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Home > Why the cats scratch

Why the cats scratch

Although many humans do not appreciate when their cats scratching, you have to know that kittens and cats do not scratch to make us angry, they just need to scratch. Scratching is a natural hardwired behavior in cats, just like breathing and purring.

But scratching is easier to deal with, if you understand why cats scratch in the first place. In the wild, cats scratch around their immediate environment to signal their presence to other cats and to claim the area in question. The marking takes two forms: visual and olfactory. The visual is in the form of clawing marks and is so obvious that even we humans can recognize it. The olfactory mark is subtler, involving the release of pheromones. These are substances secreted from the body to be picked up by the number of the same species, causing them to alter their behavior.

Cats secrete pheromones from superficial glands in the skin of the cat’s paws through the process of kneading. The message is invisible to all creatures and is undetectable unless you have the right equipment (a super sensitive nose) or are close enough. A competitor coming up to the site will see the scratch marks and then smell the message: another cat has already claimed this place.

Scratching, when done as a marking behaviour, follows a well-recognised sequence:
1.Your cat will approach the surface to be scratched
2.The surface is smelt and your cat will then exhibit 'flehmen' (a special type of sniffing action which helps it detect the pheromone)
3.Limbs are stretched with extension of the spine.
4.Scratching with alternate forepaws takes place.

Two distinct groups are seen with scratching cats. The first one is when your cat target one or two areas in the home, usually near important territorial areas such as: sleeping area, litter tray, hunting or play areas. The second one is your cat undertake more widespread and destructive scratching in highly visible sites such as: doorways, windows, prominent furnishings - like sofas.

Where this occurs it may indicate that something has occurred to psychologically stress your cat - often over-crowding/bullying or repeated territorial invasions by other cats in an area important to your cat.

Scratching has additional function too. It removes the nail sheaths, outer layer of dead cells from the claw. You might thing your cat scratches to sharpen her claws, but it more likely it provides her with a form of physical therapy for the muscles and tendons of her paws.

How can you stop your cat from scratching?

It is impractical and unfair to expect cats to stop scratching entirely. Cats that go outside may be content to do all their scratching outdoors, but the urge may still arise while the cat comes back indoors. Cats that spend most of their time indoors will of course, need some outlet for their scratching and marking behavior, so do not be surprised if you come home to objects strewn all over the floor, scratches on your furniture, and your cat playful climbing or dangling from your drapes. Therefore, while it may not be possible to stop a cat from scratch, it should be possible to direct the scratching, climbing and playing to appropriate areas indoors. That is where scratching equipment comes in. Get the right scratching gear and place it correctly and you can have your cat and furniture, too.

No matter how hard you try, you will not train your cat to stop scratching, so you may consider the following options:
- Provide your cat with scratching posts or board. It is critical to her health. It not only relieves it on her innate desire to scratch, it is a form an exercise. See How to make your cat to scratch her scratching post

- Provide your cat with some cat furniture like a cat tree. Cats can literally exhaust themselves playing with it. See Why cats climb

- Provide your cat with cat toys. Good toys will encourage activities like scratching, chasing and batting. See How to play with your cat

- The last and the most drastically solution to stop your cat scratching is declawing. See Cat Declawing. Is it necessary?

How to punish my cat for inappropriate scratching?

All forms of physical punishment should be avoided since they can cause fear or aggression toward the owner, and at best, the cat will only learn to stop the scratching while the owner is around. Indirect, non-physical forms of punishment may be useful if the owner remain out of sight while administering the punishment. In this way your cat may learn that scratching is unpleasant even when he is not present. See 13 ways to save your furniture from cat scratching