No matter how cute and snuggly cats could be they could still cause a lot of problems to their owners, especially with their habit of scratching on different surfaces – like your expensive carpet or your favorite upholstered sofa. But before you skip ahead this article in order to find out a way to make your pet stop you have to know why exactly your cat needs to scratch.
Kittens don’t scratch just because they love to make us angry, they scratch because this is their natural behavior – just like breathing or purring. In the wild this same kind of behavior is supposed to signal their presence to others of their kind either with visual or with olfactory claw marks. The first one is obvious even to us, humans, but the second one involves the release of pheromones. There is another very important function to scratching as well that removes the outer layer of dead layer of cells from your pet’s claws. So before anyone ever gets a cat you have to consider and take care of these kinds of problems.
Now, whether your kitty targets one or two important territorial areas of your home like its litter tray or it scratches on far more visible places like windows or doorways, you have to know that there are a couple of ways to save your furniture. The first one is the easiest but most painful for the cat – declawing surgery which many experts believe is painful and unnecessary. So try to avoid this one by choosing one of the other options. Like providing your kitten multiple scratching opportunities – a scratching post, for example. It could also be very comfortable for climbing and even sleeping. You could also cover your furniture with something that your pet doesn’t really like. For this purpose you could use double sided tape or some kind of a plastic or aluminum foil. Using soda cans with some pennies with it is also an option because when your cat tries to scratch it will make an annoying noise. Training devices from a pet store could pretty much do the same because it could also make such noises when the cat gets close to a forbidden area. Another option is sticking balloons to the trouble areas so that when Monsieur Mittens tries to scratch he will only pop it with his claws and he probably won’t try to scratch at the same place again. However, you have to try this method only when you are at home so that when you have to you will be able to pick up all the balloon pieces before he tries to eat them.
There are many, many other ways as well but whichever method you use, don’t forget to avoid any type of physical punishment. After all it will not only fail to work but it could harm your pet and the relationship between you two as well.