Cat scratching carpet!

hidden_sacrifice

Okay so I've been all over the internet for help but nothing seems to be working. Our kitten (only has him 2 weeks) has started scratching the carpet in the lounge. We only have him downstairs and we have plenty of toys. He has a large scratching post with hidey holes in the kitchen which he uses and we've bought him a basic one for the lounge. He has 2 favourite scratching spots, one is in the middle of the floor where he likes to play and the other is around the base of the scratching post! For this reason I don't want to use a deterant spray as this will deter him away from the scratching post and his 'play area'.

Does anyone have any suggestions? As I said, we've only had him 2 weeks but he has only started this over the last 3 or 4 days.

balletshoes

when you see him start to scratch the carpet instead of his post, move his paws off the carpet and onto the post. And repeat .

hidden_sacrifice

Unfortunately this doesn't work. He thinks it's a game and runs away when I try to move him.

WeAreGhosts

my cat used to scratch one part of the lounge carpet for some reason ... we bought some Feliway http://www.amazon.co.uk/Feliway-Natural-Spray-60-ml/dp/B003Y3VFWC and sprayed that area and she hasnt touched it since!

McKneff

Kleneze sell something called Scratch no More. It worked for us. It is Citrus based and
cats hate the smell of oranges or lemons.

hidden_sacrifice

WeAreGhosts wrote: »

my cat used to scratch one part of the lounge carpet for some reason ... we bought some Feliway http://www.amazon.co.uk/Feliway-Natural-Spray-60-ml/dp/B003Y3VFWC and sprayed that area and she hasnt touched it since!

I thought about this as I've seen really good reviews but it is quite expensive. Does anyone know if you have to keep doing it, or just until the bottle runs out and then the cat has got used no not scratching there anymore? As I don't want it to be something that I have to keep buying forever as that would be quite costly

DD265

We've used Feliway in the past (but the diffuser) and it definitely helps.

In my experience it's good to bring it out again when a situation changes - i.e. there are new stresses. One of our cats sprayed which he has never done before but we're having building work done in two rooms including the one he sprayed in so assuming that it was a stress response. For now we'll keep them out of the rooms but once the work is done plan to use Feliway to help them settle down again.

rach_k

What seemed to work with my cat was making my own citrus spray and spraying it in her direction when she scratched. I used mostly water with a good squeeze of lemon washing up liquid and some lemon and lime essential oils. Probably a spray of water would work too but you might have to actually spray the cat properly then!

I also got one of those flat scratching things (the ones that are just a rectangle of corrugated cardboard) and put it right next to where she was scratching, she uses that all the time now.

Mockingjays

hidden_sacrifice wrote: »

Okay so I've been all over the internet for help but nothing seems to be working. Our kitten (only has him 2 weeks) has started scratching the carpet in the lounge. We only have him downstairs and we have plenty of toys. He has a large scratching post with hidey holes in the kitchen which he uses and we've bought him a basic one for the lounge. He has 2 favourite scratching spots, one is in the middle of the floor where he likes to play and the other is around the base of the scratching post! For this reason I don't want to use a deterant spray as this will deter him away from the scratching post and his 'play area'.

Does anyone have any suggestions? As I said, we've only had him 2 weeks but he has only started this over the last 3 or 4 days.

I've rehomed a cat recently, he also likes to scratch the carpet. I solved the problem by buying a scratch board and scratch mat from Pets at Home, he loves using them. That way he can scratch and stretch his back as he seems to prefer doing but without wrecking the carpets.

Good luck!

WeAreGhosts

hidden_sacrifice wrote: »

I thought about this as I've seen really good reviews but it is quite expensive. Does anyone know if you have to keep doing it, or just until the bottle runs out and then the cat has got used no not scratching there anymore? As I don't want it to be something that I have to keep buying forever as that would be quite costly

it will vary from cat to cat i suppose, but literally i used it once on the area and she has not scratched it since. maybe i just got lucky? you dont need to spray it that liberally so i think if you just do what DD265 does and bring it out when there are new stresses then it should last a while. we do that [sprayed the doorstep when she first went out, sprayed her crate when she went to the vets etc] and it isnt even a quarter of the way through the bottle three months after buying.

morg_monster

My cats love their scratch post but they also love scratching the carpet. I've given up with it now - they will stop doing it with a shout when we're home, but we're at work most of the day and asleep at night so plenty of time to destroy the carpet then!! We are selling our house now and the carpet does look bad - anyone know of a way to get rid of the "fluff" they scratch up, without crawling around on hands and knees with a pair of sharp scissors?! I think what has made it worse is that it was brand new carpet so loads of fluff came up because we were too lazy in hoovering frequently when it was first laid.