When you’ve just bought a brand-new sofa, the last thing you want is for your cat to scratch it up and make a mess. As cat owners, we know what that’s like and have had far too many pieces of furniture destroyed ourselves.
One way to avoid this problem is by investing in one of the best cat scratching posts so they focus their attention on that instead. For more ways to prevent this from happening, our guide on how to keep cats from scratching furniture can help you.
Although this behavior can be annoying (and expensive), there are some pretty good reasons why they do it which Amanda Campion, a clinical animal behaviorist, explained in her recent Instagram post. If you want to find out what they are, keep on reading:
1. Survival
Amanda explains that climbing trees would have helped them to survive in the wild, and to maintain the claws that help them climb, they need to scratch them.
Instead of cutting their nails down with scissors like humans, cats do it a little differently. Their claws grow from the inside out and when they scratch, the sheaths (the outside) come off and a new claw underneath is revealed.
2. Maintain healthy muscles
Scratching is also a great way for your cats to stretch, flex, and maintain their muscles. While a cat scratches, they’ll usually be stretching and flexing at the same time which helps to keep them toned and agile. If you’re looking for other ways to keep your cat in tip-top shape, try these seven cat exercises.
3. It feels good
If your cat is feeling a little anxious, they might start scratching to relieve some of that stress. Whenever your cat scratches, it releases endorphins in their brain which makes them feel happier. It's worth reading up on anxiety in cats to find out how you can help them.
4. They’re marking their territory
Amanda says that when a cat wants to mark their territory, they might start scratching a surface. When they do this, they leave behind a scent from their interdigital glands in their paws, telling other cats who’s boss.
Wondering ‘why does my cat scratch the wall?’ We asked an expert vet to explain. If you need advice on how to calm an aggressive cat, here are the answers you’ve been searching for.
