cats scratching

When I lived in an apartment, it was in my lease that if I wanted a cat, it had to declaw it. When I mentioned this to the vet and the animal shelter they said most vets will not even do such a procedure anymore because its so cruel. Needless to say I got my cat with full claws and my landlord never knew the difference. Breaking the rules? Yes, but I wasn't going to declaw her.

All four of my cats have their claws too and I won't have them declawed, even though they do like to scratch where they are not supposed to. When I got my first cat as a kitten, she took a liking to the arms on my leather couch. It didn't take but a few times and the arms were ruined. I tried to break her from that and never could. I put a old bedspread over the couch, thinking that might help, but she would just claw underneath the bedspread.

Got cat number 2, he liked the couch and the recliner. Now the side of the recliner is all torn up from cat scratches. I even brought a piece of firewood into the house thinking that they would scratch on that. They looked at it like they didn't know what it was and never did use it to scratch on.

Cat number 3, also likes the side of the recliner. Now the entire side of the chair is totally in shreds.

Got husband. He made a huge cat scratch post for the cats. Which now includes cat number 4. We have heard some scratching noises on it, but they still like to scratch in places that they shouldn't.

Maybe one day I'll get some new furniture, but if not, it's okay. It's just furniture and I love my cats more than any piece of furniture on this planet.

I would never de-claw a cat, it's barbaric and it will cause them to suffer even more if they ever got loose and couldn't defend themselves. They would likely starve to death.

They make rubber tips you can have put on their claws so they can't scratch your stuff up, but I don't know how long they last. It's certainly less cruel than cutting their fingers off, which is essentially what de-clawing is, but I don't know if it solves the problem of them getting loose and not being able to fend for themselves.

I think there are also some certain scents you can use such as peppermint, that will deter them from scratching various things.

I think it's immoral to declaw cats. It's against their nature of who they are. I will never declaw my cats and they are all my family. My fur children. I would adopt one who is already declawed just to give them a home.

I think the best thing to do is to buy woven throw rugs. You can get them in at any department store for inexpensive prices. My cat who passed and the one that I have now, both love scratching the rugs.

The reason why cats scratch is because they feel pain and stiffness in their paws. The develop arthritis. Declawing them makes their arthritis worse and in turn they can get other diseases too.

Right now, I have a female cat. She is the love of my life. She listens to me when I train her on the scratching. It's wonderful when they trust you.

(03-23-2012, 06:28 PM)Karenskatz Wrote: This clawing behavior originated in the wild partly for exercise (sink those claws in and PULL!), but mostly to mark terratory. Scent glands in the paws would "mark" the various trees and such in the cat's territory, and by reaching high up on the tree to scratsh they were trying to impress intruders with what a big cat they are. In many ways, they are just transfering this instinct to their indoor terratory.

I have also found that cats have different preferences in the kind of surface they scratch on. With my first two cats, one prefered loop-pile carpeting, the other had a taste for bare wood. I took a clean piece of split fireplace wood and mounted it upright on a sturdy base, then fastened a strip of loop-pile carpet on one side, left bare wood on the second side, and left the bark on the third. Take your pick!. A few cats seem to prefer horizontal scratching to vertical. A cat I had who was like that seemed to enjoy a small braided rug at my parents house. So when my parents passed and we sold the house, I brought the rug home for her to use. Horizontal scratchers who do not seem to care for those coregated cardboard scratchers might like an inexpensive "straw" doormat. Watch to see what sort of surface your cat seems to prefer and give them a similar surface on their post, and you will have better luck getting them to use that and not the furniture.

I'm pondering the scratching subject too. My older cat (15) never really seemed to bother anything much, other than the occasional cardboard box. Last year we had our stairs carpeted and one of her favorite places to rest is the at the bottom of them. Trouble is, she's scratched the carpet up now. I've sprayed it to keep her away and that works to some degree, but it doesn't last. We do have a scratching post (I think it's the sissal that was mentioned.) but she won't use it...it belongs to the OTHER cat, and they aren't friends. So now I'm trying to figure out what to get for my older girl for a scratching post...do I go the cardboard box route, or try one with carpeting? Budget is a concern, of course, but it will be cheaper to buy a post than recarpet the stairs!

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. And thanks for starting this post!

I don't believe in declawing a cat. They have to remove part of the knuckle and it may cause them issues later on in life. Does anyone know of any more humane ways of stopping a cat from scratching at things? I have a big scratching post for them, and a chair I have given them, (or they took, who am I kidding? Haha!). I have heard of putting double sided tape on the area where they scratch and then after a while of getting stuck to it, they will stop trying that area. Has anyone tried this? I would think that they would just move to a new area and that's a lot of double sided tape. Hehe!

I'm thinking of declawing my kitten because I have a 2 year old and he ends up getting scratched when he is playing with the kitten. But I didn't realize that it could cause problems for the cat. I am not really worried about the cat being able to defend herself because she is an indoor cat. If I were to declaw her it would only be the front claws.

I'm kind of surprised that this is even a question. Declawing is unequivocally unethical. It is banned in most countries, other than the US (where some people care more about the condition of their couch than the physcial and emotional health of their animal dependents).

Declawing a cat is analagous to chopping off the fingers of a human up to the first knuckle. I can't imagine waking up from surgery and finding all my fingers mutilated. Many cats become aggressive and bite-y after declawing, which is not exactly surprising. It can also cause lameness, arthritis, and other long term complications.

http://www.pawproject.org/declaw-surgery/

I think that declawing has become common practice in the US, because it is a convenient way of ignoring the underlying issues in the relationship between human and cat. Rather than seeing scratched furniture as a sign that a cat is missing something that it needs, people get angry, as if the cat had a vendetta against the couch. Instead of giving the cat things that it likes to scratch, many people try to punish a cat so that it 'behaves better,' when it is simply trying to fulfill its needs.

Honestly, I find the practice of declawing abhorrent and unequivocally wrong. If you don't want a whole cat, don't have a cat.