Presence of child can cause cat scratching episodes

Image: MikeB

This is a cross-post. I have used the same image in the other post. It is an important topic in the world of cat caregiving. It is ultimately about parenting and knowledge. 

Below is a summary of a Harvard study (link to the study) which looked at factors which might lead to increased cat scratching, usual or furniture of a well-sited scratching post. It found that the presence of children can increase scratching behaviour because cats do this to mark territory to reassure themselves when they are stressed...by kids being noisy or unpredictable in their behaviour (my comment). Or perhaps the children were mishandling the cats in this questionnaire study which are always somewhat subjective. 

Cats mark territory when scratching by (1) a visual mark and (2) depositing scent from the paw pads onto the scratched object.

But despite the weaknesses in the study it confirms perhaps what we know namely that children can cause cats to become more stressed. It is up to parents to educate their kids to understand cat behaviour and how to interact with them to avoid this unnecessary stress.

Aside from stress leading to scratching, mismanaged interactions between cats and kids can lead to the kids receiving a scratch which in turn can, over time, lead to the cat being give up to a shelter for 'bad behaviour' when in fact it is the 'bad' (better described is 'inappropriate') behaviour of the child in their interactions with the family cat causing the cat to become defensively aggressive.

How many cat scratching posts do you need in a multi-cat home?

Here is a synopsis of the conclusion of the study, re-written. The undoubted lesson is that parents need to be aware of these issues and take proactive steps to prevent them. 

Cats like quiet and calm. Routine and predictability. Children can alter their behaviour a little to try and meet these feline objectives. Big scratching posts are important too. 

Infographic on cat scratching post designs.

A significant observation is how a child's presence at home can lead to more scratching in pets. It seems that kids might stress out our furry friends, causing them to scratch more often and more intensely. This ties in with earlier studies that found kids can increase the chances of pets scratching at home. 

On the flip side, it's important to note that having kids around is a common reason why pets are given up or returned after adoption. 

While most research focuses on how pets affect human health and happiness, it's just as important to consider our pets' well-being to keep everyone, both two-legged and four-legged, living together happily. Something not looked into in this study is how kids and cats interact. 

The study didn't check if the cat was there before the child or how old the kids were when they played with the cat. So, we need more research to see if a cat's behaviour changes with the arrival of a new child or if it's just about having kids around in general. 

Plus, it'd be interesting to see if how old the kids are makes a difference in how much the cat scratches.

Study title: Evaluating undesired scratching in domestic cats: a multifactorial approach to understand risk factors. Lead author: Yasemin Salgirli Demirbas.

--------------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

You will need a high IQ to spot the hidden clue revealing the cat's owner

There is a brainteaser on the Internet today. It is an image of three women and one cat. Each woman has a sign on their clothes or person which is meant to tell us that they own the cat being held by the woman in the middle with the pink dress.

Only one of these three women owns the grey cat. All three could own it because they all have a sign which indicates that they might. So which one is the cat's owner?

I'm going to debunk and spoil (sorry) this brainteaser because I don't think it works 😈. So I will spare you the agony of trying to figure it out if it does cause you agony!

The owner of the cat is said to be the lady on the right-hand side with a green top and blonde hair.

Three women and a grey cat. Which woman owns the cat? Image: The Sun via Freshers Live.

The woman on the right is the owner because her green top has been torn by her cat's claws under the arm by the armpit.

Criticism and observation: 👿domestic cat don't tear clothes like that particularly in that area. Cats can scratch people and tear the skin for a whole range of reasons often innocuous or simply being defensive or because they are a bit anxious. Or most commonly in play. They just don't quite get it when they play with the hands of their owner.

But a domestic cat is not going to tear their owners clothes as we see in the image. This tear is about 10 inches long. And as mentioned it is under the armpit.

The length of the tear is almost unimaginable for a domestic cat to create. A cat might damage clothes slightly by kneading them. Domestic cats often knead the clothes of their caregiver because it is a kitten's instinctive behaviour and, as I have mentioned in other articles, the adult domestic cat is nearly always kept in a mental state where they believe that they are kittens because they are constantly provided for by their owner, with their owner acting as a surrogate mum.

