It is quite easy to stop kittens from scratching the walls or the furniture. They do this for exercise and to sharpen their claws, rather as we file our nails. The cat has to keep trimming its nails or they become too long and that is why it scratches wooden objects such as the furniture, trees and wooden fences.

Many cats are given special scratching posts, a block of wood or an old box. They soon learn to sharpen their claws on these and to leave the furniture unmolested.