Cat scratching walls

Question
Hi Stephenie,
I've been having quite a problem with my youngest kitty.  Just a bit of history,
I got Salem (we guess that she is about 4 now) on Halloween 2005 in Las Vegas,
Nevada where my husband and I were living at the time with our older cat Lily
(she's about 11 now).  Anyway, she was dumped off at the PetsMart I was working
in the animal hospital at for unknown reasons. My husband and I took her home to
keep her from being sent to a kill-shelter.  She and Lily had a rocky start, but
now get along pretty well.  April 2006 we moved first to upstate New York to be
closer to my family, then in July to McHenry, Illinois when my family moved.
Well, shortly after getting to Illinois, Salem started scratching at the walls
even though we have 2 stand-up scratching posts and 2 floor ones (the kind that
have the ball around the edge that she can chase).  I do see her using the
scratching posts, but then she still scratches at the walls and is seriously
damaging them. Any suggestions?  (Just a side note, I refuse to have my cats declawed since it is an inhumane act and should be abolished!)

Answer
Hi Angela,

Good for you!!!  You are absolutely right that declawing should be illegal and *is* in most countries except for North America!  

Two things you can do to get you started on the issue, you can either keep her nails clipped (takes two seconds once you are used to it) or there is also a product called 'soft paws' which is like a soft plastic covering that gets glued onto the cats nails to avoid damage such as you're experiencing.

To deal with the actual problem you need to know a couple of things.  Most people don't realize what a cat is doing when they scratch, there is a reason they do it.  First they are trying to remove the old 'sheaths' from their nails which is a covering that comes off like a snake shedding it's skin.  If you've had cats for a while I am sure you have seen them around the house.  They are also pulling to stretch the muscles in their shoulders.  To do either of these things they really need to get up high and PULL so in most cases the problem scratching is happening, even when someone has posts, is because the posts aren't high enough.  Short little posts are great for sharpening claws but that's it, they do anything for the other.  The hight of the post should be about four feet, tall enough that when your cats is stretch on their back feet all the way they should have plenty of post left.

So assuming your posts aren't high enough this is likely the issue.  Having said all of this she may have picked up a bad habbit and may take some retraining, this is where the clipping and soft paws would come in.  Your simple water bottle squirt should work, a quick squirt when she scratched the wall and bring her right to the new post, shouldn't take more than a couple of times before she is using it regularly.

Lastly, you don't need to spend a fortune to get one of these posts, you can build one yourself for about $20.  All you need is a base, a 4X4X4 and 2-3rolls of sisal rope.  You can use carpet but sisal is much easier and highly preffered by the cat.  All of this can be found at your local hardware store.

Good Luck!

Natoma
Chenza Maine Coons
www.chenza.com