Tips to Stop Your Cat From Scratching Everywhere
Fortunately, solutions exist to limit the damage while allowing your cat to scratch:
The scraper or scratching post is particularly suitable for your cat’s youngest age. Encourage your cat to use the scraper or scratching post. When he is young, put his pasta on the scratching post and accompany him. The scratching post should be placed in a wise place. If the scratching post is relegated to a corner of the house where your cat doesn’t spend most of its time, it will have no use!
Catnip
Catnip exists in many forms: the grass itself and a spray containing the smell of catnip. The ideal would be to group together in the same space a scraper, catnip, and your cat’s litter. You can use the scratching post with a spray containing catnip. Your cat will be more stimulated and likely to use the scraper for his claws.
The reward
When your cat uses the scratcher, you notice it, praise it and reward it. As a result, he will gently understand that this behavior is suitable.
Protecting your furniture
You can protect your furniture with aluminum foil or plastic film. This very smooth texture will certainly deter your cat.
Specific repellents
You can also try repellents containing specific hormones. By placing this repellent on the scratched areas, your cat will have no choice but to go to his scratching post. Repellents should be used sparingly: your cat should not feel at home anymore!
As you will have understood, your cat, by nature needs to scratch: for physical reasons, for reasons of stress or marking. He can scratch places of passage and important places in his daily life. However, there are many solutions: you just have to find the solution that suits your cat. Scratching post, repellent, protection, catnip, and the reward for good behavior, will allow you to limit or even completely stop scratching your cat.
Which scratching post should I choose for my cat?
For your cat’s happiness, it is essential to enrich his environment by offering him vital products in his well-being and health.
This, of course, involves food, litter, comfortable bedding ( Do not limit yourself to cat products only, cats love the dog cave bed because it is more comprehensive), and a play area ( Such as a cat tower for large cats is ideal for active cats), and the possibility of scratching. To replace or associate with a cat tree, the cat scratcher house is an essential accessory for your cat… and the tranquility of your furniture!
What is the use of a cat scratching house?
First, for the cat, scratching is a natural need: it allows him to wear his claws and mark his territory.
Unlike the outdoor cat, the lifestyle of the indoor cat does not allow it to wear its claws in contact with hard surfaces naturally. Also, having sharp claws is not vital to it, unlike the outdoor cat, which climbs, hunts, or must defend itself in the event of aggression or to protect its territory.
A cat that does not have access to the outside must therefore scratch what it has at its disposal to file its claws, but also to help them renew. About once a month, claw residue falls out, giving way to a new, sharp claw. This is a natural cycle.
Regarding the marking of the territory, it is a question of pheromones and lacerations. By scratching, the cat releases pheromones from glands located between the pads. These olfactory and visual signals are the preferred means of communication between cats. If your cat lives with a dog, it is possible to see cat scratch marks even in your dog’s indoor dog house. Namely, several types of pheromones released by different body parts are used to transmit a specific message: danger, well-being, attachment, territory…
Claws indicate to other cats via the scent of pheromones and visible lacerations that this territory already belongs to one of them.
Scratching is, therefore, necessary for an indoor cat, so don’t be surprised if it attacks your sofa, your curtains, or your upholstery. If you observe this in your cat, know that it is useless, even inadvisable, to reprimand him. On the contrary, since scratching is natural for him, preventing him from satisfying this need can cause him great stress.
This is where a scratching post comes in handy in order not to prevent but to redirect scratching elsewhere than on your furniture and allow your cat to use its claws on an appropriate surface.
However, it sometimes happens that scratches are associated with a behavioral problem, especially when they are numerous and scattered in different places near the doors and windows of your home.