Scratching issue

I know most of the ways to get a cat to appropriately scratch...give them horizontal and vertical surfaces, various materials, make it appealing with nip, show them using your hands how to scratch on it, show them using their own paws, praise praise praise when they do it right, deterrants for surfaces...

This has worked, mostly, with Mojo (she still loves the chair, even though there's a scratcher right next to it, but I think that's as much to get our attention as anything...).

Ginger is being stubborn. She likes scratching on the carpet. Doesn't matter where, doesn't matter which room, or any particular spot. She knows where she's supposed to scratch horizontally, because she will now go scratch on the carpet right next to the scratchers. When I show her and try to encourage her to use the scratcher, she looks at me like I'm from Mars. I can't very well cover the whole upstairs (and stairs) in scratch deterrent (like Sticky Paws), and since it isn't anywhere in particular that she likes to scratch, I'm running out of ideas.

Anything else that has worked for you to get her to use the appropriate scratchers? Vertically, she's fine - we have a little condo that she uses for that. It's horizontally that she's being very stubborn...

Maybe it's a girl named Ginger thing.

My Ginger will make eye contact with me as she scratches something she KNOWS she isn't supposed to.

I gave my kitties some small throw rugs that are OK for them to scratch on - they are leopard print. They know that they can scratch these and it is ok, but they are not to scratch the other carpets.

I got a set of car floor mats, and the little ones that would go in the back seat (I have a two-seater so didn't need them) are PERFECT for giving to kitties to scratch on. Ginger claimed one the INSTANT I put it on the floor.

Perhaps giving her her very own special scratching "rug" might work?

My Pandora does this occasionally, and as she's doing it she watches me so I know SHE knows its bad she only does it once in a blue moon and I just yell NO!!!! really loud. luckily, Pandy wants to make me happy so she stops and won't do it for a couple days and than its like she "forgets" or like you said it's only to get my attention. My only suggestion is to yell or do the can o' coins thing

Originally Posted by GingersMom

My Ginger will make eye contact with me as she scratches something she KNOWS she isn't supposed to.

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little boogers!!

Molly...lordy....she would do the same thin! Little money! I came across carpet squares in the dollar store, so I bought $20 worth. They are literally scattered everywhere. I'm now down to lie...5 carpet squares over the whole basement instead of 20!

Just wanted to follow up on this and say that I got some cheapy car floor mats, based on Betsy's (and Ginger's) suggestion. Spend all of about $7 on them - cheaper than the double-wide cardboard scratcher.

My Ginger LOVES them! The first night we had a catnip party on them to entice them (her) to the mats. That night she SLEPT on one of them! And ever since then, about 7 out of 10 times, she scratches on the car mat instead of the carpet, and she's getting better and better about it. What's funny is the other cats hardly pay any attention to the mats, but Ginger sure does. Maybe that's something with girl cats named Ginger, or kitties who want to scratch on carpet, but it is definitely working for us.