Suggestions to keep cat out of rooms – invisible fence?
Monday, November 16th, 2009 at
6:54 pm
I have 2 cats w/claws and am moving in with my fiance who has a lot of expensive furniture inc. a leather couch in the family room. I need to keep my cats away from this, along with furniture in the livingroom. They are 4 yrs old so I do NOT want to get them declawed and since I lived in an apt. with them they are scratchers because I had old furniture and never trained them. Any suggestions? What about an indoor invisible fence or those pet barriers they sell? Please help….
Filed under: Pet Insurance
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find them a new home. you have no choice or get another fiance. de-claw them and you will end up in hell with guilt. sorry I can’t be off help butI have heard this before. It breaks my heart for you and the cats.
You can buy a spray called Boundary and spray it at the doorways. Don’t spray too much, it’s pretty strong. It’s ashame your cats scratch things. I have had leather furniture for about 6 years now. I have 3 cats and no scratches on my furniture.
My friend has two Yorkie dogs who have a love of scratching, so she uses a little baby fence you’d put in front of stairs. It really does work. You can buy one at Wal-mart or Target.
Hope this helps!!!!
Have you considered keeping the cats in a spare bedroom when you are not home? You can install a screen door at the entrance to the room so they do not feel locked away or isolated. When you are home, if you see them starting to scratch the furniture, don’t yell- have a small water gun handy and give them a spray. I would also buy the cardboard scratching boxes from the pet store for the cats to use. Tell the cats how great they are when you see them using them!
You could try purchasing some scat mats. They are thin mats that emit a harmless static charge, so when animals comes into contact with it, they get startled and keep away from that area. A friend of mine has one in the doorway of her bedroom to keep her cats and dogs out, and she swears by it. She tried everything to stop them from scratching on the door, and this was the only thing that worked for her. After awhile, the animals don’t even bother going near that area. You can put it on the floor in the entrance of the room you want to keep the pet away from, or directly on the furniture you want to keep them off.
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752972
I’ve seen people’s houses who took off the standard door and installed a screen door instead. It works great to keep cats out of a room but won’t hinder seeing.
Have you considered those Soft Paws for the claw tips? They can help stop destruction from scratching.
Good luck w that… try softpaws (be careful w that, I used it on one of my cats at first and he ended up w a fungal infection in the nails that was a major pain to cure)
Lots of scratching posts w catnip rubbed in
there are cat repellents that most petstores sell you can spray on the couch.
Sticky tape w the sticky out so when they start scratching they find it unpleasant.
…and this is why I promote declawing kittens. Because more often than not, this is the situation presented later on. And is amazing how well they recover from a declaw, specially if you are brainwashed in how cruel it really is. Although 4 yrs they are not that old, they will recover pretty good too, do a dental cleaning at the same time, many people under estimate teeth health and how dirty teeth can cause kidney and even heart problems. Shoot, spaying is a more invasive procedure, going INSIDE the abdomen and digging a tiny and thin uterus, and you see how quickly they recover from that.
http://www.geocities.com/declawing so you know exactly how the procedure is.
ps. you DONT need to declaw all 4s, just the front seem to do the trick pretty well as long as you clip the back regularly.
Invisible fence…no. Visable door…yes.
Invisible fence works on most dogs, but would just p*ss a cat off. Cats don’t take kindly to that kind of treatment. They will just climb or jump over a baby/pet gate. They might even enjoy having it there.
With leather, you need all four declawed because when they jump, they put out their back claws. Four years old is pretty old for that.
Some people claim that scratching posts, various deterants, and "Soft Pads" will do it. Personally, I don’t agree, but you can try.
P.S. how about giving me two minutes to complete my answer before giving a thumbs down. Sheesh.