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Old January 9th, 2006, 09:10 PM
Catrescue Catrescue is offline
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Cat scratching

We have recently bought new living room furniture and our female cat is constantly scratching it. She has a scratching post and I place it where it is completely accessible to her, but she still prefers the new furniture! What can I do? Are there any products out there that will discourage this kind of behavior?
Please help me,
Jocelyn
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Old January 9th, 2006, 09:32 PM
Lucky Rescue Lucky Rescue is offline
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Here's a helpful article. The section on how to deter the scratching is item 6 on the following page:
http://www.catscratching.com/#prefer
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Old January 9th, 2006, 11:51 PM
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heather331 heather331 is offline
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i read up here sometime recently that you could but tape sticky side out or velcro...they dont like the way it feels...and there are products that they dont like the smell of. i dont know the names of any though. ill try to find that post!
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Old January 10th, 2006, 12:03 AM
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heather331 heather331 is offline
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http://www.pets.ca/forum/showthread....atch+furniture
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Old January 12th, 2006, 06:11 PM
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Stacer Stacer is offline
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When our new kittens started scratching the furniture we bought them an upright carpeted scratching post, neither of them liked it. So we bought them the "cosmic catnip alpine scatcher" (I love the name!!), which is an inclined cardboard scratcher with catnip in it, one of our kittens took to it right away. So as our final attempt with our other kitten we bought double sided carpeting tape (it wasn't so sticky that she would stuck or anything) and put it on the furniture where she liked to scratch, and lucky for us it worked. Any time either one of them were scratching inappropriately we would take them to the "cosmic" scratcher and put their paws on it, usually they would start to scratch on their own, then we'd give them lots of snuggles and pets for doing a good job. It didn't take long for them to catch on. Good luck.
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Old January 14th, 2006, 01:43 PM
Beetlecat Beetlecat is offline
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If the new furniture is more fun to scratch than the scrathing post, the easiest and longest lasting is probably to get a nicer scratching post, so she will prefer it more and eventually forget about the furniture.

Cats like something tall enough so they can stretch out and with a fairly rough material, like a very stiff, close woven rug.

My cat, at least, is extremely persistant about scratching where he wants to. No matter the method of discouragment, unless it is in place constantly (like slip covering the new furniture in plastic) he will eventually go back to where he wants. So the trick is having her want to scratch on her post.

In the meantime, you can lessen the damage by being very vigilent and clipping off the sharp tips of her claws with a set of nail clippers.
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Old January 14th, 2006, 01:55 PM
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chico2 chico2 is offline
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I just wanted to add,scratch deterrent sprays are just a waste of money.
A few SOLID scratchposts,preferably with sisal-rope instead of carpeting is the best,but they cannot be wiggely or the cat will not use it.
I've also heard the Alpine Scratcher works good,but have never tried it.
I just bought a new cat-tree,plenty of sisalrope and platforms where they can sit or sleep,it even has a little house where they can hide.I got it at 75% off for only $59 great buy!!
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