# Cat clawing up banister!



## Shygal (May 26, 2003)

Hi everyone,

Ive a problem! My cute sweet little kitty :angel: has decided it is fun to jump on the newel post and sharpen claws up the stair banister. She has the top of it pretty well clawed up and now she has decided its fun to pull her self up to the top of the stairs by sliding along the banisteer and digging in claws 

What can I do to stop that? This is a rental house and Im already expecting to be sanding and painting and staining  but I don't want her to do that, period. 
Any ideas? I already wrapped the bottom of the newel post with a carpet because she was using that to sharpen. Of course she wont touch the carpet to sharpen on .


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## Ardie/WI (May 10, 2002)

We clip the cats nails every ten days. It takes a bit of practice and they pout after, but it beats shredded furniture!

There is also animal repellent sprays available.


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## Nancy_in_GA (Oct 20, 2004)

Some cats seem to like to sharpen their claws on wood rather than carpet, and some like to do it on a flat surface, rather than a vertical one. Two of my 3 cats are/were like that. We have a half a section of a pecan log laying on the floor that they use all the time. 

Can you get hold of a soft piece of wood easily? If it has bark on it, it's better. It *might* work. 

But part of the attraction might be that she is up high in the air on the bannister. All cats seem to like to be up high.


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## RandB (Aug 13, 2002)

I agree with what Nancy says, we have a cat who spent a lot of her life outdoors, and is now indoors most of the time. We had a temporary railing set up along our front walkway a few years ago, and we noticed there was one of the wooden posts that the cat really enjoyed using to sharpen her claws on. So, when the railing was taken down, we left that one post up. She still uses it as her sharpening place, and she never sharpens in the house. 
I would suggest, if possible, you need to make her an alternative sharpening post. Most cats prefer something vertical, like your bannister post, because they like to dig their claws in above their head, and stretch out. It might not look pretty, but you could get a section of an unfinished wooden fence post, at least 3 feet tall, and attach it to a sturdy base. Then place it near the spot she is using now, and I would also temporarily completely cover up the stair post. Wrap it with strips of cloth, or even paper, something she would like a lot less than her new wooden post. Hopefully she will like the feel of the unfinished wood better than what she was using, and transfer over. Good luck, it is HARD to make a cat do anything !


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## Elizabeth (Jun 4, 2002)

When we bought this place I refused to move any of our cats over here from our old place until hubby cut down a large tree branch and made a cat tree to put in out new living room. Ot worked great! He made a stand for it and built a couple of shelves on it for the cats to climb on and lay on. We put it in front of a big bay window in the living room- interesting furnishing, lol. But the cats love it and hardly scratch anything else. There are a couple of spots tat have huge deep claw marks from repeated scratching- every time I look at it I think what my furniture would look like if we hadn't made the cat tree.

For your cat- I would recommend a nice tall cat tower kind of thing which she can climb and scratch. Then, any time you see her near the banister squirt her with a spray bottle filled with water- cats hate that. Do it consistently and she will learn to stay off the banister.


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## Cat (Jun 19, 2004)

You can also finagle some way to give her a taste of double-sided tape by wrapping a piece of construction paper around the banister somehow & putting a liberal amount of double sided tape on it. In my experience cats really don't like sticky paws.


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## Cat (Jun 19, 2004)

The purpose, I mean, is to get her out of the habit of jumping up there and 'redirecting' her.


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

I love the tape idea. But, you do need to give her an alternative, like tree in the living room.


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## TedH71 (Jan 19, 2003)

Cats do that stratching thing to mark territority. Kind of hard to train them out of it but there are ways.....


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