So domestic cats knead clothes but that doesn't cause the damage that we see in this image. Cats don't scratch clothing like that unless under very rare and exceptional circumstances such as wrestling with their owner which really wouldn't happen. And in any case it is in the wrong position if that circumstance happened.

And lastly, the way it is drawn makes the image ambiguous. Does it look like it's been torn by a cat or by anything else? I don't think it does. It doesn't look like anything to me. It certainly doesn't look like it has been torn.

Conclusion: this brainteaser doesn't work. Yes, I'm being critical. Sorry for being serious about this. Just my style. 

Incidentally, I chose the lady on the left because I can see there's a cat image on her dress. The lady in the middle is meant to have a cat tattoo but once again the drawing is too poor. Does that look like a cat tattoo? It looks more like a crab to me!

The only clue that is 'readable' or recognisable is the cat image on the dress of the woman on the left! 😃

-------------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Domestic cat destroys a chair and sleeps in the ruins 'The Artist and his Art'

This is a great picture of domestic cat chair destruction. Although I can tell that the person who owns this cat gave up on protecting the chair a long time ago and continued to allow his/her cat to scratch it to destruction.

There are ways to protect furniture as you know one of which is to provide a great (super large) cat scratching post and place it near the said chair at least initially.

Anyway it makes a good pic. It is described as "The Artists and his Art". I like that as it does look like a work of art with the tabby cat embedded into the chair. 

It almost looks like a painting or a sculpture of sorts. A piece of contemporary art. Real art not feline destruction 'art'.

Image: Facebook.

You know that cats must be allowed to scratch something suitable like an armchair. Sorry, I mean a scratching post. It is integral to their natural, instinctive behaviour. Essential to their behaviour in fact. It does so much good for them.

Read this for the reasons (60 second read): Infographic on the reasons why cats scratch armchairs.

The lesson taken from this image that cat caregivers should really give up on trying to keep their furniture pristine and 'as new'. You won't achieve it but there are some fabrics that are favoured by cats for scratching and those that are unpopular.

Click this for furniture that cats are less likely to scratch: Is there any furniture that domestic cats won’t scratch?

And some furniture is also less popular with cats as cat a scratching posts: Cats like to scratch chenille but dislike synthetic leather or waterproof grosgrain

----------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Cats like to scratch chenille but dislike synthetic leather or waterproof grosgrain

A test with rescue cats in a rescue cat setting showed that the cats preferred to scratch objects covered in chenille but disliked scratching synthetic leather or waterproof grosgrain fabrics. That's all I know! The information comes from a study published on July 19, 2021.

Chenille. Image in public domain.

I think the study is actually interesting but we need more information. I would like to see a full list of fabrics at the top of which would be the fabrics that cats most liked to scratch and at the bottom of which would be the fabrics that they least liked to scratch. This would assist cat owners when purchasing furniture.

I didn't know what chenille really looked like so I looked it up. It is a tufted, velvety, fluffy yarn, used for trimming furniture and made into carpets or clothing. It looks a bit like velvet. I guess that it is a fabric that cats can get their nails into, which feels nice when they scratch it. It is probably effective in sloughing off the outer cuticle of the claw, which is one reason why cat scratch furniture or a scratching post ideally.

RELATED: Infographic on the reasons why cats scratch armchairs.

We know what synthetic leather looks like. It's sort of plasticky which I suspect is by cats don't like it. Their claws go through it in an uncomfortable way and it might not be as effective in sloughing off the outer cuticle.

Of course, just because cats are less inclined to scratch waterproof grosgrain it doesn't mean that they're not going to scratch the fabric but I guess less so.

By the way, grosgrain is a tightly woven plastic fabric as I understand it. You can see a picture of it below. I suspect that it is too tightly woven for claws to penetrate freely.

Grosgrain ribbon showing the nature and texture of this fabric. Image in public domain.

