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I keep my cat's claws trimmed and I keep plenty of scratchers around the furniture. She still rarely scratches the sofa when she walks by but I don't see any damage. Please don't declaw your cat. It is a painful surgery. They need their claws for a good stretch and defending themselves.
Don't declaw your cat, for if it accidentally gets out it will have no way of properly defending itself. If you keep their claws trimmed, you provide them with something to scratch on, and if they still scratch you can try soft claws:
I used these ONCE and my one cat that clawed stopped
other than him, they claw but never do major damage to furniture and the only problem I had was when he clawed ottoman. none of my other furniture has any damage....and I have 3 cats....
I have large pieces of cat furniture, but to be honest my cats do leave holes in my other stuff. But my furniture can be replaced, my cats can't. My cats do tend to scratch on the things they are supposed to (cat trees, cardboard scratchers), but like children, they are not perfect and sometimes get the couch or chair.
Please don't declaw, it isn't as easy as just removing the claw, the whole first digit of the paw is removed.
Agreed ! There are also claw covers that are available that can be used for kitties who scratch. They are similar to press on nails, and require glue to hold them in place. From what I've been told they last 4-6 weeks.
When I'd do laundry and leave the plastic clothes basket out on the floor, my cat would jump in it and claw until her heart was content. It wasn't until after she clawed at one of my chairs that it dawned on me to leave the basket out for her 24/7. It's a great and inexpensive scratching post and she hasn't touched my furniture since. She also likes to play with her toys in it. We call it her playpen!!
Luckily, neither our kitten or puppy ever got to be destructive. The cat uses her scratching post and will never scratch furniture. We never even had to use any deterrant to keep her from scratching. She's just more interested in the scratching post.
We have 2 cats. They pretty much total destroyed an ottoman we had and so that became their piece of furniture. They only claw that now (and their scratching posts) because when they claw on anything else, we yell really loud and spray them with water. (Now we only have to hold the spray bottle and they run!). They have learned what is OK to scratch and what is not!
I don't want to start a fight and I'm not going to get into an argument, so I'll just express my views and of course, anyone else is free to do the same, but I'm not going to argue back and forth.
I feel that declawing a cat is worse than removing a person's fingernails--it's an amputation of the last joint, and I think it's cruel. With my cat, everything in the house (including me) belongs to her, and she is more important to me than any piece of furniture. So if she were to claw something (which it happens she doesn't), I'd use some psychological conditioning, but not declawing.
It happens that I'm a musician and I live out of suitcases, anyway; furniture is really not on my list, though I have tons and tons of books, instruments, computer and electronic equipment, etc. But if I were to buy a sofa (I have one padded chair), I don't think I'd care. If she tore it up, it gets torn up, that's all. Having love in my life is more important than a stupid piece of furniture.
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