Any experience with cats and leather furniture?
kmm100 asked:
I have a cat whose front paws are declawed. My husband and I want to get a leather sofa because so the cat hair won’t get stuck but I am worried about the cat jumping on and off the couch and his back claws accidentically tearing the leather. Did anyone have this happen to them or is it OK as long as the front paws are declawed. I plan on trimming them regularly but I still am worried…
Tags: Cat, Cat Hair, Cats, Couch, Fur, Furniture, Hair Won T, law, Leather Furniture, Leather Sofa, Paws, Sofa, Urn
May 23rd, 2009 at 9:11 am
spray it with something it dont like then it will stay awy from it
May 24th, 2009 at 6:27 am
yes actually we had our cat front declawed thinking he wouldn’t bother our leather couches, well he learned to scoot on the floor and use his back claws to scratch the sh.. out of the couch. so we had his back claws removed. I feel really bad now because he obviously has some issues with his feet now, especially when he jumps down off high things, he cries. I feel really bad and I would never have a cat declawed again.
May 25th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
It’ll be cheaper to NOT get a leather sofa and brush your cat every single day, so that it leaves minimum hair all over the place.
May 27th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
spank the cat 2 teach him not to do that
that is what my mom did
that cat never again did anything bad
dont declaw him cats need this
May 28th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
the back claws will do just as much as the front would. even if you keep them trimmed, they can still scratch and mar the leather. somebody has finally invented a thing that sands the claws down, and, altho i havent tried it yet, i would imagine that the claws wind up a little more rounded than they would be when clipped. your only other option may be to try something like “soft claws” (i think thats the name?) theyre padded covers that get glued onto the claw itself and are a more humane way of dealing with the situation than something like declawing. i believe that they will stay on for about 6 months? with something as expensive as leather tho, you’ll prolly want to check more often. you’ll have to do your own research and find out, but i hope this has been of some help. best of luck!
May 31st, 2009 at 10:35 am
trim the claws with a special nail trimmer (in pet stores) ( a regular trimmer will crush the nails and make the scratching worse) or file them with a kind of rotary grinder (in pet stores or shop the net). Best to start this when the cat is still a kitten. I have trimmed the nails on my cats for over 20 years and they love the attention. I put the cat (on its back) on my lap. Do this and pet them until they get used to this before doing any trimming.
Work slowly at first trim one nail at a time and pet the cat for while.
If you are lucky the cat will love this have some small treats handy to go with the petting. Once a week should be enough. Better train the cat not to get on the leather furniture. Start the first day the cat is in the house. I have a huge leather recliner and none of the cats gets on it except when I sit there and they want to sit on my lap or shoulders.
June 1st, 2009 at 4:01 pm
I have leather sofa’s and 5 indoor cats that are…gulp get this…not declawed at all! I have a giant scratching post (2 actually,one was thrown away in some one’s trash and i fixed it up) from Armarkat.com, their prices are very reasonable compared to pet stores! My couches are in great condition, aside from a little rips and tears here and there, caused from my kids, not my cats. Cats tend to prefer rough surfaces to scratch their paws on. When we moved homes, we had awful tore up couches that we left behind, because this house had leather sofas with it. We were nervous but were told not to worry because the cats prefer rough surfaces. And they were right, my 5 cats have never touched the leather sofa to rip up. I wouldn’t worry at all about your new sofa’s. If your cat does start behaviours you don’t approve of, get a compressed air can ( used to clean dust out of electronics) to scare your cat. He/she’ll get the picture
Good luck and enjoy those new sofas!
June 4th, 2009 at 7:15 am
My cats basically never scratch my leather furniture, and none of them are declawed. I don’t think leather is the best texture for scratching; they prefer rougher material. If they do go for it, though, ****** them with water from a ****** bottle. Even if you rarely catch them, it’s pretty effective. And get them a scratching post, a small log, or a rough welcome mat to scratch on in case something happens to their claws and they REALLY need to scratch something.