Using Deterrents to stop your cat scratching furniture is just one of the 5 ways to stop your cat from scratching furniture.
There are two major types of deterrents - spray deterrents and physical deterrents. Both of these types of deterrents are generally a short term solution, but are very helpful when training your cat to move away from your furniture to a more appealing scratching alternative.
A Cat Scratching Deterrents are not the final solution but are used to make your furniture an unpleasant environment until a more appealing scratching alternative can be provided.
Spray Deterrents
Why are sprays so effective?
Cats use their sense of smell to detect potential dangers and to help them locate a safe environment. So with their sense of smell 14 times stronger than a humans, you can easily find a smell that your cat hates and use it to stop your cat scratching where it shouldn't. These can be a DIY created spray or can be purchased commercially.
What makes a good cat spray repellent?
Obviously, one that works but also one that isn't toxic to your cat or aggravates any of your allergies.
homemade cat spray Repellent
There are many natural homemade cat repellent sprays available on the internet. They use a combination of coffee grinds, crushed garlic, vinegar, citrus fruits (lemon, orange, lime), citronella, essential oils (tea tree, lavender, eucalyptus), capsaicin, and many more. Each cat is unique in likes and dislikes so you may have to experiment to find the ideal mixture.
Whilst the advantage of a homemade cat repellent spray is that it can be significantly cheaper than commercially available brands, there are such a variety of home remedies and in different recipes that one could easily mix the solution incorrectly and it would be toxic to your cat. For example, too much of a solution containing essential oils or citrus fruits or coffee grinds could be toxic.
Commercially available cat repellent sprays
Commercially available cat repellent sprays are manufactured with the appropriate mix of chemicals to minimize toxicity to cats and allergies to humans whilst still providing a deterrent to scratching your furniture.
Spray on Repellent
The best cat scratching deterrent spray as shown by Amazon reviews is the SmartyKat Scratch Not cat deterrent spray with over 8,500 high quality positive reviews. But not everyone had success with this product and are still looking for another deterrent spray. Don't forget that these deterrents are not the end solution but merely a means of creating an unpleasant environment so you can quickly provide a more appealing scratching alternative to your cat.
I have found it easier to spray a few old towels and newspapers and leave them around or under our furniture than to risk spraying directly on and staining our furniture.
motion-activated Deterrent spray
A motion-activated spray with over 7,000 Amazon reviews is the PetSafe SSSCat Spray Deterrent. This device arrives with a battery operated motion sensitive unit that attaches to the top of supplied spray can. The detector has a has a range of 3 feet (1 meter) and works by releasing a short, non-toxic spray that frightens your cat away from your "go away" area whether it be a Christmas tree, kitchen bench, your bedroom door at 4am, etc. You need to set the spray up then stay clear and let it work on your cat. Most reviewers said it works perfectly and sorry they delayed the purchase because of its cost.
There are expensive spray can refills available but several reviewers used any non-toxic spray can which has a matching valve stem.
Physical Deterrents
Similar to spray deterrents, the objective is to make inappropriate scratching unpleasant by using physical deterrents. They can be homemade solutions or commercially available.
homemade physical cat deterrents
Cats do not like the feel of certain materials, sudden noises, or strong breezes so your homemade physical cat deterrents can include the laying of aluminum foil, aluminum pie plates, etc in your "go away" areas. We found an oscillating electric fan was very effective at keeping our cats off couches as it creates a noise and the breezes are uncomfortable for them.
commercial physical cat deterrents
There are 3 major types of commercial physical cat deterrents: Shock Pads, Spike Mats, and Anti Cat Scratch Tape.
Shock Pads
Shock Pads are flat mats with an attached battery to create a combination of correction modes from tone alert to a static shock charge. A static charge is that sudden shock we receive when touching something metallic on a dry, windy day. Whilst it is harmless to us and our pets, the shock for them is a surprise, uncomfortable and keeps them away from our "go away" areas.
With over 93% positive 3 star and above ratings from over 7,600 Amazon reviewers, the PetSafe ScatMat Indoor Training Mat is by far the best cat training mat. It has:
- 5 different sizes of mat, including curved;
- 7 correction modes (1 tone, 3 static and 3 combinations);
- LCD display showing correction level, battery level, and counter for number of times activated; and
- Safety timeout after 8 seconds.
The downside reported by reviewers was that the cats quickly learnt where not to stand and either went away or jumped over it to find a new location. The lesson was to buy a suitably sized mat as location placement was very important.
Spike Mats
Spike Mats are flexible interlocking pieces of non-toxic plastic spikes. The intent is to make it very uncomfortable for cats to walk or lie on so they are ideal for locating in our "go away" areas. These spike mats can be purchased on rolls or in flat packs. They are all designed for indoor and outdoor use coming with garden pegs.
There are many spike mats available but I believe this to be the most cost effective. It is flexible, can be wrapped around furniture of different shapes, cut to size, and easily linked together to stretch to your required length.
Anti Cat Scratch Tape
Anti Cat Scratch Tape is just sticky tape applied directly to furniture or other "go away" areas. Cats hate anything sticky so touching this tape is very uncomfortable for them hence its success in keeping cats away from our furniture and getting them used to an alternative scratcher. Whilst installation is easy, I am reluctant to apply any tape directly to our furniture in case it is damaged on removal, so I apply it to strips of newspaper then leave those newspaper strips in places around or on the furniture. This has proven very successful and the newspaper can be easily rolled up and thrown away.
The best Anti Cat Scratch Deterrent Tape with over 13,200 Amazon reviewers rating it 90% 3 star and above is the Panther Armor Cat Scratch Deterrent Tape. It is clear tape that is non-toxic and easy to apply. There are multiple sized packs of between 8 and 24 pieces with each pack offering a combination of 3 available sizes that you can easily cut to your specific requirements.
