despite these measures, apply double-stick tape or aluminum foil to surfaces they’re scratching but shouldn’t.
Ask the Vet is written by veterinarian Lee Pickett, VMD. Send questions to [email protected] and read more at saturdayeveningpost.com/ask-the-vet.
This article is featured in the November/December 2024 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.
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