Cats picking at the carpet. Grrrr

[MoveOnTheCards]

We have 2 lovely boys, about 6/7 months old and generally beautifully behaved. However they pick at the carpet on the stairs and every morning there are bits of wool all long the landing and a new bit of carpet ha been pulled away. 😡

Any tips on how to stop this? They have toys and scratch posts to keep them entertained (plus have access to a cat flap into the garden all day) and show no signs of scratching furniture, just the bloody carpet!

Any suggestions would be great!

I have exactly the same problem! My two ripped my stair carpet to pieces and we replaced it a month ago and they have started on my new one. 😡😡😡 They only ever do it around 5am when they decide that I should get up and feed them. Problem is I get up every time to try to limit the damage! Im ashamed to say I lobbed my slipper at them this morning (I aimed to the side of them) and they did stop but I bet my salary they will do it again tomorrow morning! Apart from slippers 😳I have tried spraying the area with what is supposed to be a cat repellent, putting tin foil on the stairs and placing cardboard scratchers on the stairs but nothing stops the little buggers!

And to make it worse the little fuckers just look up at you with those gorgeous ‘what, me?!’ eyes... while they’re sitting next to fucking carpet shreds. Right?!

😡

You say they have scratch posts, do they also have scratch boxes? Ours are fond of both a vertical and a horizontal scratch, and our carpets are saved by three of these around the house (as well as a really sturdy vertical)
www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/willows-scratcher-box

Is it just in a particularly part? The bottom stair was very popular with my two, so I've got parcel tape over it (for now) which has worked. If there's a few stairs involved, just wondering if there some sort of wide tape you could put on them for now.

They might not be old enough to appreciate catnip, but might be worth putting a little on their scratch posts at night in the hope it attracts them.

My boy is 14, and he does that! It happens when he's trying to tell me he wants to go out (5.30 this morning). He's got 2 scratching posts, litter trays, toys etc. Little sod.

Mine do it when they're play fighting and chasing each other. I had a roll of carpet protector from when we've decorated and I put that down, and bought a feliway friends plugin. Also got the feliway anti scratch stuff, I'd get heavy scratching mats and put them near to where they scratch and then use the Feliway on them. One they're (hopefully) using the mats, pull up the plastic and use an enzyme cleaner to get rid of any smell they've left there so they're not encouraged to start again.

One of them has also been put on nutracalm recently and when i was reading reviews between nutracalm and zylkene I read they can be used to help curb unwanted behaviour such as scratching.

Cheddar has taken to scratching the carpet. Fortunately because of the texture of it, it doesn't show. (Rented house) smith and Fatty never ever scratched the carpet and always used their scratch posts. You can get special tape to stop it. But don't know how effect it is.

Pop some orange peel down

My 6yo ‘d’cat does this too, we have lots of stairs as House a strange layout, and she’s destroyed about half of them in the 9 months we’ve lived here 😡 - so glad we aren’t renting anymore as would cost £££ to replace little shit. She rarely uses her scratch post so might try scratch box....

I cannot find anything that my cat will scratch - apart for the most expensive couch and most expensive carpet in my house😋!

I have bought scratching posts, scratching boxes and scratching carpet. She is a cute monster!

Oddly mine like to scratch my front door mat! The material isn't far off a scratching post..

It’s just the bottom stair (they also attached one of the ones near the top too but i managed to put something there (a big doorstop) that looks quite ‘arty’ and like it’s meant to be there. That worked there. The bottom stair is midway along a landing though so awkward. Carpet is cream so ‘useful’ tape would show, will try some scotch tape - double sided might work?!

Will try another scratch thing too.

They’re about 6/7 months old and have only been doing it in this place for a couple of weeks so keen to nip it in the bud.

Gorgeous little bastards 😁

Oh yes Cider the doormat takes a beating too, can cope with that! Maybe should just carpet the house in coir?! 😁

This might sound odd but try hissing at them then moving them away; soon they'll move of their own accord when they hear the hiss. Hissing is how cats communicate disagreement with each other, and it doesn't have to be malicious. Mine responds well to a little 'tss' now, and doesn't destroy my soft furnishings at all. It was harder to stop him as a kitten though when he was on a mad one

Pictures (of cat) or it didn't happen!

I made horizontal scratch boards, screwed into wood with spare carpet, like these, but larger and a little more tilted (cat can stand on whole thing). The cats mostly much prefer those to the carpet. Some cats like raised surface & edges for sharpening claws. Some stretch up but my carpet-killer stretches out.

I also throw towels on the areas they like to scratch (eg., your bottom step) so they can't get a scratch out of that space.