Learn why your cats destroy property. One thing that is certain about cats is that they can be so destructive at times. We personally have had our fair share of broken property because of our cats at home. Here are a few of the things we have had to replace due to our cats.
The property that our cats have destroyed:
- The carpet that we just had fitted to our stairs was ripped up within a couple of days.
- New wallpaper was ripped and torn from the wall.
- Our leather sofa has claw marks and scratches all over it.
- Our dining room chairs also have holes from claws on them.
As you can see we have had more than our fair share of property wrecked curtesy of our cats! This has all changed now though and we have managed to get them to stop doing it.
Let’s now take a look at why it happens in the first place and what you can do to stop it in the future.
Why do cats destroy property?
There are a couple of main reasons why your cat keeps destroying your property. Each of these can be solved with a little work on your part which we will get into a little later in the post. First though we will work out why they do it in the first place.
Some of these reasons are natural to the cat and are not done to cause trouble. Just because they are natural it does not mean that we cannot makes changes to stop it.
Claw sharpening.
Cats like to sharpen their claws on anything soft. These cats destroy property.
This is the most common reason for a cat scratching and destroying your property. They obviously do it without malice but it can be costly for us as cat owners.
Cats will actively sharpen their claws in your soft furniture. When they do this they are helping the outer layer of nail to break free much like when you bite or cut your own nails.
The new sharp claw layer is left behind and you will often find them in the area they scratch at.
Marking its territory.
Cats destroy property, because it’s their territory. This is a little known fact, but cats have many different scent glands throughout their bodies. Some of these glands are actually in their paws ! So when they scratch and rip at your furniture they are actually leaving some of their scent behind to warn off other cats.
As well as the scent they are leaving behind they also leave a visual sign. By leaving scratch marks it is believed that cats are warning off predators and other cats.
Attention seeking.
Cats destroy property, because they want attention. This is one I have noticed personally in one of our cats. If we are busy doing something but our cat wants some attention she will start clawing at the furniture. You can tell she is trying to get attention because she will look at us before doing it and then again after stopping.
If she does not get attention still she will do it again. We believe she does this because when we were new to cat ownership we would tell her off for scratching. Now she knows that it will get our attention!
This is how you can stop a destructive cat.
Now that we know why a cat destroys our property we can start to take steps to stop it from happening. There are a few different ways we can tackle this behaviour without causing a disruption to the cats life.
It is a known fact that cats do not respond to discipline like dogs do. Shouting at a cat or anything like that will not stop it from being destructive.
The best way to stop a cat from ruining your property are as follows.
Invest in a scratching post climbing frame.
A cat scratching post and climbing frame like this can really curb destructive behaviour.
These cat scratching posts and climbing frames come in all different shapes and sizes to fit all budgets. Some of them are very cheap or you can pay more for a bigger and more exciting one.
Cats absolutely love them because they have rough rope scratching posts and also offer lots of places to climb, play and relax.
We use one for our cats and found that it completely cut out their destructive behaviour. What we found effective was to place the climbing frame close to where they usually did all of their scratching. Now instead of wrecking our property they do it on the scratching posts.
The other added bonus is that it is something they can call theirs so they can mark it with their paw scent glands!
If you would like to see the one that we purchased for our cats you can by clicking this link. This will take you to the exact listing on Amazon where we got it for a great price.
More cuddles and attention.
This one will only work for behavioural based scratching. Like the sort I mentioned earlier with our own cat. We found that if we just took the time to give it a little bit more attention, cuddles and strokes the scratching stopped. Especially once combined with the scratching post and climbing frame.
My final thoughts on cats wrecking property.
I know it can seem all to much when your pet cat starts ruining your new furniture. But do not despair!
By following the above tips and advice you should be able to get it fully in control in no time at all. We found that it stopped the issues we were having immediately and that is why I am sharing it with you today.
If you have any of your own recommendations or stories to share on cats destroying property then please get in contact. Leave a message on the commments section. Bye for now!