Study citation: 

Alexandre P. Rossi, Cassia R. C. dos Santos, Caroline M. Maia, Claudia C. B. Terzian, Deisy F. Predebon, Juliana S. C. de Queiroz, Laraue P. M. Pereira, Marina Z. N. Bastos, Maurício Choinski, Patricia E. Tsapatsis, Samantha R. M. de Assis & Tatiana M. Corrêa (2023) Rescued Cats Prefer to Scratch Fabrics Commonly Used to Cover Upholstered Furniture, Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 26:3, 313-324, DOI: 10.1080/10888705.2021.1949595

-----

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Woman who does TNR wrestles with a smart feral cat and it looks horrible

Woman who does TNR wrestles with a smart feral cat and it looks horrible. Screenshot.

This woman must be kind as she is a TNR volunteer. She feeds, traps and neuters feral cats where she lives - not sure where she lives! No matter. The video is a bit shocking as she takes a risk in trying to pick up a smart feral cat and place her in what appears to be a sack of some sort to take her to a vet to get her spayed. 

Me deciding to take a chance to grab the extremely smart feral cat I've been feeding so I can get her fixed. No cats were harmed! Only me!"

She makes a fool of herself looking stupid as she fights with the cat getting scratched. We don't see the injuries she suffered but she must have been harmed perhaps quite seriously. As I say, it looks horrible.

To be honest, she is brave in allowing the video to be uploaded to social media as she is not shown at her best of you know what I am getting at.

----------------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Adjustable anti-scratch cat shoe is an abomination

Get this picture. What do you think? Your answer depends on whether you want a living toy as a companion animal or a real cat (or as near as we can allow it). The woman/man who owns this Ragdoll cat believes in living toys and shuns the idea of allowing a cat to be a cat. Although there is one upside. They would probably have declawed their cat but for these ghastly bootees.

Read this provocative article about cat ownership: De-sexing our cats changes them from real animals to living toys.

Bootee on all four paws to stop scratching. Image: Reddit.com.

The manufacturers of these bootees are feeding the human fear in some cat owners of cat scratches and furniture being scratched. It is exploitation of a human problem that should not exist. 

Far better for the cat owner to learn to live with cat claws. To learn how to 100% avoid being scratched which is possible by observing cat behavior and understanding how to avoid scratches. 

To change one's attitude about furniture being scratched occasionally as this can be radically reduced by buying a great cat scratching post and putting special double-sided tape on those parts of the furniture which are targeted by cats. 

Training Your Cat to Use a Scratching Post and Where to Put It

There are far better ways to deal with cat claws which are an integral part of the cat. They are so important even when not used as defensive weapons. 

Cat Claw Anatomy Facts For Kids

Anyway, how does a cat feel with this human invention strapped to their paws? They can't feel alright. It must be discombobulating. It must be uncomfortable. 

It is the solemn duty of a cat owner to make their cat as happy as possible. Attaching these monstrosities to their paws achieves the opposite.

Tips for when your cat is biting or scratching humans

Here are some quick thoughts about domestic cat scratches and bites. When your cat is biting or scratching humans, including yourself, and if it goes on in a consistent manner, major damage can be done to the relationship. It is the emotional connection between the person and the cat which is chipped away. It can get to the point where there is a breakdown in that relationship. This can, in turn, lead to the cat being given up to a rescue centre. Or simply abandoned. That happens too often. Or as the relationship deteriorates, the cat become more anxious and more likely to bite or scratch in defense. A downward spiral.

Unwanted feline aggression but what is the cause? You need to analyse. Pic in the public domain.

Analysis through observation and thought required

If the person living with a cat is the kind of person who would abandon their cat under these circumstances, then this article is probably useless because it requires some effort to rectify the problem. It can require some detective work and reflection on what you are doing.

Unpredictable aggression or a pattern?

You might think that your cat bites and scratches you and other people in the home unpredictably, out of the blue and randomly. You might put this down to your cat becoming rogue and simply behaving badly. This won't happen. There will be a natural reason. It is just finding it. And invariably the cause will be with human behavior in one way or another.

Medical issues?

The first tip is to try and step back and not think emotionally (damned cat!) about it but to analyse the situation to get to the bottom of it. The professionals always say that you should check that your cat is in good health and not feeling pain or discomfort under certain circumstances before you go to the next step in the analysis. 

