Hi everyone,
We have 2 cats which we have had for a few years now and have been having issues with one of them (Thor, our black cat) since day 1. Our other cat (Lily, the white one) has been behaved with scratching since day one and never caused any damage. We got Thor about a year prior to getting Lily, Thor has always been really well behaved around people and never uses his claws on anyone, however furniture and carpet are a different story... see, Thor loves to scratch everything except the scratching post, he loves ripping up carpet and destroyed all of our leather chairs and leather couches. After we got Lily things improved, it's like she managed to push some of her good behaviors on him and he mostly stopped scratching furniture focusing instead on the carpet. We don't know what to do anymore we feel like we have tried everything with him and nothing works, here are a few things we tried and a rough idea of our setup:
We have a 2 story home and have a cat post on our main floor by our living room, we have another cat post in the middle of our stairs leading to upstairs (on a big flat section) and we have another cat post on our second floor, we also have a few smaller scratch boards which we located in various areas like on the stairs carpet in horizontal and on some other areas vertical, Lily loves them, but Thor only casually uses them (see below).
What we have tried so far:
Yelling at him (I know we shouldn't have done this). Mixed results
Water spray (I know we shouldn't have done this). Little results
Remotely activated blender located in areas where he scratches the most (carpet stairs): Some results, reduction in scratching but also stress from the blender, as soon as we removed the blender scratching resumed to original frequency
Felliway dispenser: 0 results even after sustained use
Nail caps: very little results, the little bugger manages to pull them out even if that meant ripping parts of his nails out, also very time consuming to install and a complete pain to deal with him doing it. We tried to have the vet put them on and did last a little longer but he still found ways to get them out and they eventually fall out anyway, not a sustainable option.
Spraying and dropping cat nip on scratching posts: This probably had the best results so far, we used this combine with rewarding him with treats, play time and cuddles when we observed good behaviors. He started using the posts however he only added those to his scratching areas and still keep scratching the carpet.
We really don't know what to do anymore, we love him he's a really sweet cat, super well behaved with people but just very destructive. We live in a brand new house and I already had to repair significant portions of carpet multiple times until I gave up and he destroyed all of our brand new leather furniture which we are now looking at replacing but are very hesitant given his history. I'm at the point where I just want him declawed, but I know that isn't a good option especially that we have another cat.
Any ideas?
We have 2 cats which we have had for a few years now and have been having issues with one of them (Thor, our black cat) since day 1. Our other cat (Lily, the white one) has been behaved with scratching since day one and never caused any damage. We got Thor about a year prior to getting Lily, Thor has always been really well behaved around people and never uses his claws on anyone, however furniture and carpet are a different story... see, Thor loves to scratch everything except the scratching post, he loves ripping up carpet and destroyed all of our leather chairs and leather couches. After we got Lily things improved, it's like she managed to push some of her good behaviors on him and he mostly stopped scratching furniture focusing instead on the carpet. We don't know what to do anymore we feel like we have tried everything with him and nothing works, here are a few things we tried and a rough idea of our setup:
We have a 2 story home and have a cat post on our main floor by our living room, we have another cat post in the middle of our stairs leading to upstairs (on a big flat section) and we have another cat post on our second floor, we also have a few smaller scratch boards which we located in various areas like on the stairs carpet in horizontal and on some other areas vertical, Lily loves them, but Thor only casually uses them (see below).
What we have tried so far:
Yelling at him (I know we shouldn't have done this). Mixed results
Water spray (I know we shouldn't have done this). Little results
Remotely activated blender located in areas where he scratches the most (carpet stairs): Some results, reduction in scratching but also stress from the blender, as soon as we removed the blender scratching resumed to original frequency
Felliway dispenser: 0 results even after sustained use
Nail caps: very little results, the little bugger manages to pull them out even if that meant ripping parts of his nails out, also very time consuming to install and a complete pain to deal with him doing it. We tried to have the vet put them on and did last a little longer but he still found ways to get them out and they eventually fall out anyway, not a sustainable option.
Spraying and dropping cat nip on scratching posts: This probably had the best results so far, we used this combine with rewarding him with treats, play time and cuddles when we observed good behaviors. He started using the posts however he only added those to his scratching areas and still keep scratching the carpet.
We really don't know what to do anymore, we love him he's a really sweet cat, super well behaved with people but just very destructive. We live in a brand new house and I already had to repair significant portions of carpet multiple times until I gave up and he destroyed all of our brand new leather furniture which we are now looking at replacing but are very hesitant given his history. I'm at the point where I just want him declawed, but I know that isn't a good option especially that we have another cat.
Any ideas?