Cats destroying carpet

One or both of my cats are tearing up my carpet. I keep finding little pieces everywhere. They never do it when I'm around so I can't really discipline them against it, but I really need to put an end to it.

What they are doing is where the carpet goes around a door frame, they're finding little strings of plastic from the edges of the carpet sticking out and tugging at it and tearing up my carpet in the process. So far they've attacked the area near my coat closet, the entrance to a bedroom and the latest is they've found a spot where the carpet wraps around the end of the flooring near a staircase. In all these spots, I've gone and cut whatever plastic is sticking out to lessen the appeal and also sprayed a bit of my perfume on it as a deterrent. That's the best I could come up with.

Is there any other sort of spray I could use to deter them from coming back to the same spots? I haven't done it yet, but I plan to go around my condo and cut away any loose plastic from the carpet that they haven't found yet. What else can I do to prevent them from destroying more of my carpet? I just moved into this condo so it's a little frustrating. I think eventually I may just have to invest some money into replacing the carpet with wood floors but right now I can't afford that.

Have you tried bitter apple... sometimes that works

Originally Posted by Mama of Bronte

Have you tried bitter apple... sometimes that works

Click to expand...

Try that, normally they hate the taste

I've never heard of bitter apple. Is that available at Petsmart/Petco? I'll definitely give it a try. Aside from my carpet getting chewed up I'm also worried that they're eating the plastic. I'm surprised, and grateful, neither of them have thrown any of it up yet.

Out of my 5 cats, only one is bad with the carpet on the side of my staircase. I have tried the "no scratch" spray and that hasn't helped. Without declawing, the only other option is to put those soft paws on. My experience is that a certain smell won't deter the cat from clawing. I have a huge cat condo with scratch posts on it and a smaller scratch post in the living room for her to use on the main floor.

PS. Hardwood floors are worse for wear with cats...our cats have left a whackload of scratches on our new hardwood. Carpet is cheaper to replace.

I'll still give the spray a try and hope for the best. I know for sure they bite at the little plastic because I saw them do that a few times in my spare bedroom where the carpet is coming away from the wall. One cat has his claws trimmed but the other will not let me handle him so I'm not able to clip his claws. When he's running around the place his claws catch the carpet but there's nothing I can do about that and the damage that way is minimal compared to them clawing and biting specific areas.

Also, thanks for the heads up about the hardwood floors. I wondered about scratches as well. Guess I'll be sticking to carpet.

it may be the plastic underneath...my cats will destroy a litter box if it has a plastic liner in it...im not allowed to have rubber backed mats anywhere in the h ouse either
i finally figured it out LOL kept catching one cat working really hard to mash a fresh turd under the mat in the bathroom