This is because cats are stressed by pain. And then when they are touched or picked up the pain is probably exacerbated. They interpret this as the person picking them up causing the pain. They strike out at that person in defence; defensive aggression, but the person picking up the cat doesn't realise it.

A cat might be injured, if they are indoor/outdoor cats, on their flank or on one of their legs. You can't see it because the injury is covered by fur e.g., if there is a broken bone. It hurts when they are picked up. Or they are ill with a disease that shows no immediate apparent symptoms. This might be cancer for example.

You've got to have a good look at your cat's health and rule out the medical issues that might be present.

When does the biting and scratching occur?

The next stage is to see whether your cat's aggression occurs at certain times of the day. You are looking for a pattern of behaviour. Your cat has body rhythms (circadian rhythms) just like people. They will be more active at certain times of the day than others. During those more active times they will need to release their energy. This would normally be in the form of hunting. The substitute for hunting, for indoor cats, is energetic playtime.

So perhaps, your cat jumps at your ankles in the late afternoon when you are pottering around in bare feet. This is the time when she would be outside hunting if she was allowed outside. She finds some object to hunt and it happens to be your ankles. Her body rhythms drive her to be active at dusk.

You can take proactive steps to meet her desire to be active and hunt at those times by playing with her instead. That should stop attacks on your ankles.

Play in the world of cats is not a luxury but a necessity. Particularly so for full-time indoor cats. It is something which I feel most cat caregivers don't give enough time to. I am poor at it myself. It is one way traffic really from the caregiver to the cat. The cat is thoroughly enjoying it and the human is discharging their responsibilities but rarely do people enjoy playing with their cat and certainly not to the same extent that their cat enjoys it. This is why humans don't instigate play sessions enough from the cat's perspective.

Where does the aggression take place?

And your analysis should look at, if applicable, where this aggression takes place. It may, for example, take place after your cat has been looking out the window and seen an intruding cat on her territory. This is territory outside the home which she might never use but from the cat's perspective it is her 'home range' nonetheless. 

A stranger on it is an invading cat. The resident cat should chase the cat away but they can't do it. Therefore, they have to be aggressive towards their human caregiver instead. This is normally described as redirected aggression or displaced aggression. The human is the innocent bystander under the circumstances. So, this analysis will help you find out whether the aggression is linked to the location where the aggression takes place.

Play turns to hunting hands?

Play sessions with cats can develop into aggressive sessions. I guess everybody knows that by now. There is a limit to how much roughhousing you can deliver to a domestic cat before the reactive behaviour of the cat becomes frankly dangerous and harmful to the person especially if hands are used inappropriately. This is overstimulation and petting becoming provocative from the cat's standpoint. It is described as 'putting your hands in the blender'.

Trim nails

Another thing you can do is to keep your cat's nails trimmed. And you should train your cat not to see your hands as toys. That means using a cat tease to play with your cat rather than thrusting your hand into the blender as mentioned.

Defensive aggression from timid cat?

Some cats are going to be timid and some domestic cats are going to be more confident. Timid cats may feel more threatened under perhaps innocuous circumstances. And when threatened a timid cat might become an aggressive cat.

One way to avoid timid cats becoming defensive and aggressive is to allow them a space where they can hide or avoid others by climbing vertically. This means a hiding space on the ground and/or a vertical space high up to where they can retire to feel safe and to perhaps avoid the unwanted attentions of other cats, another cat or people in the home when it is a multi-person home and there's plenty of noise and where maybe one person is not so great in handling cats.

Tell me your tips please.

I hope these thoughts help someone and their cat.

Wide, double-sided tape is better than vinegar to prevent a cat scratching furniture?

This is a personal view. Quite a lot of websites recommend diluted vinegar which you spray onto furniture to stop your cat companion scratching it. It's diluted so that the human caregiver doesn't smell it but the cat does because they have a superior sense of smell. I don't like the idea because although I have not tried it, I am convinced that I would smell the vinegar.

Wide, double-sided tape is better than vinegar to prevent cat scratching on furniture. Photo: Amazon.

