hello

our 1y/o cat has started to claw at our 6 wk old carpet. i don't know how long she has been doing this. i first saw her doing it 1 week ago. she has a rope scratching post that she uses often.

is there a way to stop this ?

thanx

bump

Cats do that. Its an instinct. They have scent glands in their foot pads, they are marking their territory.

The choices are 1) keep kitty's nails trimmed. 2) purchase nail covers for kitty, glue them on. They have to be replaced often, so that can get expensive. 3) have kitty declawed. That involves surgery on all 10 front toes, they go in and remove part of the last toe bone. Its awfuly rough on the cat, and I recommend against it. 4) put up with the damage and plan to replace the carpet before you move.

I have 3 cats. I us a combination of 1 and 4.

thanx. i thought it might be something like that.

declaw = no way. we are going to have them trimmed. can i do this myself ? she doesn't like to be held firm. do those calming drugs work ? how well ?

Its easy to trim a cat's front claws. Just hold the cat under your arm like a football, with her front legs near your hand. Grab one foot, put your thumb on top and your first 2 fingers underneath, on the pad. Squeeze gently. That will force kitty to extend her claws. Look at the nail, if its clear you can see pink in the middle. Thats a live vein, cutting that is very painful to the cat. You can safely cut off about half of the white nail without hurting the cat.


The back feet are a lot harder. The anatomy of the nail is the same, but its harder to hold kitty so you can get at the nails. My favorite trick is to sneek up on the cat while she's napping. If you have a helper they can hold the cat almost vertical in a position like a begging dog, and you can get all 4 feet at one time. Or maybe not depending on how bad the cat wiggles and how firm your helper holds the cat.

Welcome to the club. You will spend the next 15 years being owned by a cat.

In addition to number 1 and 4 you could try adding a couple more acceptable scratching options for her.
My cats love the cardboard kind that you put the catnip in (you need to vaccuum up the mess it makes but it's easier than replacing carpet)
r you can also buy or build your own cat tree/scratching post etc.
If you put these alternatives near where they are scratching the carpet and entice them with catnip, they might be tempted away from the carpet.

I was going to suggest something that has helped us, but hzcsm already has. So I will add that we tried this and it has cut down on the problem a lot. We put several around the house. Now only one out of 5 cats does it, and she doesn't do it often. For those times we catche her, there is a loaded water pistol in the living room. I prefer to call it a "behavior modification tool".

thanx for the ideas, folks. they will be implemented.

Do you by chance have an extra piece of carpeting you can put in her favorite scratching area? Then she might scratch on that area (encourage her to do so) and not ruin the installed stuff.

there is no special spot. there would be pieces all over the place. thankfully, she doesn't do it a lot (that we know of)

I moved into a house with wall to wall carpet and my cats ruined it, so I got rid of it and put in laminate floor -- no more problems and so easy to clean...and no more allergy problems.