Just bought a new mattress and I need to make sure its safe from several cats.
I bought sheets of course but i have yet to buy a comforter/duvet and I want to protect those too
I have one that will vomit occasionally and often twice and another can be a bit of a furniture scratcher aha
I never had much trouble with cats on the bed. If you have a cat that’s likely to pee on the bed I would get one of those plastic mattress covers they make so kids can wet the bed. You can get one that is also bed bug proof which should keep out fleas too.
Then get a mattress topper or fold over a large wool blanket to put on top of the mattress protector and put your sheets over that. This will make it more comfortable to sleep on and will keep you from getting sweaty because you’ll sleep hot if you don’t separate yourself from the plastic layer.
Edit: For cat hair specifically I like to put an extra flat sheet over the bed during the day to protect the regular sheets. The cats will start to get smug when they manage to sleep on the regular sheets if you do this though haha.
Trim their nails regularly and keep a cat scratcher or two next to the bed
In addition to the above, if scratching is the worry, I’ve had luck with a couple of drops of Petitgrain / Bitter Orange essential oil where they’re keen to scratch. The smell is strong for a day when you first put it on, so if you hate it, that’s not helpful - it doesn’t bother me. It will fade over time, but I’ve found that that the deterrent is usually good for several months before they rediscover the location as a desirable scratch.
I also regularly (about once per week) mist where I do want them to scratch, their scratching posts, with catnip spray.
And finally, for a couple locations that they seem to always be super attractive for scratching, and are also out of the way (the backs of two fuzzy armchairs which are in corners on an angle, so a dark space for a cat to get into), I’ve covered them in double-sided sticky sheets sold as scratching deterrents, and that’s solved those as problems. This might not work as well on the side of a mattress that’s exposed, though.
The mattress can be protected by covering it with something the cats will scratch without damaging the mattress underneath. I recently bought a new mattress and added canvas pieces to the corners to protect it from damage, because that’s where the cat scratched my old mattress. But, the sheets are going to get ripped, that’s just part of living with an untrainable, clawed beast.
However, my cat has not been scratching my bed. I can only imagine he doesn’t like the sheets I got, which are higher thread count and harder than my old sheets. I think his claws don’t dig in as much so it’s not as satisfying, maybe.
But, you want to protect the sheets and duvet, too.
The solution is to keep the cats out of the bedroom. Good luck.
What is it with cats and vertices/corners
Maybe get some waterproof mite proof zipping covers for them. That way any pee won’t be a big deal, and any dander won’t make them allergy havens and as a bonus, no dusk mites. Or bed bugs.
