Preventing the Cats from Scratching Your Furniture

Cats scratching is a normal and natural habit for the cats of all kinds, pet or non-pet. But it becomes a continuous headache for the owners of pet cats if they experience cats scratching on all of their household furnishings and furnitures that can cause expensive damage to that. Usually cat owners are compelled to surrender their beloved pets to the shelters only due to this expensive damage to their furniture.

But before going to learn how to prevent your cat from cats scratching you should know why do they scratch? Normally cats scratch on mild hard surfaces to sharpen and removing outer castings from their claws. This activity pleases the cats as their leg and shoulder muscles get relaxed with it. The glands all over the cat’s body release pheromones on the object during cats scratching activity which also gives a satisfactory feel for marking their territory through it to the cats.

Tips to prevent cats scratching on furniture

In fact it is impossible to stop the cats from cats scratching activity as it is their natural behavior but you can prevent them by training your pets to scratch on certain specific surfaces instead of you precious furniture.Some of the cat owners declaw their cats to prevent them from damaging their furniture with cats scratching. But it is not advisable as it is painful and may develop several other behavioral problems in your pet like biting or irregular secretion. You can not distract from natural pleasure which your cat gets from scratching with its claws by declawing it. 

Cat’s attention can be diverted by training it to scratch on some post or cheaper wooden board placed on the usual locations where it goes for scratching. Water spraying on your cat is another method that is usually considered to prevent the cats from scratching your furniture. You can spray on it when it starts cat scratching the furniture. Orange peels can also be placed near the usual scratching locations as it will attack on the unpleasant smell of the citrus peel and leave your furniture.Your cat can be encouraged to scratch on the scratch post by spraying or rubbing the catnip on the post as cats get attracted to this stuff.Moreover cats usually scratch after a nap to be active so you can place scratch post near its sleeping place to let it be satisfied.If you find that cat is not prevented from cats scratching your precious furniture then you should gently pick it up to the scratch post and behave positively to encourage it for its activities. Cats usually like owner’s positive behavior than negative one.You can also prevent your cat from cats scratching your furniture by regularly trimming its nails as it will reduce the damage of your furniture.You should never give a physical punishment to your pet cat for cats scratching your furniture as it will annoy it.

Thus, you can train your pet cat to prevent it from cats scratching in a gradual manner.