Picking the best couch material for cats – Cats and furniture

You may need to know about the best couch material for cats to get furniture made for your house that is safe against cat damages like scratches, spills, or fur. It is difficult to make your cat stop scratching but it’s possible to have your furniture and other stuff protected and this is why we are here to help you with choosing the best couches for cats that won’t fall apart with a single session of clawing.

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Types of damages done by cats to the furniture

Cats usually exhibit a lot of instinctual urges and they may start doing weird things anytime for any reason, like damaging the house furniture. Well, you must not be feeling surprised because you may have either witnessed your furniture being clawed by your cat or heard your neighbor’s similar horror story.

Cats don’t have a special affinity for couches when it comes to making displays of aggression but it is surely an easy medium for them to play with their instincts which can make you look for cat proof couch. However, it would be wrong to assume that every cat damages furniture or that all of them damage furniture in the same way.

Claw in and scratch

Scratching is an instinctual as well as a recreational activity for cats and the legs of your sofa may appear highly luring to them for digging their claws into. Cats can literally claw into anything when the urge kicks in and if your furniture is of a favorable material, they would stick to clawing it forever. Cats who demand a lot of stimulation tend to scratch more because they won’t mind damaging things around to get some action and to avoid boredom at any cost.

Give messy stains

Another habit of cat is marking the objects that they see as their possession and they use their scent for doing so. Everything remains bearable until they get on to urine marking the furniture they like to scratch or sleep on. Cat urine can leave some really ugly stains on your furniture that aren’t so easy to get rid of.

Shed fur

Shedding is another major issue that cat owners have to face as no matter how much your cat sheds, it becomes very difficult to remove the fur off the furniture once it gets stuck to it. If your cat is one of the lazy ones and prefers curling up on couches, then the fur is going to be the biggest problem you will face in getting motivated to buy the best couches for cats that are fur-repellant.

Furniture material good for homes with cats

Now that we have seen the different types of damages cats can inflict on the house furniture, we would be listing all preferable furniture material along with the particular damage to which they are best resistant and the other damages that they cannot save. With the pros and cons together, you can decide what works for you better.

Leather

Leather belongs to the list of best couch material for cats because of the smooth texture that it possesses make it a great fur as well as stain repellant. So, if shedding and marking are the major concerns put forward by your cat, and then you can opt for the leather furniture.

It is very easy to clean leather couches as a single swipe can remove the fur and urine or vomit spills without leaving any stain behind. It can resist the cat scratches too up to some extent but let’s say that leather isn’t scratch resistant and that is its major downside. The scratches once made on leather don’t face away so easily and you may have to spend much more to protect them.

Faux leather

This is another variety of leather that is good for households with cats and an even better choice as it doesn’t let even a single fur strand to sit on it. The texture of faux leather is smoother and you can just simply brush on it to remove the fur or clean the cat spills with any general cleaner. This is an advantage because leather can only be cleaned by special cleaners.

The only major disadvantage of this material is that it can’t hold up against cat scratches of any level. However, the texture of the faux leather doesn’t feel good at cat claws and makes it less preferable for clawing but doesn’t remove the possibility altogether.

Velvet

You might not have heard of velvet being a desirable material for couches in houses with cats but it may turn out to be a great option for you. You may have already started thinking about the hassle it is to clean velvet which is true actually but your cat won't mostly turn to it for clawing due to the texture. You can say it's near to being the best couch material for cats with claws.

The only problem is cat fur which might not get off velvet so easily once stuck and the various stains will also be a big problem.

Microfiber

This material is a new entrant in the market but has been rising in popularity very fast due to the various qualities it has when it comes to being a couch material which is cat-proof. You can call this material to be the all-rounder contender but its best advantage is that is highly resistant to cat scratches. The better the quality of microfiber you buy, the higher the resistance it holds up against scratches.

The cat spills and stains can also be cleaned all a microfiber couch easily along with the cat fur that won’t be able to stick for it very long.

Some other couch fabric materials that are lesser popular include canvas and denim that are also good at scratch and stain resistance.

Recommended couch material for cat damage safety

We believe that the microfiber material can be considered the winner for the best couch material for cats as its qualities and features make it able at resisting all kinds of cat damage to the best level possible. Let’s see the unique benefits of having microfiber furniture:

The fiber in this material is knit together very tightly which makes it dense and thus water-resistant, stain-resistant, and very light.
The density of the material also makes it difficult for the cats’ claws to dig in deep and the texture also doesn’t feel very good for clawing.
The cat fur can easily be cleaned off the surface of microfiber furniture even with a single sweep of a vacuum cleaner or a simple lint roller too.
The thin fabric doesn’t have any compromised durability or toughness factor associated.

Some tips on making furniture cat proof

You get the option of choosing a cat proof sofa or couch when you are starting afresh but what about the ones who can’t change their furniture. Don’t worry; we have got some tips for all those people too who got cats after they got their couches.

You can make your furniture claw-resistant by covering them with metal frames that don’t feel so good under claws.
You can also get the furniture protector covers that look very trendy along with giving complete protection to your couch against any kind of cat damage.
Install scratch posts in your house and make them even more luring by smudging some catnip on them.
You can also clean your furniture with citrus based cleaners as the smell would repel cats.
Spread rugs in the cat spaces which are good and safe options for cats to scratch on.
Train your cat towards understanding the desirable and undesirable objects for scratching via verbal cues, rewards, etc.
Keep the nails of your cat trimmed or you can put nail caps on their claws too. Trimming nails need to be frequently done when you have a cat that scratches a lot.
Punishment is never an option for teaching cats not to claw.

Conclusion

Cats are highly notorious creatures and they prove that with the various weird thing you witness them doing around the house like pissing on the most unimaginable thing or licking the weirdest item. Thus, get the best couch material for cats that would put up a tough fight against their claws and won’t make you run to the store for an item of new furniture or fixer now and then.

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Luna Tran

My name is Luna and I am a great cat lover and a cat owner of three lovely cats. I have owned many cats till now and have dedicated many years to nurturing and caring cats. Through this blog, I am here to share my knowledge and experience about cats.