Expert: Tomay - 2/17/2004

Question
Hi, I have a cat, (his name is jordan) he is a very nice and good cat.  I like him all but for one thing.  I have a swifel chair with hard type styrofome armrests.  Jordan loves to sit on my chair and bite them, I hear him in the middle of the night biting on the chair.  It is damaging it and I had to order two new armrests, I didn't put the new ones on their since I am afraid he will ruin those.  Is there any way I can get my cat to stop biting them?  I tried putting aluminum foil on them for about one month and he bites through it.

Thanks.

Answer
Hello Chris,
There are a couple things you can do to try to remedy the problem Jordan has with biting and chewing.  There are spray on products, such as 'Boundary' which is a deterrent for cats.  It has an unpleasant smell to cats, and with a few repeated  applications, Jordan will be retrained to leave the chair alone.  
There are also 'scat matts'.  These matts come in different sizes and plug in.  When Jordan jumps on the matt in the chair, it will emit a small electrical charge, not enough to hurt him, but enough to deter him from even jumping up on the chair in question, thereby sparing the armrests.  Other methods of deterrents can be effective, but you must be present at the time.  Using (spraying)canned air or tossing an empty soda can with a few pebbles in it and taped shut in kitty's direction,  can also be effective.