Help: Cat tearing up carpet

paulsc

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Sep 16, 2005
Messages
16
Purraise
0
Hello,
We have two cats (both about 1.5 years old both neutered) and one of them is shredding our carpet and trying to eat it. Most of the time she does it when we're not around and we can't figure out how to make her stop. We've tried everything but they do it when we're not around. Does anyone know what we can do short of declawing or giving them away? They have plent of things to scratch on and they are in great health as per the vet. We have had no luck whatsoever finding a solution. Sometimes they just pull the carpet up with there teeth instead of scratching. I wonder how much its going to cost for them to put new carpet in our apartment. Please if anyone can help please do, I'm quickly running out of options and patience. Thanks.
 

huyi

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Jun 29, 2006
Messages
205
Purraise
11
Location
London
i think the cats may be anxious about you leaving the home, do you work long hours? or away from home for long periods of time? maybe it's that. becasue my cat wails at me as soon as i enter my house and i have only been gone for 10 minuites. LOL.
 

larke

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jul 9, 2005
Messages
2,278
Purraise
6
Location
SE Canada
Have they got proper scratching posts of their own? With catnip on them?
 

huyi

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Jun 29, 2006
Messages
205
Purraise
11
Location
London
Originally Posted by Larke

Have they got proper scratching posts of their own? With catnip on them?
yes thats good if they have thier own scratching posts.
 

sar

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Dec 6, 2004
Messages
9,787
Purraise
1
Location
The future 'Green' House! (NW England)
Is it generally around a closed door that they are doing this? My lot don't like closed doors and tend to try to get in or out (I've learnt not to shut doors unless necessary)

To solve the damage issue, I have placed carpet runners beneath the doors and around the door frame so they can pick the carpet to their hearts content without doing any damage. Once I did this, they promptly became bored of the activity and realised that the door was only shut for a reason.
 

meow meow

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Jun 7, 2006
Messages
406
Purraise
1
My kitty is also a carpet scratcher. My dad built him a big kitty tree covered with carpeting so he now mainly scratches that.

But.. he occasionaly still goes at the carpet (or even the couch) but since I keep his nails trimmed he has not done any damage.

My recommendation is to take the cat to the groomer and get its nails trimmed. That way he will have a much harder time tearing up the carpet.

And definately get one (no two!) carpeting posts to scratch!
 

epona

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jul 24, 2006
Messages
4,663
Purraise
949
Location
London, England
Radar used to scratch at the edges of the carpet, but I haven't seen him do it recently - I got him an offcut of carpet and put it rough side up on the floor and he now scratches exclusively on that. He loves it, lies out full length on in and rolls around digging his claws into it.
 

jenny82

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Apr 19, 2006
Messages
5,773
Purraise
114
Location
Maryland
Have you heard of Soft Claws? You can do a search for it on previous posts and find plenty of information. These will prevent damage to your carpet.
 

angelkitty

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Aug 11, 2006
Messages
1,409
Purraise
1
Location
Indiana
Originally Posted by Jenny82

Have you heard of Soft Claws? You can do a search for it on previous posts and find plenty of information. These will prevent damage to your carpet.
I was gonna say the same thing.. Soft Claws,, has helped us out soo much!!! They can't pull up carpet or ruin furniture that way... They still scratch at it,, but it doesn't do any damage..

I love the soft claws..
 

kittenkiya

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jan 30, 2004
Messages
2,196
Purraise
2
Location
Tucson, AZ
Carpet runners worked for me. Stopped Tammy-Timmy cold. If yours are very bad scratchers, you could temporarily nail the runner down.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #11

paulsc

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Sep 16, 2005
Messages
16
Purraise
0
Thanks for all the great info. The scratching is mostly around doors, but some of these doors can't be open all the time. Never thought about a cat groomer, they wouldn't get anywhere with my cats unless my wife or I was there to help. They have plent of scratching posts and use them regularly. They've torn a couple spots so bad you can see the wood under the carpet. We'll have to see about using some kind of runner to cover it. I guess a plastic one would be best?
 

sar

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Dec 6, 2004
Messages
9,787
Purraise
1
Location
The future 'Green' House! (NW England)
The carpet runners that I use are of a similar feel and textrue to that used on most cat trees - good to scratch on and hard wearing!

It sounds like your kitties don't like the closed door thing either!
If you place the mat there permanently, they'll scratch at it for a while and then probably realise that it's not their room to play in!

As for the damage in the existing carpet, it is pretty easy to solve the messy corners - I did this at my last rental place and we got our full deposit back!
 

hrmom26

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Oct 12, 2006
Messages
20
Purraise
0
Location
mass
Originally Posted by paulSC

Hello,
We have two cats (both about 1.5 years old both neutered) and one of them is shredding our carpet and trying to eat it. Most of the time she does it when we're not around and we can't figure out how to make her stop. We've tried everything but they do it when we're not around. Does anyone know what we can do short of declawing or giving them away? They have plent of things to scratch on and they are in great health as per the vet. We have had no luck whatsoever finding a solution. Sometimes they just pull the carpet up with there teeth instead of scratching. I wonder how much its going to cost for them to put new carpet in our apartment. Please if anyone can help please do, I'm quickly running out of options and patience. Thanks.
i had the same problem with one of my cats i went out and bought a couple of different types of scratching posts and rubbed them with cat nip. i also bought a cat condo and rubbed that to. although he started using them he was still scratching my furniture so i bought a herbal spray called no scratch at the local pet store and it worked like a charm hasn't done it since. hope this helps
 

ryanjay

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
May 19, 2006
Messages
606
Purraise
2
Location
NJ
I had this problem come up 5 years ago when we moved into a rental with newer carpet(didnt worry at rental before that cause it was told they were ripping carpets out when house sold) I got a few rolls of duct tape and tapped the carpets by all the doors and the edging of the carpet(where it meets wall) I left the doorway tape on the entire time we lived there but removed the wall tape after a month. dont tape if carpet is already damaged tho cause when removing it it will make it worse. RJ
 

jen

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Dec 27, 2001
Messages
8,501
Purraise
3,009
Location
Hudson, OH
All I can say is Soft Claws. Easy to put on even on my mean little cat, they CANNOT do damage, if they come off you just glue another back on, best solution in my opinion, you also don't have to have anything nailed down to something, or unattractive covers over furniture or anything like that.
 

glen osborne

TCS Member
Kitten
Joined
May 2, 2016
Messages
2
Purraise
1
Hey How did you fix the corners of the carpet we are in a Apartment?? 
 
Top