tips to stop the cats scratching the carpet

[norwood]

i Have 2 gorgeous cats but they have started scratching our brand new carpet. how can i stop them?

By a scratching post and put it in the place they like to scratch. Worked wonders for us, my cat never scratches anything other than the post 5 years on!

When you first get the scratching post, pick the cats paws up and run them down the post, and do that each time you catch them clawing anywhere you shouldn't be.

By = Buy

Get them a scratching post (or a piece of carpet stuck to a board) and every time they start to scratch, pick them up and move them to the scratching post. You might find you have to do it so often that you'd happily throttle them, but if you keep doing it every time they scratch they will eventually start to use the post.

That's the theory ... sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. You can buy special sticky strips from pet shops that you can put down to deter them if they always scratch the same spot, but that often means they just chose a different spot.

If they have a particular area they always scratch in put some tin foil down - cats hate the stuff and they will soon learn to avoid that area.

Not always true, Chloe ... I had a mad, half demented cat once who would have sold her soul for a bit of tin foil. She used to like to sleep on a piece, and if we screwed a bit up and threw it at her she would play with it for hours!

Come to think of it, all of the cats I've ever lived with have been weird ...

LOL - oh well, you can't win 'em all. If it's any consolation I have a cat who will only wee in a grate (or the bath the dirty git!!!)

Ah, but weeing in the bath is quite sensible really - it's much easier to clean than if she does it on the carpet

my cat always wees in the bath if she doesnt go outside which she usually does she also will only drink water from the bathroom sink tap she started scratching the sofa turned out she had stress vet gave me this plug in pheromone thing and the scratching has stopped

One of my old cats used to drink from the bathroom tap. My current cat will only drink water from a glass - not a bowl, not a saucer, it has to be a drinking glass.

Scratching isn't usually a stress related thing, it's something that most cats will do, given the chance. Because the carpet is new they're probably trying to mark it with their scent - some of their scent glands are on their paws.

Put some orange peel (or orange essential oil on a piece of cotton wool) on the floor where the cat scratches -they hate citrus smells.

Our cat has a thing about scratching the corner of our new sofa at the mo.

Buy a carpet buddy if they are scratchinh to get into a room. Available on ebay from fixit 3333 £9.95 and they work! It covers the area to be scratched and cannot be moved by the cat, just the owner!