Advice needed urgently: new cat, my apartment floor is all carpet, he won't stop scratching

[alyssamagma]

Since it's all carpet, I can't use a repellent because then he would have nowhere to walk! I've been giving him alternative objects to scratch -- scratcher from store, old foam mattress topper, cardboard boxes, my bedsheets-- but he keeps going back to the carpet. Maybe it's anxiety related since this apartment is new, but it's doing real damage.

What are my options? I've read online about Soft Claw and could use it if necessary, but it seems a little mean to keep him from being able to really scratch anything. I just need it to stop on the carpet.

 

[red top rescue]

You need to find something he likes bettter, and also be sure to keep his claws clipped short and then he won't be able to hook into anything.  This is better for him as well as for the carpet.  There are lots of videos on YouTube demonstrating how to clip claws. 

Mine re particularly fond of the cardboard scratchers that go on the floor, and also the S-shaped scratchers you can get for not much money at Walmart.    You might also add an old stuffed chair from a thrift store.  Mine like that a lot too. 

 

[jules10]

Hello,

I have a couple of pieces of this cat furniture for my two male tomcats that are 3 years old.  They use this all of the time and never claw anything but this cat furniture.  I bought this for them when they were kittens and it got a lot of use and it has required being replaced twice now.  The cost for two pieces was ~$200.00 and it is well worth it! 

I also bought a new sofa recently and they never claw it nor the wall-to-wall carpeting that I have in the house.  This is a great option and far better than a declaw job to say the very least.

I have a 40" scratching post and one with a ramp/perch.  You can buy them for this site directly or you can often find them on ebay.com or amazon.com. 

https://www.sisalrugs.com/cat-s-meow-scratching-post.html

This cat furniture is dipped in catnip oil and they can barely wait for it to be set-up when it arrives in via UPS.  They know what is in the boxes alright!  Being I started using cat furniture as soon as I got them as kittens they ever had the chance to love the sofa or carpets luckily!

I hope this helps! 

 

[krazykatjenn]

Yup, this is definitely a case of figuring out what the cat likes more than carpet.

When we moved to our new apartment we had to leave the cat tower behind and our cat started scratching the carpet out of sheer boredom even though she had mouse toys and scratcher beds. As soon as we got her new cat tower assembled and her cat shelves hung back up (she got so excited when she saw them that she tried to jump on one while I was still attaching it to the wall!) she lost all interest in the carpet. Cat towers > carpet as far as Alice is concerned.

Maybe you could start cheap with some self made cat shelves and see if your cat likes getting up high? The people at home depot were incredibly helpful when I was making my cat shelves. I'm useless with tools but I still managed to put them together, so they're pretty simple and I think the cost on mine ended up coming out to a couple dollars each?