Sensitive paw pads or just picky?

I bought Poppy The Ultimate Cat Scratching Post but he ignores it. I bought him the cardboard in a box scratcher and he barely touches it. I bought him carpeted cat trees and he scratches them like crazy.

He has tried to scratch at my couch but I covered it with a blanket. He has tried to scracth one of my accent chairs and I had to cover it with a blanket and even staple the blanket to the bottom of it because he was getting under the blanket and scratching it. He sometimes scratches at my new berber carpet.

I've come to the conclusion that he likes the softer textures, like carpet. Maybe his paw pads are a little sensitive.

So, I have decided to cover The Ultimate Cat Scratching Post with berber carpet and I might get a few more (smaller) carpeted cat trees. Hopefully that works cuz I really want to uncover my furniture. I hate having blankets over them.

He's 7 months old now. Is that still too young to introduce catnip? Like rubbing it on the scratching posts and cat trees.

I doubt it has anything to with sensitive paw pads, but it certainly sounds like he prefers carpet! I have one cat who prefers wood and one cat who prefers cardboard. I must say that carpet is a pretty inconvenient preference, as you don't want him to scratch your carpets. I think the issue with young cats and catnip is that they don't care about it, so you can try catnip and see if it works.

He probably just doesn't like sisal. Lola doesn't like sisal, and we had to get her a carpeted post all for her once we realized it was her preference. She also likes those berber door hanging scratchers. In the past my cats had all liked cardboard and sisal.

Edit:
Carpet preference isn't an issue for us, we have hardwood floors.

We were lucky enough to move into a house after having gotten the cats, so we bought stuff with microfiber. Tuxedo could scratch our couch to his heart's content and not do any damage! But yup, probably just a preference. We have one that likes carpet, one that likes only cardboard, one that LOVES ripping at the sisal.... and Tuxedo, of course, likes the couch.

Laurie