Scratching !!!

Originally Posted by LDG

I agree - pay someone else to clip his claws until you can do it on your own. Our groomer at the vet charges $8 to clip claws. There are usually other grooming options where you can take kitty to get his claws clipped. Something to consider in the short term. In the long term, you've got to get him conditioned to it, and we've found that doing it one claw at a time with the favorite treat ready to roll when they wake up and freak is the way to go. Gotta go for one a day, when they're sleeping. Gotta be quick. We have several kitties that would wake up in 3.4 seconds flat, but the claw was popped out by then, snipped as they're starting to swing up, and then a treat put down - all was forgotten. Each day it got easier. Then we could do two. Then three. It took MONTHS to get there. Five years later, I've still got one kitty I can only do one paw at a time. But we got there one day at a time, literally.

Given that he pulls up the carpet and pushed the post aside, he obviously likes to horizontally scratch! Purchase some auto mats or those kind of foam kitchen mats - scatter them around, but if he's been scratching in just a few places, definitely put them there. Cats like to scratch on lots of things - we bought a scratcher mat that had sisal on one side and a black hard foamy stuff for backing. They didn't use the sisal side, but when we turned it over, they loved it. Give him different places and different option.

Ours do use the trees. We have lots of them. When scratching on the back and front arms of the couch, we bought four tall scratchers. We covered the back of the couch with aluminum foil using double-sided tape to hold it in place, and we did the same with the front arms of the couch. We then put two scratchers right in front of the arms, and two in back of the couch. When they were using them, we slowly moved them to where we want them. One we've left at one corner at the back of the couch. Also, when we bought new furniture (we moved, it wasn't because of the cats), we bought a couch with microfiber as the material. Claws can't penetrate the tight weave, so now we don't care if they scratch on the couch.

Also, cats do love to scratch when they wake up and stretch. If you can place both vertical and horizontal scratching pads, rugs/mats near where he sleeps, this may help stop his desire to scratch in other inappropriate places.

Hope you find a combination of things that work - and thank you for wanting to try!

Click to expand...