Image by Jay Woodworth via Flickr

Cats naturally want to scratch and to sharpen their claws whenever they can. Unfortunately, they often use your good furniture to sharpen their claws on. Cats also scratch to mark their territory. It is in your best interest to quickly break your cat of the habit of scratching in inappropriate places before it becomes a problem. There are several ways to prevent your cat from scratching inappropriately.

The first thing you should do is to trim your cat’s claws regularly; this will help to minimize the damage his scratching can do. Claws should be trimmed every two to six weeks. This is also helpful in preventing the cat from accidentally scratching you when you pick him up or play with him.

Sometimes, investing in a scratching post will stop your cat from scratching the furniture. Cat scratching posts come in many forms, they range from inexpensive flat cardboard to wall-mounted rope to extravagant “kitty condos.” This gives your cat a natural outlet for his scratching. To get the cat to use the scratching post you can sprinkle cat nip around it. Giving treats when your cat uses the proper scratching post can also help in getting him get used to using it regularly.

Image via Wikipedia

Declawing used to be the first step that many cat owners turned to in order to stop their cat’s from scratching the furniture. It has mostly gone out of favor nowadays. During declawing, a cat’s front claws are removed. Many have compared it to a human’s fingers being amputated at the knuckles. Still, many do resort to declawing their cats. A more humane alternative to declawing is a product like Soft Claws which are vinyl caps which cover the claws, preventing the cat from causing damage when he scratches.

If none of these work, there are commercial products like Feliway that you can spray on furniture that are supposed to prevent a cat from scratching.

Hopefully, one of the above mentioned methods will work for you and scratches on your table legs, bookcases and couches will become a thing of the past.