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Old May 21st, 2016, 02:43 PM
t3ch t3ch is offline
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Cat won't stop scratching i'm about to get him declawed

So i've had my lovely male all black cat for 2 years now. He's the best cat i've ever encountered he has such a kind nature, bit cuddler chatty little guy and he would never dare to scratch anyone, everyone is his friend, including our 3 years old white cat we got a year ago they are really getting along well, not the big problem is since the day we adopted him he's been driving us insane with the scratching, he scratched everywhere BUT on one of our 2 scratching post (1 per floor). Carpet, furnitures, etc he's destroyed most of our goods and we just can't take it anymore. Our white cat went right away on the 2 scratching post and never touched anything else, she's happy scratching them she even twitch her tail she's so cute, while our black one used to scratch the post maybe a day a month... now he doesn't even touch them anymore.

We've tried to spray him when he scratches where he shouldn't, we tried to put cat deterrent and he only got smart about it, he doesn't scratch close to us anymore he just goes far or when we sleep.
Any suggestions before I get him declawed? I'd rather now but at this point it's either this or we get rid of him.
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Old May 21st, 2016, 05:33 PM
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Loki Love Loki Love is offline
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He's too old at this point to declaw - declawing at any point is cruel and unnecessary, but to consider doing it at this age - even worse.

Have you tried soft paws? How often do you cut his nails and keep them short?
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Old May 21st, 2016, 06:34 PM
Barkingdog Barkingdog is offline
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That is NO way to reward your 'best cat'! You can covered for furniture.
this might become illegal in New York a law is trying to be pass to stop declawing b/c it cruel and inhumane.




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Old May 21st, 2016, 10:21 PM
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Reg Reg is offline
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hello t3ch:

Welcome to the forum.

Sorry to hear about the problems you're having with your little guy destroying your furniture.
I have a multi cat household and from time to time, one of them might take a swipe at some of the furniture. Something I think you're lacking is plenty of scratching posts and apparatus.
2 scratching posts is definitely not enough. We live in a very small bungalow with 3 cats and they have 5 scratching devices on the main floor. One post is 4 feet tall made of sisel - spelling - rope, which I like. The other is a cat tree
6 feet tall with a slumber house on top, carpet covered - cats like to climb it but not scratch on it. They have 2 corrugated cardboard scratchers that they like - one is a turbo scratcher with a ball in it that they play with, and one is a flat board covered in sisel rope.
I would advise that you get some more scratching things. It appears that the problem could be territorial, causing the little lad to go after the furniture rather than the posts.
Something else that I have found very handy in stopping marking by scratching is Feliway phermone spray. It can be bought at a pet store. I prefer the product from the vet's office cause it's a little stronger.
A couple of light sprays on the areas where the scratching is happening, seems to work quite well for me. I find a squirt bottle of little or no value other than to upset the cat.
Something else I found that also works is enzyme cleaner - non scented type applied to leatherette, kitchen chairs and it stopped one of our cats from ripping it up.
Here are some articles that might help shed some light

http://www.pets.ca/cats/tips/tip-27-...atching-posts/

http://www.littlebigcat.com/article-index-2/

Scroll down in Little big cats to "declawing alternatives". Dr. Jean Hofve has a list of things in that article that might help to alleviate your dilemna of cat scratching your furniture. She also has some good articles on declawing as well.
Hopefully you can find some answers here so you do not have to go the declawing route, especially at his age.

As an afterthought. I have found that rubbing a little catnip into the scratching post and corrugated scratchers, helps to attract the crew especially when the posts are new.
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Last edited by Reg; May 21st, 2016 at 10:55 PM. Reason: afterthought
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Old May 22nd, 2016, 09:36 AM
t3ch t3ch is offline
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Hi again everyone,
I am sorry this was misunderstood: I do now want to get my cat declawed but I don't know what other options I have.
To reply to your question we trim our cat's nails about once a week. We tried the soft paws on him but that didn't go well, between him moving like a fish while the 2 of us wrestle with him to put them on and him figuring out really quick that if he pulls hard enough to get pieces of his claws out the soft paws fall he decided he'd rather damage his claws than have these on so that failed.
For the amount of scratching post maybe we need more but what puzzles me is he never used any, he stuck his claw in one maybe once a month and then scratched the carpet right beside it, same with our other scratch post he'd rather scratch the couch that is right beside the other post, and that was way before we even had our second cat. We tried the fellaway (feromones) as suggested in the article about a year ago and that didn't net any results. Covering all the furniture isn't really an option, we love our cats but we can't start to live around them, our house was built 2 years ago and the carpet is already wrecked.

Thanks a lot for your replies, I will be trying the catnip on the posts hopefully it will attract him to scratch them
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Old May 22nd, 2016, 12:04 PM
Barkingdog Barkingdog is offline
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http://www.humanesociety.org/animals...declawing.html

I have heard of cats biting after they're declawed , your prefect cat may no longer be that prefect cat ! I saw a cat that a shelter and a sign said he been declawed and neutered then the sign said 'Be careful he bite ! " The cat his own cut of his claws and balls then gave him way . My b/f said 'No wonder he bite!"
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  #7  
Old May 22nd, 2016, 12:07 PM
t3ch t3ch is offline
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@Barkingdog Like mentioned this is my absolute last resort I am not going that route yet
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Old May 22nd, 2016, 06:23 PM
Longblades Longblades is offline
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Cats like different things in their scratching posts. Some like vertical, some like horizontal. Some like carpet wrong side up, some like it right side up, or cardboard or a piece of cedar fence post. I try to watch how they do sharpen, vertical or horizontal, and then put the post I want them to use beside the place they do use that I don't want them to. I encourage them to play on it with string or a stick, I rub some catnip on it. After they use it I move it to a place I want it. Usually this works. The piece of cedar fence post is soft and they seem to like to dig into in and I have to vacuum up bits of what they shred off, small price to pay.
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Old May 22nd, 2016, 09:50 PM
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Reg Reg is offline
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hello again:

LB has made some good suggestions regarding the use of wood.

It has been years since I've had a cat that preferred wood to scratch on, but it worked well.

It's a case of different textures of materials to match their preference.

Something I thought of - if you're still having problems after having tried some of the above mentioned posts - maybe it might be an idea to contact your vet or vet tech and describe your dilemna and see what they suggest. Maybe they might know a good feline behaviorist that you can contact by phone and discuss your situation and get their feedback.

Please keep us informed. Something like this could happen to any of us.
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Old May 23rd, 2016, 02:13 PM
t3ch t3ch is offline
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Thanks! I'll be trying the catnip in the next days, my girlfriend is saying she tried already but it's worth another shoot.
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