To think it's impossible to stop cats from scratching carpets?

[AliceAbsolum]

I've tried everything. He has scratching posts and mats and boxes, they have catnip in them. I reinforce the scratching there and ignore the scratching on the brand new expensive carpets.
He's not overly hungry, he's been checked at the vets he's healthy, he gets played with, he has access to fresh water, treats etc.
I assume it would be horribly awful to get a tiny water gun and spray it in his direction?!
It's weirdly wearing me down :/ Do I just accept he's going to ruin the carpets?

Please don't spray him with water. He won't understand the reason and it'll just teach him to be scared of you. Maybe get his nails clipped a little so he doesn't do so much damage.

You can buy stuff to put on scratching posts to encourage cats to use them. Have you got an offcut of carpet? Sounds like he likes carpet

Feliway

my answer was cheap rugs and those sample mats dotted about to be place. Along with scratching posts and various cat trees and (of all things!) a large cardboard box scratching tunnel.

Nowt you can do - some cats are just into it - if my 5 only one does it all the time - she also likes cat nip, toys, going outside etc
we have 3 scratch posts/cat trees - the others only do it if playing or shut in
cheap rugs and replacing the stair carpet regularly is a fact of life having her - but she’s beautiful so we forgive her

One of mine is a bugger for scratching the bottom stair. I covered it in foil, tried double sided tape and created a cardboard barricade taped around it. Little witch got them all ok so she could continue. Currently have a barrier made of bottles of water. I refuse to lose my ridiculously high deposit when I move out because she went through it, but may have to put mittens on her at this rate.

Ours has destroyed the stairs carpet, so we are waiting until she dies until we replace it! She'll be our last cat so once she's gone, bless her (she's an old lady now), we are going to go around and fix all the damage she has done! She's definitely more destructive than the dog has ever been.

I have one carpet and it spends most of its time rolled up because my cat won't leave it alone. He has particularly learned that if he wants my attention, scratching it is the ONE thing that he can do that I will not ignore. They aren't stupid, cats. Just infuriating.

Powered pepper worked for us

You can get them declawed I think.

Don't do this!!!!

White pepper worked for the scratching.
he hated it so much he started pissing on it 🤔

Spray with water while they are doing it. However this is hard to do and invariably you can't get to the water pistol in time or miss the cat.

If they always do it in the same place, get a Cat SSScat. 2 puffs of air and my cat never jumped on a worktop again.

Do they scratch in one place? Put a scratch mat there. We used to have a cat that loved to scratch the stair post so we attached a scratch mat to it, no more damage (other than where we put screws in to attach it.

Think of it as a need and meet it in your capacity as the person who took on responsibility for meeting your cars needs. Your cat has a need to claw carpet, so give him carpet to claw. Get those carpet samples or buy cheap rugs and put them in places he likes to do it. Your cat isn't being naughty, he's being a cat. Startling or frightening cats doesn't teach them anything except that you can't be trusted. You have no control over him doing it, only control over what he does it to, by providing suitable alternatives.

It's unbelievably cruel to declaw a cat and thankfully illegal in the UK.

Get a Feliway plug in.