The deterrent of vinegar for a domestic cat is its smell. Cats do have a superior sense of smell as mentioned but I just think the method is flawed. Both the cat and the human can smell things. The human is liable to smell the vinegar especially when they are sitting in an armchair right next to the stuff. Vinegar has a very noticeable and slightly unpleasant smell. You don't want to your home smelling like a fish and chip shop.  This seems to be likely if you have to spray three items of furniture.

Wide, double-sided tape is better than vinegar to prevent a cat scratching furniture? The tape was put on too late 😢 after my cat had scratched it. But I don't mind. He has not scratched it since the tape was added. This is an absorbent leather and unsuited to vinegar spray 🤢.

Tell me I'm wrong. Please comment and tell me that I am being too negative about this method.

Personally, I use extra wide double-sided tape which you can buy on Amazon and which is customised for the use of cat scratching prevention. It's effective and it doesn't smell! And also, it is almost invisible.

RELATED: How to tell your cat NO to using your furniture as a scratching post.

I've just thought of another problem with vinegar and spraying it onto furniture. If you have leather which is very delicate and not treated it may absorb the vinegar solution. This may stain it. Perhaps once again I am being too negative and seeing the downside and not the upside.

Like I said, I recommend products such as Amazon's Choice: Petslucent Cat Scratch Deterrent Sticky Paws Tape, Cat Furniture Protector. There are many alternatives. The one I mention costs about £10 in the UK. The role is far too long for you to use up so there's no problem in terms of quantity. It gets a four-star rating out of five with about two and half thousand reviews. I will call that good. It's not perfect because some people might dislike it and it is visible to a certain extent but it is effective.

Owner deliberately provokes kitten to attack her hand and arm

This is a deliberately provoked attack by the kitten's owner on her hand. You can see her offering her hand to the kitten in a way which is bound to provoke an attack, in my view. The owner knows this and expects it. She films the action as it unfolds. 

Screenshot. Sorry for the poor quality.

This is great and all very well. However, this wouldn't work for an adult cat because she would be hurt. If you have an adult cat clinging onto your arm and hand like that they will rake your arm with their hind legs and bite your hand in their jaws. The prey killing behaviour of a domestic cat. This kitten is killing their owner's hand. 😊

You're going to get injured to a certain extent dependent upon the athleticism and commitment of the individual cat. And of course it depends upon how keen on hunting the cat is. Some domestic cats are quite mild-mannered and not that interested in hunting while others, such as my cat, are very adept hunters and enjoy hunting every day. 

I apologise to the wildlife conservationists about that. However, he only or nearly only catches mice and keeps down the rodent population. I don't think wildlife conservationists can criticise me under those circumstances.

There is a wider issue in fact. In doing this you are training your kitten to attack your hand. I don't think it is wise for cat owners to use their hands and arms as play toys for their cat. It tends to create a bad habit in their cat which can lead to injury. Perhaps the person won't mind but they will eventually. 👎

ASSOCIATED: Masochist allows cat to damage their hand?

Cat owner allows their cat to extensively bite and scratch their hand. Photo in public domain.

I can remember a picture of a hand that had been badly scratched and it was if the owner of that hand was a masochist because they constantly allowed their cat to scratch it. It was not a pretty sight and I reproduce the photograph above.

Cat Scratching Behaviour Is Not Destructive

A lot of cat owners think that cat scratching behaviour is destructive.  Scratching can destroy furniture, damaged carpets; cats even scratch walls and destroy wallpaper and so on and so forth.

Scratching behaviour is highly destructive of the home if the cat caretaker fails to deflect scratching away from furniture to a scratching post and fails to realise that from the cat's perspective scratching is a highly constructive and beneficial form of behaviour because it's sloughs off the outer layer of claws, it allows the cat to stretch, it deposits scent on the area scratched so the cat feels more comfortable and it allows the domestic cat to do what comes naturally and when a cat is able to exercise and express natural drives and emotions he or she feels more content.

Photo by Jennifer C

Cat scratching is constructive from the cat's point of view and it is only destructive from the person's point of view if that person has the wrong attitude and fails to take steps to accommodate domestic cat behaviour.  It's as simple as that at the end of the day.

