How do you get a kitten to stop clawing couches, doors, etc?

Question

My husband and I have a 5 month old kitten, my Sinatra, who claws at everything except the two awesome scratch toys we've gotten him.

We've put catnip on there to entice him... nothing.

We play on it with him.... nothing.

And at night, we do not sleep with the cat in the room. When he is in the room, he claws and pounces on us when we move slightly and it wakes us up, so we've decided not to let the cat sleep with us. We can't even keep him in the room because no matter how many times we put him in his bad and off ours, he is right back in the bed again... hence, why we keep him outside the bedroom.

I do not want him in our bedroom. During the day the door is closed and at night we sleep in there while he has everything he needs in the rest of the house... his food, water, toys, litter box, scratch pads, etc.

My question is how do you get a cat to stop clawing up your furniture and doors?

I know there is a spray to use, but does anyone know of anything that would help and actually works?




>>Please refrain from just telling me to let him sleep with us, my husband is terribly allergic to cats and although he loves our Sinatra I refuse to let the cat make my husband sick every morning and we refuse to be pounced on and clawed all night long.

Answer 1

As far as the allergies go... keeping him 100% out of the bed room is the best way to go. Otherwise I was going to guess that you both work & he is sleeping all day, waiting/expecting for you to play w/ him all night.



REPELLENTS - most cats are offended by citrus odors, you could try a lemon oil or orange oil product along the bottoms of doors & hard wood items he keeps scratching.



As far as furniture & everything... cats are pretty smart, you can yell, scream, punish - they will simply wait until you are not there & do it anyway. Shaking a tin can full of pennies makes a great attention getter, but they still associate it w/ you.



Get yourself a squirt bottle or squirt gun w/ LONG range - NEVER let the cat see it. Next time he scratches on something he is not supposed to... shout NO & give him a swat in the butt. This has expressed YOUR displeasure. Then wait to hear him scatching while you are in another room... sneak up, squirt him & hide quick. Now it is no longer a case of getting swatted because YOU caught him. It is a case of cause & effect... he scratched & got squirted - you were not there.



The way my vet trains new cats to stay away from the door is she waits untill they are sitting right in front of it & they goes over & beats on the door real hard w/ a rolled up newspaper yelling BAD DOOR. Cats don't know what the door did, but they sure keep their distance from then on & she never has to worry re: one making a bolt for it when a client comes in or out.



As far as using what you DID purchase, different cats like different items. Some are happy w/ cardboard scratchpads. Some like carpeted trees, some like sisial (sp?) - they are actually cleaning their claws (they peel as they grow). Try one of the cheap cardboard ones... very few cats can resist them. I carry just the round refills in my suitcase when traveling w/ my cats, first thing they do when they get in their tent at the hotel is scratch it up.

Answer 2

There are a couple of things you can do to retrain the kitten, and a couple of things you can do to retrain yourself. Let me start with the kitten. At 5 months, the kitten is still a baby and needs a lot of love and attention. Cats being nocturnal animals, of course want your attention at night. Needless to say, since we humans sleep at night, there's a conflict. What you can do to minimize the fooling around is to make sure the kitten gets a lot of exercise in the daytime. Self-amusing toys are a great investment.

Let me now get to the scratching . What I always do when I get a kitten is to confine him/her to a small room like the bathroom) with her bathroom, food, scratching post and water. Demonstrate to her how the scratching post or pad is used (I use rubber tiles) by taking her paws and running them over the post in a scratching motion. Leave him there for the day, but be sure to check on him every half hour or so. The next day, you can let him out into the kitchen, and only the kitchen. Observe his behavior . If he goes for anything else, just pick him up and put him back on the scratching post saying 'Here' not loudly, but firmly. The general rule is never to yell at a cat (or any animal for that matter, including human children), and never hit him. All they learn from violence and screaming is the you are someone to be feared. They will simply loose trust and the sitation will deteriorate. The spray bottle which is basically an aversion technique is also not desirable. Positive reinforcement is the best. If after about two days he has demonstrated that he is a good boy, you can let him out to other parts of the house. You will however need something for him to scratch on in every room. A cat does not say, 'Hey I gotta scratch, Now where is that scratching post?" When the urge strikes, he scratches, so have rubber tiles strewn around in every room. You might also get some nail clippers to clip just the very tips of his claws so that they aren't so sharp. You have to do it very gently otherwise the cat will be scared and you'll have a lot of difficulty.

When we adopt an animal, we must remember that we become a mama to that animal. We therefore must also become a lot more flexible and learn to compromise. They grow up so fast and we have them for such a short ttime, so perhaps we should enjoy them while we can.

Answer 3

This web site has lots of helpful information on how to prevent your kitten from scratching furniture, wallpaper and doors.



http://www.celiahaddon.co.uk/pet%20problems/cats/frameset.html



Generally cat's won't scratch in areas where they chin rub and Feliway mimics that smell. You can protect areas from unwanted scratching by spraying once a day for 21 days with Feliway.



Only around a third of all cats respond to catnip, and it's said that cats under the age of 6 months have no reaction to it at all. Try trailing toys or pieces of string over the scratch posts so that he has to grab for them. Once he's sunk his claws in a couple of times, he should get the hint that it feels good to scratch there.

Answer 4

You should spray him with water every time he does it or buy a scratching post. You could also just give him cat treats when he doesn't scratch!



Hope this helps!!!

Answer 5

buy a scratching post

or buy a little spray bootttle and fill it with water

everytime it disobeys you squrit it,