Are your cats destructive?

We want to get a cat but everyone is telling us its the worse thing to do. We have expensive leather furtniture and they said even if the front is declawed(we would get a cat already declawed) that the hind legs still do damage. Has this been your experience?

Re: Are your cats destructive?

i have had cats all my life and they are only destructive if u let them be.. none of my cats now or before are declawed and they did no damage... if they went to scratch something we would either yell make a loud noice or spray them with a water gun and after a few times they wont do it

Re: Are your cats destructive?

If you supply them with enough scratching posts and make sure they know where they shouldn't scratch, you should be fine. We would squirt Anabelle with a squirt bottle if she scratched the couches, so now she just scratches her posts!

I recommend AGAINST having a cat declawed. It is very painful, and can reallyl traumatize a cat

Link re: Declawing

You can file down their nails too. They are very thin so pretty easy to trim if your cat is cooperative.

Message edited 8/27/2008 10:14:58 AM.

Re: Are your cats destructive?

cats scratch with their front paws, so if the cat is already declawed there won't be damage.

I have two cats with claws. I trim their claws myself. As long as I keep up on that, the scratching around the house is slim to none.

Like previous posters said they need to learn from you where is ok to scratch and where isnt.




Good Luck!

Re: Are your cats destructive?

My cats have never scratched on furniture. They only use the scratching posts. If you train them to scratch where you want them to, you won't have a problem.

Re: Are your cats destructive?

we have leather couches and 1 cat and 1 dog

as far as the cat.....he was declawed and he rubs aka he thinks he is scratching but it doesnt do anything....as for back claws the only thing is if he is running like a wildman he can cut the couch HOWEVER if u can trim his back claws you will be fine that is what we do and have no problems with our lil guy

Re: Are your cats destructive?

If you get a cat that is already declawed--then they probably will not scratch on the furniture. My cat is declawed and he's never once tried to use his back claws to scratch our furniture. He still has the instinct to "scratch" with his front paws....because he used to scratch the crap out of my parent's furniture. But it does nothing now.

Re: Are your cats destructive?

It's a matter of training.
You have to be vigilant in the beginning to avoid them forming bad habits.

We use double sided tape on the furniture, they also have a scratch stop spray but I'm not sure how well that works.

We got her used to scratching only on her sisal box- when a cat scratches they release oils and scents from their claws- so they tend to always scratch in the same place since that is where the scent is.
So if you can get them used to scratching on a post or a scratching box they usually won't go for the furniture.

It's honestly not as bad as people make it out to be.
Our house is very nice too and save the occasional mishap- which can happen with any pet or even children for that matter- everything is fine...

Re: Are your cats destructive?

Re: Are your cats destructive?

i have 2 cats that are NOT declawed. as mentioned in an earlier post, i also do not recommend it. if you stay on top of trimming and provide scratch posts/pads there is no reason for it. i have a leather sofa and even leather on my dining room chairs and have not had any issues. as a back-up, just make sure you get the warranties on the furniture. they cover against any scratches.

Re: Are your cats destructive?

My cat is declawed and for the past 10 years we had her she had never scratched anything up with her back claws. It also depends on how your train and raise it too. Train it to scratch a scratching post instead. You just have to watch them getting into things more than scratching.

Re: Are your cats destructive?

I have a cat that has claws...sometimes she tries to claw the furniture, soemtimes, not, it was worse when she was younger (now she's 11).

If you have leather furniture and you get a cat that is declawed in the front, they can still put holes in the furniture with the back claws if they jump off the furniture (my Dad's cat).

Re: Are your cats destructive?

My cat is declawed and still does the scratching thing on the furniture - of course with no damage.

BUT...she does fall off stuff and does that tearing around the house thing and the scramble has resulted in scratches in the furniture from her back claws.