"Spirited" cat scratches EVERYTHING. Help?!

[dancingintherain]

Hello wise cat people! I'm a lifelong cat owner but one of my kitties (Ginna) has me stumped. We adopted her with her litter mate when a kitten about a year ago, and both are happy, energetic, and confident cats. Ginna however, is our "spirited child." While she is very much a lap cat, it is pretty impossible to handle her at all if she doesn't want to be handled. This is not usually a problem-except for her scratching habit. She LOVES to scratch. We have three upright scratch posts, horizontal scratch pads, curvy scratch boxes, and inclined scratch boxes. She uses them all! However, she also scratches the furniture. I can double tape the furniture, but she also shreds our large area wool carpets. I actually rolled them up because it was so bad, and she stuck her little paws in the roll and was able to keep shredding it. UGH. We try to trim her claws, but being "spirited" we are lucky to get one at a time. We can't really use treats as an award during trimming because she always waits for her sister before she will eat them and then there are two cats and...well trust me, using treats doesn't work. I know that since we have such terrible luck at trimming her claws we would never get those caps on. We are able to trim her sister's claws just fine.

What else can we do? Since she is "uncooperative" with the vet, getting her claws trimmed there is also not an option (they actually requested we sedate her before she comes for her check-ups). I'm making her sound terrible, but she's actually really sweet. Again, it's just the scratching rugs and our limited ability to deal with her claws. Is there anything else I should try??? I think I have read every internet article so was hoping for some real life advice. Thank you!

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi! You may have already done these -
Have you tried any of the cat repellent sprays on the areas you don't want her scratching? The other thing would be to get some carpet remnants (similar to the wool ones you rolled up) and make your own posts/horizontal pads - even one big enough for her to stand on. There are also cat attractant sprays you could try applying to the 'new' posts/pads you make to see if that might entice her to use them.

As far as trimming her nails - are you working to gradually get her used to having her paws just briefly touched - like a gentle, quick pat - then move on to placing a finger on her paws, and afterward graduate to holding her paws for a second or two, and so on... You could also try some of the cat calming products to see if that might relax her a bit. One such product is Bach Rescue Remedy which are drops you can rub into her ears. Some members use this before a vet visit to help relax their cats.

Not all of the above noted products work on all cats, so you might have to experiment a bit to find one that is right for her. There is always the good old burrito wrap, or a cat grooming bag, for nail trimming, as a last resort.

 

[rubysmama]

Reading your post, I could be reading about my own cat, Ruby. She is also a lap cat, and a sweetie pie, but she a) hates being restrained in any way what so ever, so trimming her claws is just like your ordeal, one at a time, if lucky. She also b) loves to scratch carpet, as well as my sofa.

Fortunately, I only have carpet in the basement, which I hope to replace with non-carpet flooring sometime in the future.

As for the sofa, I ended up putting aluminum foil (yes, the kitchen stuff) over the back top of the sofa, which stopped her standing up there and just going to town with scratching. But I haven't quite found a solution for the sides of the sofa, which luckily is her least preferred area to scratch.

I also have a individual scratcher, plus her condo which she can scratch, but still on occasion, she'll come over and scratch the side of the sofa, while I'm sitting RIGHT THERE !!!

So unfortunately, I don't have anything really to suggest that might help, but I did want to post and let you know you're not the only one in this situation.

You've probably already read these, but in case you haven't, here's a couple TCS articles on the subject:

How To Stop Your Cat From Scratching The Furniture – TheCatSite Articles
23 Proven Ways To Stop A Cat From Scratching Furniture – TheCatSite Articles

 

[dancingintherain]

Thank you for the replies and support! I actually haven't tried any of the sprays but am definitely going to try them now. I'll also see if I can find something similar to the rugs to place on top. I play with her paws a lot (so cute!) and she doesn't seem to mind so hopefully over time we'll be able to get more than one claw a day! Thank you again!