Stop Your Cat From Scratching Furniture With These Science-Backed Strategies

Scientists are moving hard to lick 1 of life’s top problems: a location feline with a atrocious wont of tearing up the furniture.

In a caller survey Wednesday, researchers person identified respective cardinal factors that look to foretell unwanted feline scratching. These see having young kids successful the house, the benignant of playtime they get, and their wide level of stress. At slightest immoderate of these aspects tin beryllium tweaked to support your cat’s clawing successful check, the scientists say.

The survey was conducted by veterinary scientists from Turkey, Portugal, and France; it was besides funded by the French carnal wellness institution Ceva Santé Animale. The squad had implicit 1,200 feline owners successful France capable retired an online survey, which included questions astir their cat’s location environment, regular routine, and scratching behaviors.

Overall, the squad recovered that immoderate cats were people much prone to scratching, specified arsenic felines that were described arsenic “aggressive” oregon “disruptive” by their owners. But determination were different extracurricular components linked to unwanted feline scratching, peculiarly having kids astatine home, playing with the feline for agelong periods of time, and mostly being much progressive astatine night.

Cheddar ‘Chiz’ Cara, noted feline and non-problematic scratcher.Photo: Ed Cara

“It underscores the multifaceted quality of undesirable scratching behaviour and emphasizes the value of comprehensively knowing some the idiosyncratic characteristics of the feline and its situation to efficaciously code this behavior,” the researchers wrote astir their findings, published Wednesday successful Frontiers successful Veterinary Science.

Obviously, having young kids oregon a grouchier feline aren’t things that owners tin alteration connected a whim. But immoderate things identified by the squad constituent to accent arsenic a large outer origin for feline scratching that tin beryllium amended managed. Too overmuch playtime astatine once, for example, tin go overly stimulating for a cat. Added accent could besides explicate wherefore having kids astir is linked to feline scratching arsenic well, though the scientists accidental much probe is needed to cognize for certain.

So uncovering ways to trim your cat’s accent should past assistance chopped down connected their unwanted scratching, they say. This tin see making definite your feline has plentifulness of nooks and crannies to unbend successful without being disturbed, arsenic good arsenic precocious spots from which they tin perch and observe their kingdom. You mightiness privation to besides abstraction retired your playtime into abbreviated bursts of enactment that much mimic earthy hunting behavior. And from the survey data, the squad recovered that leaving retired scratching posts successful places that cats sojourn often seemed to assistance support them from clawing different much precious furniture.

“Our findings tin assistance caregivers negociate and redirect scratching to due materials, which could assistance foster a much harmonious surviving situation for some cats and their caregivers,” said pb writer Yasemin Salgirli Demi̇rbas, a veterinary researcher astatine Ankara University, successful a statement from Frontiers, publishers of the journal.

Implementing these findings could support your favourite possessions. Just don’t fto your feline drawback you speechmaking this—unless you’re acceptable to explicate wherefore their favourite sofa is abruptly off-limits.