How to Stop Cats From Scratching Doors
Is your furball using the doors as a scratching post? Curious how to stop cats from scratching doors?
You love your furry friend. They’re a huge part of your life. Your cat is important to you, but sometimes our furballs get on our nerves. This is especially true when you can’t stop a cat from scratching the door.
So how do you get your cat to stop this annoying behavior? Well, let’s dive in and take a look.
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How to Stop Cats From Scratching Doors
First, we need to determine why your cat is scratching the door. Typically, a cat scratches the door for two reasons. While this isn’t exact science, it’s likely your cat is scratching the door because:
- Cats Just Love to Scratch: Blank. Period. Cats just love to scratch. That’s just the way it is. People buy cat scratching posts (see our article on this topic here) for a reason. If you don’t, many cats will end up clawing away at the furniture and the doors. If your cat has claws, they will need somewhere to scratch. Some cats who have toys (read our list here) and scratching posts, still claw at the doors because they love to scratch everything.
- No Other Place: If you don’t give your cat an option to scratch something else, then you can’t be too upset when your doors become their preferred place to claw away. Cats must have a place to claw away.
- For Attention: Sometimes your cat just wants your attention. Maybe they’re hungry or want to play. If your cat only claws at the door when you haven’t been showing a lot of affection, then the issue is you have a bored cat.
Stop Your Cat From Scratching Doors 101
So how do you control your furry friend? Now we know why our cats scratch, let’s look at how to stop them. You have a few options to control your feline’s clawing urges. Here’s what we’ve found works well:
- Ignore It
If your cat is only clawing away for attention, then you need to ignore it at first. You can’t use positive or negative enforcement – as both will give the cat what it wants, attention.
So just ignore it for a few days or a week and see what happens. Many cats quickly stop scratching the door if they aren’t getting the attention they want because of it. This should be your first resort.
- Food and Fun
If the ignoring isn’t working, you can try to change things up for your furball. Switch how you feed your cat and switch when you guys play together. Your goal will be to put your cat to bed at night when you want to sleep.
Start by playing with your cat before you go to bed. Shoot for 15-30 minutes. Make sure your cat is tired. Then feed your cat a big meal – the biggest one you’ll feed them all day. This should ensure your furry friend is ready for a nice nap as you doze off into the night.
- Offer Alternatives
If your door and furniture are the only places your cat can scratch, then it’s no surprise that they’re clawing your home. Cats need to claw. You have to give them a place to scratch away.
Stop your cat scratching doors by offering toys and cat clawing posts that are designed to entertain your furry friends while keeping their claws healthy. Even if you cat is just clawing for attention, you’ll still benefit by offering the furball a place to scratch when needed.
- Door Scratching Deterrents
For the vast majority of cats, the three items above will ensure they ignore the door when they want to scratch or need attention. However, some cats just love to claw at the door. The door is their favorite place to keep their claws and paws healthy. So they won’t stop.
If your cat is like this, then you need to take further steps and precautions. This means buying and using a door scratching deterrent or two. There are a few ways to do this.
First, you could cover any doors your cat likes to claw with double sided tape. They hate the sticky feeling on their claws. If this doesn’t work, you’ll have to focus smell to deter.
You can either buy a motion-detected deterrent that emits a puff of scent when your cat walks by. Or you can just spray the door with a deterrent. Usually, something with citrus oil repels cats well.
Stop Cats From Scratching Doors Today
We know you love your furry friend. Plus, your cat needs to claw. It doesn’t have to do so on your doors. Instead, just use the methods above to keep your doors safe from kitty claws.
