[Maleke]

My kitten has decided to use our carpet as a scratching post. He is not doing any damage, but we rent right now and I do NOT want him to damage the carpet when he gets older and stronger! He has a scratching post which he is well aware that he is supposed to be using.

He gets up at 6:30am every morning and eats, pees and scratches then comes back to bed. I hear him just YANKING at the carpet but I'm too sleepy to jump out of bed. I have tried catching him and spraying, catching him and gently picking him up and putting him at his post. It's such a wide area that it's hard to spray it with something that would deter him.

I'm really not sure what to do. There is NO WAY I will EVER get him declawed so no worries there, even if he was tearing stuff up! Luckily though, he isn't doing damage yet so I want to fix this while he's still a kitten and the learning gap is open! Help!???

 

[Jeanie]

This quote is from What You Need to Know About Cats:

Believe it or not, but cats have their own individual scratching patterns, and most of them enjoy having more than one scratching post. Yours apparently is a horizontal scratcher. There are scratching pads made for this purpose, some are in a flattened-out tent shape and others are flattened out. I'd suggest trying one of those, perhaps with a different surface material than the existing post. You can also "sweeten the deal" by rubbing catnip on the posts, although some cats react to it better than others.
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I hope that helps!

 

[Maleke]

Thanks Jeanie, I didn't know that some cats preferred to scratch horizontally!!! I'll get him a horizontal scratching post and try that.

 

[Jeanie]

I didn't either, Maleke! We always have something to learn, don't we?

 

[cats_toy]

We have a Manx at the time was only 5 wks old. He decided anything and everything was open season for scratching. We have a dining room chair that has seen better days so everytime Max got the urge to scratch I would pick him up an take him to his designated scratching chair. I would pick up his front paws and rub them on the chair, it didn't take him long to grasp the concept. :lol: