Couch clawing...

roxie225

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
591
Purraise
1
Location
New York
I think this is the right place for this...

A little background - Our roommate moved out on Tuesday (
) so BF and I have decided to spend a little bit of money on some new furniture for the apartment. We have bought a new coffee table, end table and ordered a new TV stand. Now we would like to buy a new couch. We went into Jennifer Convertibles (clearance center, for us small budgeters) and found a couple nice leather couches in our price range.

The couches we have now were given to us by an eldery woman who was moving out of the building when we were moving in. They must be 40 years old. Roxie has pretty much torn them to shreds. Whenever I would catch her I would stop her and move her to the cat tree where she would finish scratching... I think she continued to do it because BF and the roommate would just let her get away with it


I would really love to get a new couch but I am so nervous about her doing the same thing as she did to the current one. We clip her claws ourselves so I know that if we keep them short that will help. I also am looking into the nail caps (soft paws??). If we get her the nail caps, will she still be able to climb her cat tree?? I would feel soo bad if she couldn't!

Any help and advice is greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long post!
 

ddcats

TCS Member
Super Cat
Joined
Apr 2, 2007
Messages
848
Purraise
2
Location
Where whiskers abound.
Sorry, don't know about soft paws; you might want to keep a cushion from the old couch and let the cat scratch that.

I would be interested to know if cats can climb with soft paws too.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #3

roxie225

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
591
Purraise
1
Location
New York
Oh, I was also wondering... Roxie is going to be 2 in September... do you think she will have trouble adjusting to the soft paws if we go that route?
 

noludoru

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
303
Purraise
2
Location
VA
I think she'll be fine adjusting to soft paws. And yes, kitties can still do things normally with softpaws.
 

miao_kitty

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Apr 10, 2005
Messages
351
Purraise
10
Location
Boulder,CO
I had the same questions, and while I haven't gotten soft paws yet for Luna, I have learned some things.

1. Soft paws (supposedly) do allow them to climb their cat tree and play with toys.

2. If you get a couch that's a fabric that's not a knotty (such as microsuede or possibly leather...though some cats like leather..) the cat will be more likely to use her post.

3. There are these scratching posts that are flat and fit under the couch leg and cover up the corners your cat likes to scratch and they're removable so when you have guests, you can take them off. I think they're called Scratch Away, but I don't have the link on this computer (if you want the link, please PM me and I'll give it to you).

4. There's also double sticky sided tape, but I don't know if you'd want to put that on your new couch!


So those are just a few things I've heard. Right now I have my couch covered w/ a microsuede slipcover and the cats don't seem to be interested in it.


Good luck!
 

miao_kitty

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Apr 10, 2005
Messages
351
Purraise
10
Location
Boulder,CO
P.S. my grandma used to have a tortie named Roxie!! She rescued her from a basketball court in a park.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #7

roxie225

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
591
Purraise
1
Location
New York
Originally Posted by miao_kitty

I had the same questions, and while I haven't gotten soft paws yet for Luna, I have learned some things.

1. Soft paws (supposedly) do allow them to climb their cat tree and play with toys.

2. If you get a couch that's a fabric that's not a knotty (such as microsuede or possibly leather...though some cats like leather..) the cat will be more likely to use her post.

3. There are these scratching posts that are flat and fit under the couch leg and cover up the corners your cat likes to scratch and they're removable so when you have guests, you can take them off. I think they're called Scratch Away, but I don't have the link on this computer (if you want the link, please PM me and I'll give it to you).

4. There's also double sticky sided tape, but I don't know if you'd want to put that on your new couch!


So those are just a few things I've heard. Right now I have my couch covered w/ a microsuede slipcover and the cats don't seem to be interested in it.


Good luck!
Thank you for the great help! We want to get a leather couch and I am definately going to pick up some soft paws... Hopefully she wont be too mad at us for sticking them on her! I am also interested in the couch scratcher you mentioned so I will send you a PM.

Originally Posted by miao_kitty

P.S. my grandma used to have a tortie named Roxie!! She rescued her from a basketball court in a park.
How funny! I haven't seen another Roxie spelt this way yet, although I am sure there are many out there!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #8

roxie225

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
591
Purraise
1
Location
New York
Sooo, we got our new couch today and we went with leather...

I didn't want to wait for soft paws since they had to be orederd online so we went to PetCo and picked up some of the clear soft claws (we really wanted pink but that's all they had
)

Let's just say Roxie was not very happy and did not feel like cooperating! Putting them on was definately a big chore and I felt really bad


We gave her some treats afterward and one of those cat crazies which we also bought for her today and she seemed okay. She hasn't really tried chewing them off yet. Just the normal lick here and there but that is about it.

We're hoping that in the next few weeks she wont even go near the couch this way we wont have to put them on her again. Hopefully she will be a good girl and we can have just used them this time as a trial period. I'd really rather just trim her nails once a week and invest in a few more scratchers!
 

cococat

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Feb 2, 2007
Messages
4,953
Purraise
12
Location
USA
Suggestions

1. More cat trees

2. Never allow her to act like she is tearing up the couch, even with soft paws on, even just "stretching", she is not allowed to tear it to pieces

3. Keep the soft paws on at all times

4. Put foil on the sides of the couch that she would like to destroy the most

5. Put a no claw spray on top of that

6. Good luck!
She is really pretty!

I trim my cat's nails once a week, she can still do damage with them easily, but I have tons of kitty stuff around for her, which works, she doesn't put her nails into our furniture
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #10

roxie225

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
591
Purraise
1
Location
New York
Originally Posted by cococat

Suggestions

1. More cat trees

2. Never allow her to act like she is tearing up the couch, even with soft paws on, even just "stretching", she is not allowed to tear it to pieces

3. Keep the soft paws on at all times

4. Put foil on the sides of the couch that she would like to destroy the most

5. Put a no claw spray on top of that

6. Good luck!
She is really pretty!

I trim my cat's nails once a week, she can still do damage with them easily, but I have tons of kitty stuff around for her, which works, she doesn't put her nails into our furniture
Thank you cococat! Right now she has the soft claws on and will stay that way for a while. Will they still attempt to scratch with them on? I haven't seen her do it yet. We put her on her tree and she kinda just sat there. She couldn't get her claws in to pull herself up. It was so sad
Is it just because she is not used to them yet and she will figure it out in time? I don't want to limit her because of our selfish needs!

So far so good on the couch, she doesn't even seem interested in it. Hopefully she stays that way!
 

gup

TCS Member
Kitten
Joined
Aug 5, 2007
Messages
5
Purraise
0
Location
Pennsylvania
I put the soft paws on my cat when I first adopted her.
It was a chore getting htemon and she was not happy.
I found holding her wrapped in a towel helped. Both for her and myself from getting clawed by her back claws!!

They lasted about 3 months or longer. I was impressed.

I too felt horrible after torturing her to get them on. But she was fine by the next day.

The only downfall to the softpaws is it takes two people to get them on!!
One to hold the cat and the other to put them on.

Good luck.
I'd continue using the soft paws if you can endure the application process!!
 

momofmany

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jul 15, 2003
Messages
16,249
Purraise
70
Location
There's no place like home
I put a scratching post by the back corner of the sofa and rubbed catnip on it. If given the choice, they prefer the scratch post.

Training them on alternatives requires absolute consistency. If your BF wasn't consistent with her when young, that was a shame. But you can teach an adult cat new tricks - even with the soft paws, always redirect her to an appropriate scratching device.

Have you tried the cardboard turbo scratchers? Mine love them.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #13

roxie225

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
591
Purraise
1
Location
New York
Originally Posted by GUP

I put the soft paws on my cat when I first adopted her.
It was a chore getting htemon and she was not happy.
I found holding her wrapped in a towel helped. Both for her and myself from getting clawed by her back claws!!

They lasted about 3 months or longer. I was impressed.

I too felt horrible after torturing her to get them on. But she was fine by the next day.

The only downfall to the softpaws is it takes two people to get them on!!
One to hold the cat and the other to put them on.

Good luck.
I'd continue using the soft paws if you can endure the application process!!
We wrapped her in a towel when we did it, which is how we trim her claws as well. At first she cooperated nicely because I think she thought we were just giving her a trim but as soon as BF attempted to put the first one on she went crazy! It was a full on attack! So far she has gotten 3 off already
but she has stopped chewing and licking them so much. We are planning on reapplying the ones she got off tonite.

Originally Posted by Momofmany

I put a scratching post by the back corner of the sofa and rubbed catnip on it. If given the choice, they prefer the scratch post.

Training them on alternatives requires absolute consistency. If your BF wasn't consistent with her when young, that was a shame. But you can teach an adult cat new tricks - even with the soft paws, always redirect her to an appropriate scratching device.

Have you tried the cardboard turbo scratchers? Mine love them.
It's not that BF wasn't consistent, I just don't think he ever noticed her doing it. She was quite sneaky about it. The roommate, however, would just watch and giggle -- thank goodness he's gone now! I saw a nice scratching post in Petco yesterday and I think I may go pick it up sometime next week. Even with the soft claws on she has started to scratch at her tree, but thankfully not the couch! I always give her a treat after I see her doing it so she hopefully gets the idea.

I haven't tried to cardboard turbo scratchers yet but I think I'll probably pick one of those up too.

So I think she's doing good so far but we're keeping our fingers crossed! Thanks again everyone!
 
Top