Carpet scratching driving me mad!

[PlateOfBiscuits]

My cat has a really good, solid scratching post that she uses regularly. But recently she’s taken to coming into the bedroom at the early hours and scratching up the carpet.

She’s 9 years old and until last month never did this.

I shout “no” at her and clap my hands (blearily from my bed at the crack of dawn), and it stops it - but only until the next time.

Is there anything I can do?

Mine did the carpet on the landing so we put another scratching post there worked a treat

Our cat does this. We put a scratchpost near the spot and I cleaned the area with lemon scented product, then sprayed some on and left it to soak in - I don't mind the slight smell (just smells like air freshener) but the cat avoids it :)

Another scratching post it is! I think I should get a floor one rather than a tall one, as that’s what she’s doing. She loves tearing up the bottom of cardboard boxes but we had to stop that as she then took to weeing in them!

Thanks both.

I was wondering about a floor one as well. What time is she doing this? Just wondering if it's after 3am, as it's starting to get light and she thinks it's time to start her day.

Yes it’s at about 4am but she did it one afternoon too.

New scratching mat is in place so we’ll see if I have a lovely long sleep or get woken up at the crack of dawn!

Good tip about spraying with a lemon scent - thank you to that poster!

Our boy is slowly destroying our brand new stair carpet with his Wolverine like claws. We tried putting mat scratching pads on the stairs but kept falling over them, as carpet the same colour. Putting a (pleasantly) cat deterrent smell on the stairs and maybe some catnip on the many posts and mats might be the answer!

Is she doing it to wake you up to be let out for a wee?

Or is she waking you up to be fed?

Mine does it on the stairs

Success! Cat scratcher was definitely scratched in the night and not the carpet!

Although... the noise still woke me up . (I am a light sleeper.) I might work on eventually moving the scratcher somewhere else.

Freetogo shes much less subtle when she wants to actually wake you up on purpose. That’s more of a climbing over your face, prodding you with a paw and meowing very loudly sort of event.