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4. Keep your cat mentally stimulated and offers her plenty of opportunity for exercise, and she will has less opportunity to be destructive in your home. If your cat is frustrated and bored, she may scratch your furniture or tear your drapes. Give her enough play time. Cats are motivated by smell, sound, texture and movement. The toys you use should aim to cover all these aspects. Discover your cat’s preferences by presenting a variety different sized toy made from different materials and watch her reaction to gauge her preferences.
5. Cutting
nails regularly may help keep a cat from scratching furniture, or at least reduce damage done by its scratching. Get your kitten used to having its nails clipped while it is young, praise her while you clip nail and reward her with a treat.
6. Booby trap furniture with a soda can with some pennies in it, so that if cat scratches, it makes a noise.
7. Use a doorknob alarm on your curtains. When pinned to drapes, alarm will sound every time your cat tries to use curtains as a ladder.
8. Consider a window perch for your feline friend. It will give your cat hours of entertainment - especially if you place a bird or squirrel feeder in garden outside window. Be sure window is closed so your pet won’t fall out.
9. When you catch your cat scratching furniture, try squirting her with a water pistol or squirt bottle and use a firm ‘no’. Of course, this won’t stop your cat when you are not around.
10. If your cat is gaining access to a high bookcase by leaping from a nearby chair, move chair. Without her launchpad, your cat will no longer be able to reach her perch.
11. You can also try taping inflated balloons to problem areas. When your cat pops one with her claws, she will avoid scratching there again. However, try this only when you are at home, so you can pick up balloon pieces before your cat tries to eat them.
12. There are training devices that keep cats off forbidden areas by making annoying sounds. They are available at pet supply stores, catalogs and websites.
13. If your cat still scratches in appropriate places, use some sprays like bitter apple or actual orange peels, which are good deterrents.
All forms of physical punishment should be avoided since they can cause fear or aggression toward owner, and at best, cat will only learn to stop scratching while owner is around.
It does not matter which method you will choose to prevent your furniture destroying, every cat owner mush know that it is impractical and unfair to expect cats to stop scratching entirely.
The author Petar Petrov is founder of CozyCatFurniture.com. His site together with the cat furniture that offer, try to help people to make their cat’s life better. Visit the site www.cozycatfurniture.com take your free cat newsletter and learn more about Cat Cares, Cat Health, Cat Behavior, Training Cat and Cat Breeds.
