MetaChat - I want muddgirl to rant about declawing

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23 February 2007

I want muddgirl to rant about declawing I have a 12-year old furrpurrball who in the past years decided that leather couches are his scratching posts, and I nearly bough the seating group linked.→[More:] Now, I can't get a nice antique group if he still has the habit, so I'm trying all sorts of tricks to get him to leave the furniture alone! Lemon peels, his own scratching post and other old tricks aren't helping. How do I make him kick the habit without declawing? I did see some new 'automatic' "cat off" spray that reacts to a cat passing it which might be worth a shot but I also have that toddler to keep track of.. Anyone have good ideas? :)

post by: dabitch at: 19:56 | 11 comments

Did you already try package tape put on sticky side out? Worked for my mom. Also, it worked for the raccoons that were digging out my potted plants.

posted by small_ruminant 23 February | 20:08

Yeah that just made my house looks like crud, but it didn't stop him. :/

posted by dabitch 23 February | 20:13

(btw, declawing isn't really an option. It's actually illegal here!)

posted by dabitch 23 February | 20:13

If you can tape balloons to the I-wanty-scratchy-here places, and then make sure the cat pops one, that'll usually do the trick.

posted by WolfDaddy 23 February | 20:18

oooh, fear - a great motivator. I'll try that!

posted by dabitch 23 February | 20:20

I've heard that Feliway works.

posted by cmonkey 23 February | 20:38

What about those little caps you can put on their nails? They come in purple!

posted by Specklet 23 February | 22:27

I agree, send the cat off for a manicure./
It's only right.

posted by alicesshoe 24 February | 01:04

dabitch - those are simply lovely! Does your cat have a nice big scratching-post/climbing/hanging tree to play on? My dad made one by taking a post and wrapping it with some thick rope, then attaching a little platform covered in carpet, but I think you can buy similar ones in stores. It's much more satisfying for the cat to dig his claws into the rope than into furniture.

However, with leather, the cat probably wants to mark it with its smell - I'm betting leather has a definite "animal" smell for cats. Someone online suggested covering the chair with a citrus smell. I can verify that my cat hates strong orange smells.

posted by muddgirl 24 February | 11:00

Aye, aren't they muddgirl? 'm kicking myself for loosing that bid, it was still a steal at that price!

Anyway, my cat hates scratching posts of all kinds - even brought in a real chunk of a tree for him once and he couldn't care less. However, he also hates citrus smells as he runs away to moment I pick up an orange to peel.. So there's an idea! Rub the leather couches with lemon oil or something!

And sine he loves leather so much, I'll just do what your dad did and build him his own leather scratching post. It might be the leather smell, it might just be the texture. I'll build him one now and maybe in the future I'll find my dream leather couches again. :)

posted by dabitch 24 February | 15:19

Also, never heard of Feliway that cmonkey suggested, will try that as well. Thanks everyone!

posted by dabitch 24 February | 15:20

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