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Your sweet feline friend is also a beloved family member—which means you can approach the cat scratching situation with both a proactive, loving approach, as well as a reactive home fix-it approach if your precious cat has left scratches on the leather or fabric couch. Or both!
We pet owners can teach and train our kitties to not scratch the furniture with a few useful tips and tricks. Here are some preventative measures to avoid cat scratches on the couch that will not harm or upset your furry friend.
Tip #1: Cats are territorial and need to own their favorite area of the house. Purchase a few scratching posts with a heavy base when you first bring home a kitten or grown cat. Put them near the place where you like to sit, so they can feel your presence and smell your scent. Try different types such as wood, fabric or carpet, and give them the one they want to use the most.
Tip #2: Cover the sides/arms of the sofa or other furniture with cat protector pads you can pick up at a hardware store or pet store.
Tip #3: Kittens, and even older cats, may be tolerant of nail clipping when you set up a quiet, calm environment for clipping their nails on a regular basis. Cat grooming is a wonderful way to bond with your furry family member and will teach them to love the attention. No need to declaw your cat! Just make sure not to get too close to the nail quick as it could cause your cat to bleed. If this happens, apply pressure on the paw/claw and have styptic powder handy to rub on the nail to stop the bleeding.
Tip #4: You can purchase kitty nail tips from your local pet store. You will have to replace them monthly; however, this is much less expensive than replacing an entire couch!
Tip #5: Purchase a product such as Sticky Paws or a roll of double-sided cloth carpet tape that you will fasten to the ends of the couch, as it discourages cats from clawing the furniture. When the cat goes to scratch the sofa, they will back off as they do not like the stickiness on their paws.
You never dreamed that kitty would be responsible for cat scratches on the couch, but here we are. The damage has already been done, but don’t worry—it can be fixed! This depends, however, on your couch’s material.
There are several ways to repair the couch. It will depend on the amount of leather that has been damaged. Here are a few solutions for restoring your couch or other leather furniture to its former beauty.
Solution 1: Purchase a cat scratch repair kit and follow the specific directions for that particular leather repair system. The kit will show you the various steps to take and in what order. You may also need to purchase another leather repair kit that will have a coloring device (looks like a crayon) to finish the job by filling in the proper color to match the leather.
Solution 2: For repair of extensive cat scratches on a leather couch, the last resort will be to find a leather furniture repair vendor in your area.
Repairing cat scratches on a couch made of fabric will be different than removing scratches from a leather one. Be sure to do a small patch test to confirm the results.
Step 1: With a pair of small, sharp sewing scissors (or a sharp one-sided razor blade), clip all loose strands of fabric in the area where the cat scratches are. Be careful not to puncture the fabric as you go.
Step 2: Take a new gentleman’s 4-blade razor (or a sweater shaver will do as well) and gently scrape the fabric both up and down and side to side, until all small fabric strands have disappeared.
We hope you enjoyed our tips on what to do when you have cat scratches on the couch. Don’t forget to check out our other pet care and couch cleaning tips such as cat grooming tips, how to bathe a cat and how to properly clean a leather couch.
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