QUESTION: I recently adopted a mother cat and her four-month-old kitten. They are both scratching the furniture and the kitten is climbing up everything! Why do cats do this, and what can I do about it?
ANSWER: Glad you asked! We kitties want you to know that we NEED to scratch! When we wake up from a nap, the first thing we do is look for a tall, sturdy, rough-textured spot on which to stretch up to our full height, extend our claws and have a wonderful stretch and scratch. Wow, that feels good! When our outside kitty friends need to scratch, there are LOTS of great places all around – trees!
At the shelter, we cats find plenty of tree substitutes. We have tall cat trees and scratching posts, all nice and sturdy with a rough surface of wood, bark, or sisal rope (my personal favorite) to scratch on. People often donate items to the shelter that their cats don’t use—carpeted cat condos, scratch pads that hang from a door knob, and especially short little carpeted kitten posts. When we try to lean up against these, they move, wobble, and sometimes even fall over. This annoys us! They call these scratching posts? Shame, shame…
It sounds like your kitties looked for their tree substitute and found the only thing meeting their requirements were (1) tall, (2) sturdy, and (3) rough-textured, i.e., your furniture. Since most cats are angels like me, they don’t deliberately want to cause damage. They would be more than happy to use SOMETHING OF THEIR OWN that is even more to their liking than upholstered furniture, which is a bit too soft for our taste. The secret is to isolate your kitties in a small room with their new post (Cat Angel Network sells a GREAT one for $35).
The room should have nothing else a cat would be tempted to scratch (a bathroom is ideal), and the post should be LOADED WITH CATNIP! Have a ten minute play session at the post every day, using a fishing pole type toy to get your cats to touch the surface of the post. We big guys are attracted to the catnip while the little kittens like the play method (I myself liked to climb up the post after the “Cat Dancer” toy in my younger days).
After you’ve seen both your cats use the post several times over 2-3 days, move the post to a room where your cats had been scratching before, covering the previously scratched areas temporarily with a sheet or double stick tape (sold as a product called “Sticky Paws”). You can remove the sheet or tape after they are consistently using the post in its new spot.
As far as your four-month-old is concerned, kittens climb a lot. At that age we are too little to jump where we want to go, so we tend to climb up furniture or even our owners’ pant legs! “This, too, shall pass.” Starting around six months of age, kittens begin to be big enough to JUMP to their desired locations and the climbing behavior gradually disappears. Get your kitten and his mom used to nail clipping as soon as possible. This prevents climbing damage and minimizes discomfort caused by overgrown nails. Our cat-loving friends at Cat Angel Network are experts at nail clipping and offer their services FREE at the Pottstown and Downingtown PetSmart stores on weekends.
I am told that I live up to my name of “Angel” during my monthly manicure sessions, and I’m sure your kitties will learn to enjoy it, too!
