Ask Dr Claire

One of my 1 yr old indoor cats is pulling up the carpet in our rental. I’ve tried stop scratch, but that doesn’t work.

Scratching is a normal behaviour in cats, that they need to be able to do, but obviously in an acceptable place! The no scratch sprays are often unsuccessful in these cases.

The best approach to take is to make the places you want them to scratch (scratching post) as appealing as possible and the area that one or both are scratching at as unappealing as possible.

Generally punishing cats for this behaviour doesn’t work but praising them when they use the scratching post is important.

The use of an anti-anxiety plug-in diffuser, called Feliway, can also help if anxiety is part of the issue.

If you’d like to chat in person, you can book a live video call or start a chat to discuss in more detail, as soon as possible.

We’re here to help!

Chat soon,
Dr Claire