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Discourage a cat from scratching the carpet
Ormuss
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
This has been an ongoing problem, and I'm (belatedly) trying to prevent any further damage at the very least.
My cat is extremely needy and...I would almost describe her as clingy. Moreso than any other cat I've had experience with. At night, if I leave my door open, she will sleep at my feet, which is nice, but she'll also just...decide I need to be awake, and will INCESSANTLY paw and scratch at me to wake me up. In the interest of getting the sleep I need, I decided to close my bedroom door at night.
Cue the CURRENT problem. She scratches at the carpet attempting to get in or get me out, right at the door frame where the door opens. She's done significant damage already, that will most likely cost me, and I need to nip this in the bud.
Things I have tried:
-Placing various objects at that spot. This has met with varying degrees of success, but she has shown remarkable tenacity, pushing objects out of the way, scratching at different spots, or even using said objects as LEVERAGE to PUSH THE DOOR OPEN.
-Discouragement through fear. She is afraid of the vacuum cleaner. I have placed the vacuum overtop the spot she wants to scratch, and have supplemented this by emerging from my room and turning it on briefly when she scratches. This doesn't seem to be having a long-term effect on her, and in the end she'll probably just end up desensitized to it. Plus it requires me to force myself awake very quickly and take action, which defeats the purpose.
-Laying down mats/rugs/hard plastic beneath the door. She has SHREDDED everything I have placed there, with a speed I couldn't have imagined, and proceeded to continue her damaging work.
Now, I'm not going to have her de-clawed entirely, but I HAVE been planning to get her claws trimmed, so perhaps that's the only solution here. I'm also not going to hit her or anything, not that anyone was going to suggest that. But if anyone has any other ideas to get her to listen to reason, I am all ears.
My cat is extremely needy and...I would almost describe her as clingy. Moreso than any other cat I've had experience with. At night, if I leave my door open, she will sleep at my feet, which is nice, but she'll also just...decide I need to be awake, and will INCESSANTLY paw and scratch at me to wake me up. In the interest of getting the sleep I need, I decided to close my bedroom door at night.
Cue the CURRENT problem. She scratches at the carpet attempting to get in or get me out, right at the door frame where the door opens. She's done significant damage already, that will most likely cost me, and I need to nip this in the bud.
Things I have tried:
-Placing various objects at that spot. This has met with varying degrees of success, but she has shown remarkable tenacity, pushing objects out of the way, scratching at different spots, or even using said objects as LEVERAGE to PUSH THE DOOR OPEN.
-Discouragement through fear. She is afraid of the vacuum cleaner. I have placed the vacuum overtop the spot she wants to scratch, and have supplemented this by emerging from my room and turning it on briefly when she scratches. This doesn't seem to be having a long-term effect on her, and in the end she'll probably just end up desensitized to it. Plus it requires me to force myself awake very quickly and take action, which defeats the purpose.
-Laying down mats/rugs/hard plastic beneath the door. She has SHREDDED everything I have placed there, with a speed I couldn't have imagined, and proceeded to continue her damaging work.
Now, I'm not going to have her de-clawed entirely, but I HAVE been planning to get her claws trimmed, so perhaps that's the only solution here. I'm also not going to hit her or anything, not that anyone was going to suggest that. But if anyone has any other ideas to get her to listen to reason, I am all ears.
Ormuss on
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1. You should have been trimming the cats claws about every month in the front. The back can usually stay as-is. If you have never done this before, it can be very difficult to acclimatise a cat to. But, it's part of regular cat ownership for an indoor only animal. Sorry if this sucks but monthly, 6 weeks at most. Needs to be done.
2. You will probably need to use this product for a time:
http://www.softpaws.com/
3. You're going to need to do something about the old scratching areas. I would recommend buying rubber matting of some kind to lay over it, as well as finding a scent that your cat hates and won't want on its paws. Bitter apple and other products from the pet store might work, you'll have to see for your particular animal. Sticky double sided products might work too, as Rayze recommended.
4. Your night-time wake ups are problematic. I recommend trying an empty soda can with a few pennies in the base. If the cat wakes you up, grab the can from the nightstand and shake it right in his face. If the cat gets acclimatised to that you might have to escalate things.
5. You might want to get another cat. Yours may become less needy.
Lastly, although this seems to be behaviour related to the inaccessibility of you, you do need to provide adequate other scratching areas for the cat. A combination of vertical and horizontal scratching posts. For horizontal I use the cardboard ones. We have one of these in EVERY SINGLE ROOM of the house. For vertical we have 4 small posts, the ones made of rope that are a couple of feet high and stand on their own.
We also have a cat house. None of these appropriate cat related scratching products has any carpet on it. Because I don't want my cats to associate carpet with scratching. They are all based on sisal rope and padded fabric for comfort.
As for waking me up, he eventually learned that waking me up means he gets locked in the bathroom all night. If you have a convenient room (preferrably not carpeted like a bathroom or utility room, both for the scratching and the fact that some cats will poop on things when you've done something not to their liking) that you can't hear her from, this might be an option. A large play cage at the other end of the house is another.
A big rousing play session, like making her chase thrown toys until she's just too tired to care about them anymore, right before bed can also help. Do it enough and you might even manage to teach her fetch, which will help you not get tired out first. Also makes a good party trick when you have company, "Look, my cat plays fetch!" Boredom and energy are the biggest enemies of any pet owner.
1) Buy one of those plastic roll mats that you put under desk chairs on carpet. You can find them at any office supply store. Cut a piece that fits under the door and sticks out a foot or so. Unless you have a tiger, he's not clawing through that.
2) Get a desk fan. Set it so it blows air across the door. Run the cord under the door and either plug it in when he starts scratching the plastic mat, or just leave it plugged in and turned on all night.
We have two cats, they both used to do this. The plastic protects the carpet on the off chance we forget to turn on the fan, and the fan keeps them away from the door.
I'll try to find some harder plastic as the final defense if all else goes sour...I definitely underestimated her tenacity in terms of scratching. In the meantime, until I get the trim done at least, my door will remain open, despite her shenanigans. She's about 5 years old, by the way. I'll try to wear her out a bit before I head to bed in the future, too.
I wish I knew how to stop this, I can't exactly ignore it hoping he'll realize it no longer gets a reaction from me because I don't want him to wreck the door over time.
Some cats you can just ignore them and they stop after a while, but other cats will just get worse if you ignore them. Try the silent treatment, she's learned this is giving her attention so she does it to get attention. It may be too far along to stop but if you're going to do it, commit. Don't talk to them, don't do anything, pretend like they're not there when they're being ninnies like that.
The main problem was my cats were associating their punishment with me (I'd open the door and spray an air-duster at them. The sound is remarkably similar to a hiss to them, and they would scurry away). As soon as I'd close the door and try and sleep again, they'd come right back and cry/scratch at the door.
I coupled the above device with trimming their nails, and providing several other locations where they could scratch and sleep. I bought them a pretty big tower that I put in the living room. I even put a used tshirt of mine on one of the beds. They seem to like the familiar scent and will sleep near it most of the time. I also put some catnip around all the scratching posts. It's worked rather well.
To this day she mostly avoids the kitchen chairs, and I have yet to catch her clawing them. So might be worth a shot.
Aside from occasionally being woken up by them chasing each other, I get a peaceful night.
My cat does a similar thing, where he'll brush his paw on the bedroom door. It's a sliding door so it rattles on the track and even when it doesn't his paw makes a wsshwsshing noise that's enough to wake me up. He usually does it when he wants breakfast, but sometimes he just wants me to be awake. Even if I'm at my computer ignoring him, he just doesn't want me to sleep. Jerk.