hi there,

i was just wondering if anyone had used this product on their cat before? if you dont know what they are let me give you a breaf description. they are plastic covers that you stick to your cats claws to stop them scratching. they are no-toxic & totally safe but they can only be used on indoor cats.

ok, my friends mums cat is deformed & has to be kept indoors, she is about 6months old & my friends mum has spent a fortune on toys & cat trees etc so that she dosent get bored. the problem is she is absolutley destroying her bed, leather couch, curtains, spindles on stairs, wall paper, basicly anything she can get her paws & claws in to. i have helped her try numourous methods to try & stop her scratching everything but the sisel polls she has but nothing has worked.

i go down & trim & file her nails but this dosent last long especially as she still sharpens her claws on stuff.

i have told her about this product for her cats claws & she is seriously considering them but i just wanted a bit of feed back from anyone who has used them before, especially as they are quite expensive. the website i have read says they stay on for 4-6 weeks & you then have to replace them, you can get them in different colours & sizes & will stop scratching.

so had anyone on here used them before? what did you think? did they stop the scratching? did you find it expensive with having to replace them every 4-6 weeks?

thanks

Personally wouldn't use something like this...

They are far, far worse as kittens and mine hate scratching poles too... However, here's an idea, get a wicker ironing basket and fill it with something - clothes, whatever... the cat will love it. My cats won't touch scratching posts but they have both stopped scratching the wall paper since I got a wicker ironing basket...

There's a reason cats knead things and they need to be able to do it. Plus, cats and other animals don't like things stuck to their pads so not sure the kitten would be too happy with it.

Good luck...

My kittens used to love a cardboard box with something rustling inside like balls of paper, they would play hours in there and still will.
I don't think the kitten will like stuff stuck on her claws either.

I'm pretty sure that the cat will hate having anything stuck on her claws and will spend hour after hour pulling at her feet with her teeth trying to get the stuff off, if other experiences are anything to go by.

By all means try it, but please be prepared to either find other solutions or take them off if she's made unhappy with them.

As Lotti says, most of the key will be finding the things that she really really likes to scratch. My lot have always loved wickerwork and lloyd loom for exercising their claws on, and wicker baskets are really cheap to replace when they get trashed. Finding something to weight it down so she can give it some welly while sharpening her claws will help too.

The other question is whether your scratching posts are sufficiently stable and in the correct placing for the cat to use them properly.

Most of the ones that are shaped like a base with a pole out of the top aren't strong enough for a cat to put their weight behind, and so they use something more stable like the furniture.

If you can get one of the wall mounted ones and put it somewhere prominent, like on a piece of wall next to a doorway that she scent marks, then she's more likely to be able to scratch properly on it (they can get all of their weight behind it) and less likely to scratch where you don't want her to.

You can also get some dried catnip and rub that into her scratching posts and toys to stimulate her attention to them, or get her one of the toys that contains treats inside and makes her work to get them- they're good distractions.

Oh, and some cats love valerian even more than catnip- you can grow valerian on your window sill in a pot.

my cats never take any notice of cat nip whatsoever... It's quite amusing really lol

the website has lots of people saying good things about these but i never tend to listen to website promotion stuff cus they are bound to say yes this product is fantastic which is why i asked here. they say the cat cant feel these caps on their claws & they can retract their claws fully as if no caps were on.

my friends mum bought one of those masive cat trees, all the ploes on it are sisal roped, there is no way she can pull that over, it cost her nearly £200.
i will surgest the wicca basket & see how that goes.

we have tryed cat nip, rubbing it on places we want her to scratch, rubbing lemmon or pepper on places we dont. her toys are taken away & re-inroduced on a rotor basis (as most cat websites tell you to do) to stop her getting board. she has a few treat giving toys that she dosent seem too interested in, were just gona have to keep trying things i think. the soft claw things are gona be a last resort.

As I sit here typing I can here the fluffy one having a good go at the ironing basket lol

I don't stop her anymore because she's happy and it keeps the wallpaper from being damaged. We tried parsley on the walls when we didn't want them scratching it. Just beware it can make light coloured walls a funny colour.

We used these although not for our cats, i wouldn`t use them for the purpose they were designed for.
We used them for our old dog who had worn away all her claws almost down to the nerve by dragging her back feet.
We glued them onto the affected nails and let her wear them away instead of hurting herself, they needed replacing every few weeks but as she had them only on a couple of nails on each back paw they worked out not too expensive. i`ve got some more now that my other old dog is doing the same.

Hi

I've just found this in relation to cat scratching.

These scratching posts won't tumble and feel more secure for the cat to have a good go at - should deter scratching in less desirable places if they have somewhere designated for it.

At such a reasonable price, it's worth a try!

http://www.lidl.co.uk/uk/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20070115.p.Corner_Scratching_Post.ar8

thanks i saw these in the lidl mag too, the cat in question already has one of these & a cat tree thing (the platform jungle gym thing with posts wrapped in sisal rope) but she still prefurrrrs the sofa. i have been and clipped her claws but she is obviousley still gona scratch. we have rubbed the sofa in lemmon juice & bought a can of that spray on cat nip for her scratching posts & pads to no avail. i really dont know what to try next, i taught my cat rather quickley where he can & cant sharpen his claws by moving him to the acceptable scratching post/pad & rubbing his feet down it, but my friends mums cat just dont seem to be taking the hint.

Hi

I've just found this in relation to cat scratching.

These scratching posts won't tumble and feel more secure for the cat to have a good go at - should deter scratching in less desirable places if they have somewhere designated for it.

At such a reasonable price, it's worth a try!

http://www.lidl.co.uk/uk/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20070115.p.Corner_Scratching_Post.ar8

thanks for the tip Lotti. I've just bought 2 scratching posts for my cats there.
Jinx was getting a bit too friendly with our leather settee! :thumbsup:

Our little terrors like the door mat - it's cheap to replace and I let them go at it whenever they want. :)

I have four cats so four times the trouble. I stuck bits of plastic over the bits I didn't want them to scratch and screwed scratching boards all round the bottom newel post on the stairs. Each time I found the cats attempting to scratch where they weren't supposed to, I picked them up and took them to the scratching posts and raked their nails across it a couple of times.

The house looked pretty weird for a while but it worked in the end. I did have one with a fetish for blown vinyl wall paper but once that was removed, the cat trotted off to the scratching post with the rest.

Hi - I have used these on my darling boy cats - as they insist on using the backs of my new dining chairs as scratching posts. They do work and I would recommend them to anyone - but only - as you say - if they are indoor cats as they can't defend themselves if outdoors. If you look on ebay you can find them for about £8 + p&p as opposed to about £14 from the official site. I had already ordered mine and came across the cheaper ones - but they are exactly the same ones. :thumbsup: