I've always wanted a bengal and my husband and I finally are in a place in our lives when we can finally get one. We are just a little nervous because we have expensive furniture. I was wondering if anyone has ever had problems with their bengal clawing at their furniture. I plan to have plenty of scratching posts and toys for him. Any advice is helpful. Thanks!

My bengal has NEVER scratched the furniture. He has multiple cat trees with sisal rope that he uses. He also has two other scratching posts that he uses. If you give your baby a ton of other scratching options, you will save your furniture. How many scratchers are enough? I don't think you can ever have too many. Whatever you do, please do not de-claw your cat, unless you are willing to cut your own fingers off at the knuckles.

In general, I think that having cats (and especially bengals) as pets, and the having a bunch of expensive items in your home which are no-no's to your cats is just a bad idea, especially when it's a zero-tolerance sort of situation. Mine aren't really *that* bad, but I put a lot of effort, and money, into catifying my home, part of which is having lots and lots of structures that are "yes" places for cats to climb and sharpen their claws on. Even with that though they've scratched up a few of my chairs pretty good. My attitude is that I wish they wouldn't do it, but it's their home too so it doesn't really upset me (much).

There are plenty of things that you can do that will reduce the amount of damage a cat will do, or the likelihood of them doing damage (like scratching posts, bitter yuck spray, trimming their claws, or using "soft paws"), but none of those things are 100%, and over time they'll probably still be hard on certain furniture. It's going to end badly is my prediction, if you add a bengal.

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The little monsters 3

If you take on a bengal kitten ( or two ) then you have to understand that things will get damaged. My 2 have never clawed at wood, but have scratched my leather sofas. They've pounced on them, bunny kicked them, used them as a launch platform when flying out of the living room, tried to burrow into them, etc, etc.

Give them as many scratching poles and cardboard scratchers, play with them *A LOT*, but take into account you will have *very* active kittens and some things will get damaged.

Expect also to live in a vase free environment - they will knock things off shelves for fun and giggles.

>double post>

Mine have not scratched my furniture, they tend to use their huge cat tree and other posts I have got for them.

They have damaged other items in the house, the curtains, carpets have been chewed, wall paper plus things knocked off and broken, pictures from walls, this is just a few things.

I have learned along the way what needs to be put away for protection, I have 2 bengals and had 1 before these 2 and they are all different, some are naughtier than others, my 1 year old Pearl seems to be exceptionally naughty but I knew they were different to ordinary cats before getting them and I except the fact things will get damaged but that's life.

They are not the sort of cat that will sleep for 18 hours a day and they can get bored easily and that's when things start to get damaged.

They are a beautiful breed that never grow up which makes them quite high maintenance.

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Clare
Magic (brown spotted boy born 31 March 2012)
Pearl (seal Lynx Point girl born 1 October 2015)
Bristol, UK

I have more scratching posts than I thought possible. My cats use them constantly and also claw my leather furniture, bed linen and anything else they can get their paws on. I say their name loudly followed by a sharp NO! and sometimes they will stop. Well it is mostly Grace that does the damage. I have never been able to cut even one of her nails even as a little kitten. I guess I should take her to the groomers and get them trimmed down but it is such a production getting her in the car, etc. I usually end up hurting myself in the process so I let it go. The furniture already has punctures in it. They are wearing me down!

Katniss only scartches the leather when it comes to furniture. Computer leather chair is now hers as it's no saving that. Luckily our sofa is fabric and she has no interest in that. The only other thing she will claw is the carpet, but I'm not too fussed about that. I want to get rid of it anyway, lol

My cat has two scratching poles but still claws on my furniture, i guess it depends on the cat you will own.

We have two leather recliners that Raiden loves to walk over and jump up and down from his cat tree onto. I haven't inspected them, but probably have a few puncture marks from his claws. Not a big deal to me. My home is his home and it is normal for a cat to scratch to clean their claws and get rid of the old stuff. It's how they do their "fingernails." You can't change that behavior at all and I hate it when cats are declawed. One either covers the expensive furniture or makes sure the cat isn't in that room. If you truly value your stuff more than your pet, then you don't need a pet. If you train your cat to use the scratching posts you have made available, the cat will probably use them over any furniture you have.