Do cats scratch their claws for purposes other than scratching their claws?

[Kitty-The-Cat]

Sometimes my cat will scratch her claws on the scratching post, like, even 3 or 4 times within a couple minutes. Usually she seems to do it when she's in a frisky mood, or something like that. I can't believe for one minute that she actually feels the need to remove some of the sheaths from her claws that frequently. Anybody else's cats do this? There seems to be some kind of theraputic value in doing this, like stretching, or something.

[marie73]

My girls hit the scratch pads when I get up and when I get home, I think because they're excited.

Not because of me, of course, because they're about to be fed.

[Susan]

You're right. There is therapeutic value in stretching. My girls always go right to their post after awakening from each of their many naps.

Also, when cats scratch, they mark the item with their scent, estabishing it as "theirs"...so, I think territoriality plays a role in scratching habits.

[jusjim]

Missy scratches when she wants something. Sometimes it's food, sometimes play, sometimes petting, or at other times just to scratch. She scratches my old carpet in three different spots.

There was an incident with Zenobi, though. Zenobi was sitting on the stairs leading to the sundeck (that's the roof of the carport). Leaning against the house was a sheet of plywood. I thought that perhaps she'd like to use that to sharpen her claws. Before I got a live in cat, and I fed the big ginger stray, he often used it as a scratch board.

Cats learn from watching and copying, so I decided to give Zenobi a demo and using both hands I pretended to scratch the plwood. Zenobi went frantic rushing up and down three or four stairs, pushing her paws out to me. When I put my hand near to calm her I got love nibbles. I decided that my only recourse was to go inside. Five minutes later she'd calmed down. Obviously I'd given her some sort of message. That being so, I think it's safe to assume that she used scratching to communicate. What I said to her, I just don't know.