By: Emma Xing

Cats are one of the most–loved pets in the world! In fact, in the U.S., around 45.6 million households have cats in them! While cats are cute and ideal pets, they also scratch everything from furniture to even humans.

They use their sharp claws on carpets, sofas, cushions, and a ton of other items in a typical household. However, recently, a new study has shown solutions to this problem.

An international team of researchers decided to investigate which factors influence scratching behaviors in domestic cats. For the study, the researchers questioned around 1,200 cat owners in France about their cats’ daily lives and characteristics and their scratching habits.

They found the presence of children in the home, personality traits of certain cats like aggression, and their activity levels all had a big impact on how much scratching they did.

“We see a clear link between certain environmental and behavioral factors and increased scratching behavior in cats,” said Dr Salgirli Demirbas, who is a veterinary researcher at Ankara University in Turkey and first author of the new study. “Specifically, the presence of children in the home as well as high levels of play and nocturnal activity significantly contribute to increased scratching. Cats described as aggressive or disruptive also exhibited higher levels of scratching.”

The researchers concluded that stress was a key reason for the scratching. For example, the presence of small children might increase stress to cats and cause them to stress–scratch.

However, researchers haven’t found out why children cause cats to become stressed. More research is needed to solve that problem.

But how are owners supposed to stop the scratching? One way is to put scratching posts near their preferred resting areas rather than what looks suitable to the owner. The car might be more comfortable to scratch on the post when it’s right beside its resting area.

Other ways include providing cats with safe hiding places or higher spots to observe their surroundings.

Giving them lots of opportunities to play for short periods could also reduce the stress–scratching.

“Understanding the underlying emotional motivations of scratching behaviour, such as frustration, which seem to be linked to personality traits and environmental factors, allows caregivers to address these issues directly,” said Dr Salgirli.

Image Credit by Samer Daboul