Cats & furniture

In April we fostered a pregnant feral cat who gave birth to 8 kittens shortly after.  We are new to the cat world, it was quite an experience.  We got them through a bout of ringworm & are now down to 3 kittens that we plan to keep.  Needless to say 8 kittens with run of the house destroyed a lot of furniture including our couch & we will have to replace it. 

The kittens will be spay/neutered in two weeks & we have been thinking of declawing at the same time.  I've been told that scratching poles in every room & a spray bottle will solve my furniture problem & declawing isn't necessary.  Can they be trained, even after five months of free access to the furniture?  When it comes time to replace the couch what is better with cats, leather or cloth.  Leather is great with dogs but how does it stand up to claws. 

Leather will show every single hole from a claw. You can train them but it takes patience. Everytime one starts to sharpen their claws on the furniture you pick them up and put them on the tree. It takes a little while but it should eventually work. Please don't de-claw, it's cruel. It's basically like you taking your fingers off at the last joint. I personally know people who have de-clawed and the cat has been fine but it is very cruel. There's also all kinds of deterrents out on the market for things like that, water in a squirt bottle doesn't work. You need something that's going to make them uncomfortable if they do it so they don't WANT to do it.

We have a leather couch that we got before we had a cat too. It absolutely shows every claw mark. Our next furniture will not be leather. Even though we have trained her not to use it as a scratching post ( quickly and easily with double sided tape, annoying for us for a while, but worth it) there are still claw marks from when she gets the crazies and runs around and tries to stop or jump. I can hardly ask her not to jump or stop, much less want to do anything about the crazies, so the damage, although much less, is continuing. She is just about 3.
I have to admit I would also love to hear what types of furniture or fabrics the experts have had good success with to help us determine what our next major purchase should be made of.

The best investment I have made in terms of the cats not scratching furniture is the "SmartCat Ultimate Scratching Post."

I ordered 3 from Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000634MH8/?tag=&tag=thecatsite

YES, your kittens can absolutely be trained to use these instead of the furniture. I also agree about leather. Even simply jumping on the couch could cause a claw hole. Our furniture is made out of microfiber. It has held up very well against the 30+ cats that have come through the house over the last 3+ years (I work with a rescue group.)

Also, are you trimming the kittens' nails? You can do this as frequently as every 1-2 weeks to keep the nails blunt, so less damage if there is a scratching accident. There is also a product called "Soft Paws" that is plastic nail caps that are placed on the ends of the clipped claws using glue. This might be a good tool to use while you are training the kittens.
(Note: I have never used this product myself. The caps are suppose to fall off after a period of time. You need to monitor that they DO in fact fall off as they can sometimes stay on and grown into the paw pad.)

I am personally VERY opposed to declawing. It is an extremely painful operation for the cat and certainly doesn't come without many risks including long-term pain, claw regrowth complications and behavior issues (biting, urinating outside the litter box, chronic UTIs/cystitis from stress.)

My furniture still looks brand new thanks to clear contact paper added to the ends where cats love to scratch up.

Sticky side out, attach with GOOD double sided tape.

It doesn't even show!

Catwoman707, great idea using the contact paper! I'll have to keep that in mind for future reference.

I don't know what the opinion around here is on soft paws but we use them for our 7 month old cat and they work like a charm. He doesn't even notice they are on.

Emmilyy said:

I don't know what the opinion around here is on soft paws but we use them for our 7 month old cat and they work like a charm. He doesn't even notice they are on.

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I used them once for a cat, they do work great but they are a bit of a pain initially to get on if you have a fidgety cat, and I also would have to replace one here and there, maybe once every couple days.

Otherwise they do what they say that's for sure!

You also need to have cat's nails trimmed nicely before applying.

Declawing can also lead to cats peeing and pooing outside the litter box. This in my opinion is a much worse behaviour problem than scratching. If you supply scratch posts in areas close to the furniture and places were you hang out they will be less likely to scratch your furniture. I would do your training on the already damaged furniture. Try buying one of those compressed air machines online. They activate even when you are not at home so the message is more consistent than a spray bottle. Honestly though you should find other homes for the kittens as obviously you are a cruel owner that cares more about furniture than the cats.

TCS is an anti-declawing site. Here are some articles on why declawing is never a good idea:

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/why-cats-should-not-be-declawed

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/a-personal-look-at-declawing

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/declawing-and-alternatives

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/declawing-more-than-just-a-manicure

In my experience getting leather like furniture works plus it is cheaper. I have had heavier leather and while it will show claw marks there will not be a gaping hole anywhere after 2 years as with cloth. When it was time to replace the leather couches because the seams were ripping I opted to just get nice looking simulated leather and it's actually stronger than the leather. Declawing is essentially saying my furniture is worth more than my cat. If that's the case don't get a cat!!! The cheaper furniture was my compromise with my cats. Unfortunately once you got a cat that's a furniture scratcher it's hard to get them to completely stop. Cardboard scratchers taped together to be about 3 ft long has worked best for me. I buy the xl size and tape 4 together.