Cat scratching help

[Sforshey]

My boyfriend and I adopted a 4 month old kitten in January and he has been great until recently, something is bothering him where he wants to scratch our carpet now and we are unsure what could be bothering him. It started off gently but now he is harshly pulling up the whole carpet off of the floor. He hates things being on the carpet and will violently dig into the floor if we leave something like a backpack or sometimes even his toys. We have tried covering the carpet to stop the scratching but it bothers him more now. He walks on the tin foil, he still scratches if black pepper is on the floor, and he will not use a scratching post that’s vertical or horizontal. We have tried catnip, pheromone sprays, and playing with him but he doesn’t want to play he just wants to scratch. And he scratches all day and night. We’ve tried everything we could find online but I swear nothing is working. we can’t afford to replace our carpet. Any tips will help, we are losing hours of sleep and we are struggling.

 

[Maurey]

How much interactive play does he get a day? Does he have any other odd behaviours? Have you tried giving him a carpeted scratching post? Is he neutered?

 

[Sforshey]

We initiate play all hours during the day but he is not interested a lot of the time, we have not tried a carpet scratching post yet. He was neutered before we adopted him. Thank you for replying!

 

[rubysmama]

Hello and welcome to TCS. What a gorgeous kitty!

About his carpet scratching, I can relate. My cat, Ruby, loves to scratch carpet. Fortunately I only have carpet in the basement, but she has managed to destroy a few areas of it. So I know how quickly your boy could ruin your carpet. Unfortunately, I don't have any tips for you, as it seems some cats just love to scratch carpet.

Ruby even has a 2 level cat condo, that's covered with carpet, and she has gone through several of them over the years. Cheaper to replace than carpet, of course. So maybe look into getting him something like that.

Here's the one Ruby has: Whisker City® Cat Condo (COLOR VARIES) | cat Furniture & Towers | PetSmart And because likes to scratch horizontally, the lower level "bed" part is being slowly destroyed.

She also has one of these, and she will scratch the base of it.
Whisker City® Cat Scratching Post | cat Scratchers | PetSmart

 

[Sforshey]

We got him a cat tower that is carpet and gas rope scratching posts, he doesn’t scratch it much but he does enjoy it! Our whole apartment is carpet besides the bathroom and kitchen so we are stuck with this issue for a bit haha. Thank you for the scratching post!

 

[di and bob]

Get a large corragated cardboard scartcher at Walmart in the cat bed/toy section, sprinkle catnip on it and see if he will scratch on that. most cats love them. if it is just certain places he is doing this, get some clear plastic carpet runner/protector with the little nubs on the back and put it nub side up on the areas, it hurts their feet to walk on it and quickly makes them avoid the area. it is easily removed and placed. You could also get some large carpet samples and lay them around with catnip sprinkled on them and see if he will accept that. He will most likely calm down and grow out of this behavior, but needs to learn what is acceptable.

 

[Sforshey]

I didn’t think to use carpet samples, I will definitely get those! We though he was calming down a bit but he took us by surprise haha

 

[suzeanna]

Similar recommendation to the carpet samples, but you could get a carpet to put on top of your carpet. I know that sounds a little silly, but we have a cheap 4'x6' carpet from IKEA and it's totally Susan's territory. She loves hanging out on it and when we play with the laser pointer, she only tries to catch it when it's on the carpet. The carpet is where she receives her meals, and she also does a good scratch scratch scratch scratch on it after using her litter box in the other room.

 

[Sforshey]

Ok that’s a good idea! I know he needs to help his nails with scratching so if he likes carpet I definitely don’t mind buying a sample for him! Thank you!