Cat has suddenly started to stratch our walls & peel off the wallpaper

We got Pads from an RSPCA in January when he was about 2 years old so I don't have any history on him except for the last 8 months while he has been with us.

He loves to have a good stretch and has been good as gold using the scratching post when he has wanted to sink his claws into something (thankfully he doesn't seem to be interested in our current sofas (although he did give the arm of a previous sofa a good scratch). Almost overnight we found a few claw marks in the wallpaper at the top of the stairs but ignored them thinking he'll stop soon enough (we have to redecorate so I'm not overly concerned about the state of it right now).

However over the last couple of weeks he has become worse and now has peeled a chunk of paper off the wall and there are lots more claw marks, some with wallpaper that has been clawed off the wall. He never does this during the day, only at night when we can't see him. I know he's mainly stretching and then sinks his claws in because of how high the claw marks are getting.

The hallway is becoming quite unsightly around this area now and I'm a bit concerned that if we don't sort out the problem he'll continue to do it when we redecorate.

Sorry it's so long but I wanted to give you as much info as I could.

Has anyone else experienced this before and if so what did you do to stop it?

You could try placing some of that double sided tape on the walls for a while, it worked on my couch.

That is a good suggestion. You can also try putting something in front of there, if at all possible. It then makes it harder for him to get to his favorite spot to scratch.

Also, make sure you keep his nails clipped!

Does he have a good scratching post that he can use instead? If not, I would suggest getting one. Then sprinkle some cat nip on it, so he's attracted to it... Just try to get him accustomed to using the "correct" things to scratch at!

Hope that helps Good luck!

You could let your cat take all the wallpaper off, and paint the wall when it's time for re-decorating.

Is your scratching post tall enough? I.e it seems as if he's wanting to really stretch, if the claw marks are higher up than the length of the scratching post you might be able to solve it by getting a tall enough scratching post.

In addition to that you'll have to do something to make him not be able to get at the area he's scratching now (double sided sticky tape, putting the new scratching post right in front of it) I've also seen scratching posts which are more like long scratching pads that you fasten to the wall. If nothing else work you can maybe do that.

I.e a scratching pad on the wall there will look better than clawed up wallpaper.
Like this: http://www.catclaws.com/products/images/deluxewall1.jpg

I thought we had a fairly tall scratching post, but after reading your comments it's really made me rethink as the scratch marks are gradually climbing higher and higher. Our hallway and stairs are too narrow to put the scratching post in front of as we'll be constantly walking into it and sending it flying down the stairs. If the taller scratching post doesn't prevent it, then it looks like we may have to look to put a scratch post on the wall (which would be less ugly than the peeling wallpaper). In response to the idea of painting the walls rather than putting wallpaper up, judging by the plaster I can see it all looks good so this is something we'll be doing when we come to redecorate

Thanks again for your advice.

Julie & Pads xx