Leather Sofa

I have been trying to pursuade Pete that we need a new sofa and that a leather one would be just the job.

But he says that the cats will scratch it the same as they do our current one which has a material cover. I am having a devil of a job trying to convince him that my little sweeties are less likely to have a go at leather.

So i thought i would launch a poll to see how many TCS members have leather and if your cats leave it alone or have a quick sharpening when you are not looking

If the evidence looks good i may be on my way to finally getting a new sofa, if not, then well....i guess i will have to put up with the old one a bit longer

We have leather furniture in our living room and have never had any problems at all. In our family room we have a material cover couch and I have caught them scratching on it a few times.

I think the main thing is to have plenty of areas where the cats can scratch. We have two very large cat trees with Sisal Rope for them to play on and strach, so we have never really had any problems.

I don't have any leather furniture in the house other than my bar stools but I am an upholsterer and can tell you that I have covered many pieces in vinyl and leather for people that want to prevent their cats from clawing at the furniture. Kitty has nothing to grab so it doesn't appeal to them. If your cat is scratching furniture already, they might still attempt to scratch the leather a few times before they realize its not that great for gripping and can leave marks in it. If you go that route I would suggest you do some research on the types of leather available, how it wears etc...before you commit to something. Alot of the cheaper leather furniture out there is bycast leather which is the bottom part of the leather coated with a plastic finish to make if look like top-grain or full-grain leather. It will not wear near as well as good quality leather.
More important than the leather furniture is that the cats have something else to use for scratching. If they don't, that might be the reason that they use the couch. I would recommend getting a cat tree or two if you haven't already, and train them on that.

Never had a cat that was the least bit interested in leather or vinyl after the first investigation of it.

The texture is not to their liking at all.

well ive got a vynal suite and my cats have not clawed it once cause i think that they dont like it

Kaylee distroyed my first pair of Leather boots at the end of last year but she hasnt done it since...

Leather is the way to go if you have cats - it's just not fun to scratch. You'll get an occasional accidental scratch from kitties running across the back, etc., but they don't actually sharpen their claws on leather.
Tip: If you have the room, keep the old sofa in a bedroom, hall, etc, as a scratching opportunity. When people tell me they're getting new furniture, I'll beg an upholstered chair off them, and put it in the study for Jamie to use. He has a cat tree, scratching post, scratching mats, etc., but he really does enjoy shredding "his" chair(s).

I've voted scratch because when i just had Rosie thats exactly what she did.

But since Sophie came along she's never touched it and neither has Sophie so i put it down to Rosie being bored when she was an only "child".

My cats have never attempted to scratch our leather furniture. Although... my husband gets a bit irritated at the scratch marks caused (mostly by the dog I think) by their nails when they take off or jump on quickly. I'm sure that can depend on the quality of leather you have and/or color.

I guess we're the different ones.

B has a leather couch and loveseat and its covered with tiny claw marks. I guess it depends on you, your cat. If you can keep up with the regular clippings and your cat doesn't dig their hind feet into it, etc, then you're good to go with leather.
Ours use their hind legs too mcuh so our leather couches look like crap when you sit in them.

I am not sure, but if all the furniture were leather, I would say the kitties would probably try them out. Right now, they don't touch the leather recliner because they're too busy picking on the suedelike sofa.

I voted scratch because when I was growing up, our cats used the leather recliner as a scratching post. The arms were shreaded.

Thanks for all the replies.

Our moggies do have a scratch post already but Izzy prefers the sofa

Blueyes: thanks for the info i will certainly look into the quality of leather used by the manufacturers before choosing one

From reading the posts i guess what i will have to do when replacing our old sofa is to buy the terrible trio a bigger, hopefully more interesting than the leather, kitty condo and hope for the best

I hoped that my mogs would hate the feel of the leather and leave it alone, at least that is what i am trying to persuade hubby

Originally Posted by VampireCat

I hoped that my mogs would hate the feel of the leather and leave it alone, at least that is what i am trying to persuade hubby

Click to expand...

Remember, you need to plant the seed and keep it growing!

I'm sure Hubby will give in in no time, if not only to keep you quiet about it!