I realise that it can be difficult for a cat owner to adjust their mentality and attitude away from what they want, to what the domestic cat needs, but when a person takes on the responsibility of caring for a domestic cat then I'm afraid they have to adjust.

Why does my cat scratch my chair?

It is probably fair to say that by now the whole world knows the answer to this question. A cat does not scratch a person's chair out of spite or simply to be destructive. A cat scratches a chair to (A) slough off the outer layout of keratin that makes up the dead part of the claws and (B) to stretch his or her back and (C) to deposit some scent on the chair as a way of marking territory and making her home more friendly.

You will see wildcat species marking territory by scratching the ground and scratching tree trunks etc.. It is vital that domestic cats are allowed to scratch. The best object to scratch is a large and heavy cat scratching post.

It is important that the post is solid and immovable as this provides a natural substitute for a tree. It feels better for a cat and therefore a cat will be more likely to use it.

The Big Cat Scratching Post

The more I think about it, the more I realise that a cat scratching post needs to be large and well sited. There are a lot on them on the market which are not large enough. They don't work because a cat won't use it or is reluctant to use it. This has ramifications.

Kitten climbing a 'tree' - a large scratching post.

One consequence that comes to mind is that people who have thought about declawing their cat but resisted and bought a cat scratching post instead might then decide to have their cat declawed thinking that it is impossible to get their cat to scratch in the right place.

I hope people who have decided against declawing try again and purchase a large scratching post and put it where cats might mark territory as if they were wild cats. These places are normally in prominent locations within the cat's home range. An example might be near the back door if the cat is allowed to go out. When my cat goes outside he scratches trees. These are solid objects that don't move. Of course cats also scratch horizontally but in this post I am referring to the classic scratching post.

My opinion is that:

• a large scratching post that replicates to a certain extent a tree (see picture), placed
• in a prominent location that would be the cat's boundary of his or her home range or on a "trail" and
• to start the process of encouraging to scratch a scratching post while the cat is a kitten...

will result in success. Or at least there will be a good chance of success if these three guidelines are put into place. Patience, gentle encouragement and the judicious use of catnip will also help.

I am grateful for Dorothy for showing me the picture. I don't know who took the picture. If you see this and want a credit please leave a comment.

Notes on Cat Scratching

Cat scratching is necessary and normal feline behaviour, which can be a problem for cat caretakers. It is probably one of the top "behavioural problems" reported by cat owners. The sad thing is it is normal and is therefore not strictly speaking problem behaviour. The problem is more about human expectations, behaviour and attitude.

Cats scratch objects for the following reasons:

• to remove the outer sheath of the claw from the front feet. This reveals the sharper fresh claw underneath.
• to exercise the mechanism made up of tendons, bone and muscles, that protracts the claw when required e.g. attacking and grabbing prey. The claw is normally retracted.
• to stretch the back muscles (this is probably incidental to the primary functions).
• as a means to communicate in two ways: (1) depositing scent from glands in paws - olfactory communication and (2) leaving scratch marks  - visual communication.

If a single cat scent marks and scratches furniture in the home as a form of territorial marking it may be due to being ill at ease, anxious. The reasons should be investigated.  This may happen on objects near doors to the outside, for instance.

If in a multi-cat household a cat or cats mark territory through scratching and/or spraying or depositing feces it is probably due to stressful social interactions. Multi-cat households might require some management if the cats where selected to join the group by the person and not by the cats as is usually the case (in feral cat colonies). That might sound odd but cats have preferences. They like and dislike other cats and people.

A scratching post is an important piece of cat furniture. However most commercially available models are too small. The post should be of a sufficient height to allow the cat to fully stretch upwards. Scratching on armchairs occurs towards the arm rest or higher at the back of the chair; that sort of distance off the ground. We are looking at about three feet tall or more. Cats will also scratch horizontally (e.g. on carpets) so perhaps two devices should be installed, both of solid construction.

Never "solve" this so called cat behavioural problem by declawing the cat. That is cruel and unnecessary.  It also tends to create other problems that cannot be resolved. There are much better, gentler and more moral alternatives.

Associated: Will my cat use the scratching post?