Hello. I have a very affectionate 5 year old cat that I got this August. He warmed up right away and wanted to sleep with me in my bed the first night. So I have let him ever since.

Recently he has gotten in the habit of clawing me to wake me up (or just generally for attention). I have tried both making a loud noise when he does this or ignoring him, but it doesn’t seem to work. Plus ignoring it is difficult when it hurts you lol.

So last night he was sleeping in bed with me as usual. He started clawing me at like 5 am and wouldn’t stop. So I tricked him to get him out of the room. I got out of bed and went into the hall where he obviously followed me. But then I walked back into my room and shit the door behind me.

He has been crying at the door all night which makes me feel bad but still. Is this a viable way to correct this behavior? My plan was to maybe do this each morning that he does this.

  • Manjushri@piefed.socialEnglish
    91·
    1 day ago

    I would also suggest nail trimming. The rule in my house is that if someone uses their claws inappropriately (on furniture, me, whatever) then it’s time for a nail trim. If you’re not sure how to do it, have your vet show you how to do it properly. You need to be very careful. If you trim a nail too short and hit the quick it’s very painful for your cat and it will bleed, maybe a lot. As I said, have a vet show you how to do it if you don’t already know how.

    You do NOT want this to be a traumatic experience. This is not a punishment. It’s just a consequence of using their claws when they shouldn’t. If you do it right, it is not painful for them but they do not enjoy the feeling of having short nails without points. I think it just feels weird to them. They will spend a lot of time afterwards at the scratching post working on resharpening them. If you promptly trim the nails after they misbehave, they will associate the two experiences and stop clawing inappropriately.

    Also, you might want to give them a treat immediately afterward to console them, if they are food motivated. After several years now, my cats will actually line up to get their nails clipped because they want the treat.