Read our simple and on-point guide on how to keep cats from scratching furniture and why our cats love to scratch up your beloved furniture in the first place.
We understand that you love your furry friend, but their claws are doing quite some damage when it comes to your expensive couch and other soft furniture items in your house. This is quite a common thing in the house of every cat owner, sometimes labelled to be a naughty and inappropriate behavior from cats, but it’s actually not true.
Before you make arrangements in the house preventing them from scratching, you should know that it is a well-established scientific fact that your cat scratches the furniture to strengthen and stretch her upper body. This scratching allows her to leave her “signature” on the territory where she wants to leave her mark, as cats are very territorial beings.
A lot of people who search how to keep cats from scratching furniture end up declawing their cats, which is extremely painful, results in changing the cat’s behavior due to such trauma, and is strongly “not recommended.” The scratching behavior of cats is an instinctive behavior that they learned during the millions of years of evolution so that they can be strong and prevalent in the wild.
But there are other ways to protect your furniture and also not harm your beloved pet. This is how to keep cats from scratching furniture while being nice to your cats:
1. Scratching Posts:
Don’t be limited to just posts; we recommend multiple cat condos and trees with scratching posts that will be a great place for her to stretch her arms. The most popular ones are horizontal and wedge-shaped scratch posts made with cardboard. Strategically place these scratch posts in your house, especially near your sofa, so that they can scratch on the post rather than on your sofa.
If you have more than one cat, then having multiple posts is a great way to keep your cats away from the furniture and also keeps them busy. Moreover, there will be no paw fights between your cats over the resources.
2. Protective Covers:
These can be quite expensive additions to your sofa, and nowadays they are available at very low prices on different online e-commerce platforms. The most effective ones are specialized furniture protectors that can be applied to areas your cat usually targets. You can also use double-sided sticky tape, as cats dislike the sticky texture, effectively deterring your “phuurrry” friend from scratching. You can also set up a vinyl carpet runner with the spike side up in front of the spot where your cat loves to scratch.
3. Motion-detection air spray cans
They are another effective way to keep your cat away from the furniture, as they can produce a hissing noise when the cat comes near them. This makes them move away from the furniture and also discourages them from scratching in the future. Although effective, prolonged use can actually become counterproductive for promoting desirable scratching behaviors, as it can bring fear and anxiety to your cat.
4. Citrus-based Sprays:
Such sprays are super effective in deterring your cats away from the furniture, as they really don’t like the scent of citrus foods. Making your own is also possible; just add 2 tbsp lemon juice to one cup of water and apply it through a water spray bottle.
You can also use orange peel soaked overnight or vinegar, but make sure to take proper concentrations to avoid staining; otherwise, you are better off with commercially available citrus-based sprays.
5. Maintain a proper routine.
This gives them a sense of security and a feeling of ownership in your house, which also translates to their anxiety levels. If everything is kept on routine, cats scratching is also reduced due to their feeling of being part of the house and owning their territory.
When investing in a quality living couch like the Stella Lounge from the Oak Furniture Collection, one needs to take measures to protect the ultra-fine pine cone fabric from cat scratches. It features clean lines and a modern silhouette with aesthetics and functionality in your living space. Such premium furniture deserves proper protection from scratches, which you can do by following the above steps.
Now you know how to keep cats from scratching and why they scratch in the first place. It is recommended to always maintain a healthy and consistent routine for your cats so that they will have a sense of security and their stress levels will be low. In this way, the behaviors related to territorial scratching will also occur less frequently.
