my cat is eating my furniture... HELP!

I have cats who suddenly, after months of walking by the same object, decide one day that instead of it being a harmless object it's actually a new toy. I've had L.S. for 6 months, and two days ago he found the phone cord for the first time and bit clean through it. Or Merlin suddenly deciding the fox beenie baby on top my monitor is "the thing" to try and play with. I've had him for almost a year, and he just started this a few weeks ago! I'm assuming that the cats are getting bored and have cabin fever since I haven't been able to open any windows for them to lay in.

Um, they make spray deterants that you can buy at pet stores. I have no clue if they'd ruin a couch or not, so you'd want to read labels and test it somewhere where it can't be seen if it's ruined. I just bought a bottle of Bitter Apple and sprayed the phone cord down and I haven't seen L.S. go near it yet, so I don't know if it worked. I know there are a couple other brands out there. I found them mixed in with the stain and odor removers in the dog section.

Hope this can help!

If it is a new behavior you have to ask yourself why it is starting all of a sudden? The questions to ask are:

Is the cat in pain or ill? Only a vet will be able to determine that
Has the environment changed in any way for this cat?
What am I doing differently with this cat now that I didn't do before?

Don't blame the furniture or the cat, just try and figure out what is upsetting the cat, or making him aggressive with the furniture and go from there-

One of my cats thinks that the bottom of the sofa is a great toy as well and will throw himself on the floor then try to wrestle and bite the bottom and along the sides of the arms. It is a big, stuffed-type sofa so I can appreciate his attraction even though I don't like it.

I looked at sticky paws - but it wouldn't stay on the fabric and just kept being pulled off. I then invested in a product that had clear heavy plastic sheets that you attached to the furniture - great idea, but incredibly expensive. What I did is go to a fabric store and purchase several yards of clear heavy plastic (it is in the upholstery section), then cut it to the correct size to fit along the bottom of the sofa overlapping underneath and coming up about 9 inches. I used a stapling gun where there was wood underneath to fasten the plastic and straight pins where there was just stuffing. It is transparent so you don't see it unless you are really looking and it works - the cat can't bite, attack or scratch that part of the sofa anymore. I was also able to buy the several yards for less than the one small piece of plastic in the prepared kit cost.

Kathryn

i dont know if this will work but on a program i saw it said rub a lemon scented soap on your furniture. might just make your sofa soapy though

Hrm funny the sticky paws was mentioned. I *almost* bought some of that to keep Hammie from using the back of my sofa as his scratching post. He's pretty much destroyed the thing so I need to cover it up anyway.

So this morning I went and bought a staple gun. I'm going to take some carpet remnants and staple them to that area he's scratched; voila! A new scratching post.

Of course now that it's no longer furniture but a cattoy, he'll lost interest... tee hee hee...

I have only experienced dogs chewing furniture out of the blue (older dogs that never did it in their lives). In both cases, because of the sudden behavioral change, we brought them to the vets and found there was an underlying illness.

I think that Hissy said it best - something has triggered the change in behavior. Could be separation anxiety from you being away more, or could be some other illness. Find the root cause and treat that. Simple deterrants won't necessarily work - it may only redirect to something else.

instead if buying all these special cat items, you could try using double sided tape on the areas he likes to play with. The plastic lemons with lemon juice are great to use when getting cats away from areas. They hate the smell, my cat does anyway. Put one or two tiny drops on your sofa. It has worked for me.

Hope this helps you and good luck