[ellied]

When I had my 4-5yo cats as kittens I tried to  keep them indoors for the first 6 months or so as I live beside a main road and had lost 2 previously.  It didn't work and I let them out so they now come and go but I always have them in at dusk and shut the door til morning.

However, while they were indoors kittens they started using doorposts as scratching posts and areas of wallpaper near corners aswell - I've got them off the walls since then I think, and sacrificed one old door as a scratcher, but no matter what I try I can't stop them scratching on the doorpost of my bedroom in the morning particularly when they want breakfast/out..  I believe there is a chemical in their scratchings that brings them back to it no matter what I shout or how many times at what volume..

I am wanting to sand and revarnish the doorposts and eventually risk repapering the walls - is there anything I can put on the areas meantime to break the habit before I put time and money into redecorating?  Or would varnish be enough to hide the scent and stop them attacking it?  Or is it way too late - the 2 older cats are nearly 5 and the younger one is over 2 and adds a vocally insistent alarm call to their scratching noises..

[Dans]

When my kitties took a flavour to the side of the sofa I popped a scratching post dead in front of it. They had formed the habit of going to that spot and scratching. Once The scratching post was in the way they started scratching that. I moved the post to a more convenient location, sprayed some cat nip on it and sprayed some cat repellent on that corner of the sofa. All fine since and they will now follow the cat post wherever it goes.

You can get flat posts that you screw to a wall or door, you could use that where they have been scratching (yes it will give you a couple of holes but you already have damage), once they are used to scratching those you could try moving them elsewhere and popping a bit of repellent on the places they previously scratched. Once you're happy they aren't scratching there anymore you can redecorate.

This is the one of the posts that can go on a wall/surface

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/scratching_posts/scratching_pads/scratching_mats/13164

And this is the repllent. I find it is targeted enough to keep the cats away from that particular spot without them minding walking past or being nearby, which is great for us as the cats have a 99% free roam of the house.

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/cat_health/cat_repellents_cat_calming/64893

Hope that helps

Dans

[doganjo]

Can't you shut them in the kitchen overnight?

[sabrina]

We used one of those thick hairy door mats. ( Not sure what it was made of ) cats love it and use it all the time. We also put one on the wall at the door in the hall and again that is all they use. Better than anything else we tried.

[Dans]

oh yeah my cats love the thick doormats, got ours from ikea. They take all their toys there for the 'kill', open the door to find a pile of toy mice!

Dans

[sabrina]

That's where we bought ours too