Any tips on persuading Irene to stop clawing the new carpet?

[Mushroomwithaview]

In our old house she used to do her claws on the carpet and it didn't affect the carpet at all. Genuinely couldn't see any signs of wear after 7 years of her clawing away at them.

New house - rental - and it's causing damage. Cheaper carpet, maybe?

Need to fix asap - LL will not be impressed.

I'm thinking... scratching post? And one of the cardboard floor scratching things? Maybe a big lump of old carpet over the place where she does it on the LL's fitted carpet? And stop her when we see her do it? Do we move her to the thing we DO want her to scratch? How do I go about communicating to her that scratching is okay, but not that particular bit of carpet? (She doesn't speak English, and has never thus far shown any inclination to follow instructions.)

It's going to be a challenge.

Any tips? Advice? What worked for you?

Definitely a scratching post. My cats also love the cardboard one. Cheddar likes to sleep on it. She looks very uncomfortable. Will she let you trim her claws?
Irene is a brilliant cat name.

Scratching post and one of those corrugated cardboard scratchers. Or a jute style door mat (in addition to the stand up scratcher).

Ahem, you forgot to post a picture of gorgeous Irene (that was my late Mother's name ).

Kitten tax please 🤓

Here is Ms Irene, home-destroyer and teabag thief.

I'm going out to get cardboard scratching things.

I am fairly certain she will ignore them and continue to scratch the carpet though.

I've had so many cardboard things , scratch posts etc and they've all still clawed the carpet
Thank fully .. it does nothing to my current carpets
Please don't look too closely at the back of the settee though----

When I bring in a new scratcher I sprinkle it with catnip to associate it positively. I think they are meant to be good a room thresholds or say at top or bottom of stairs, where they might feel more insecure.

My cat doesn’t scratch carpets or furniture - but he has a mate who comes round who does 🤷‍♀️.

Omg she is gorgeous!! She looks like trouble though! Have fun!

Oh she's a tortie. Good luck with that. I have scratching posts both downstairs and upstairs and she has free access to the garden where there are various interesting things to sharpen her claws on but my tortie still thinks the stair carpet is her personal scratching post. I've given up on it to be honest, I've accepted my carpet's fate and will replace it when it's time for her to go to the rainbow bridge ( hopefully not any time soon, I am actually fond of the little bugger.)

Thank you for the picture. She is absolutely gorgeous. I do hope for your sake though that she stops ruing the carpet.

Put cling film over the spot she likes to scratch (they hate the feel of it on their little tootsie toes!) and pray she will give up and use a scratching post instead. Have something horizontal to scratch - mine ignores posts but likes a coir type doormat (or the living room carpet of course 🙄)

She is so beautiful! I need to know more about the teabag thefts, though. Is she taking virgin or used ones and what does she do with them?

We have a long haired tortie. She uses the carpets, bed base and armchair to scratch. Tried scratching post, corrugated pads, scratch mats and she goes outside. Tried catnip and silver vine to attract her to the posts etc but nothing compares to the home furnishings unfortunately
Hope someone has the solution

Buy yourself a very naice rug.

Tell Irene it's fine, you give up, she can have the carpet as you have a lovely new rug that is not for scratching.

Irene will scratch 'your' new rug.

We have some Keep Off spray and DH sprays it every morning onto the areas the cats like to scratch on. On the couches I put double-sided sticky tape on the areas they like to scratch, and hang loosely-woven throws over the arms and the back because they don't like getting their claws caught in those. We also have cardboard scratching posts in several areas downstairs and I sprinkle those with catnip when we bring a new one in, and every now and again on the old ones.

Dcat loves cardboard scratchers and yes, sleeps on them too! She has a long one downstairs which she uses daily and curls up on in the evening and we have a box scratcher combo upstairs which is basically her bedroom🤣 She used to sleep on the bed with us but apparently she doesn’t like our new mattress and sleeps on her box scratcher instead! It’s definitely not more comfortable😜

Dcat never scratches the carpet thankfully but since we laid new carpet, she has vomited on it a couple of times🤷‍♀️ She never vomited on our threadbare old carpet🤣

Cheddar sleeps on the cardboard scratcher I bought for Penelope. She dies t fit in it. And looks very uncomfortable!

She’s beautiful!!!

good luck with whatever you try. We have a house full of cat trees and scratching posts and catnip. Apparently the best scratching post are the forbidden fruit - so no nice carpet or chairs for us.

Have you tried trimming her claws?

If she’s a horizontal scratcher the cardboard boxes are a better bet than posts.However, mine still scratches the carpet despite being redirected to the scratching box. I’m considering attaching some carpet to a piece of ply and directing him to scratch that.
Alternatively we had this rug from ikea which he really scratched and it never showed any damage, so I’m considering getting another one of those.
https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/morum-rug-flatwoven-in-outdoor-beige-80198295/

Make a scratching post by stapling carpet to bit of wood and no more nails it on a base! Try to get a little bit similar to the one being scratched. Our cats only scratch things with a close weave, tiny loop type design. The tufted type doesn't get touched. Or put a smell they don't like on the area scratched.

Opens thread to offer advice.
Sees she's a tortie.
Closes thread quietly...

@CatonmyKeyboard that was my thoughts!

my tortie has just blinked, stretched and showed me her huge paws. I think she may have smirked. ..

😂

Haha.
So, update. I now have ugly brown mats on the bits of the carpet she likes to scratch and various scratching cardboard things from Kmart. Irene has politely ignored all of them and continues to claw the carpet.