My roommate's cat Zeus (female) is the worst cat on the planet. I won't go into detail about all the reasons why she is so awful, but rather skip right to the serious problem: she's wrecking the new carpets in our new place. I'm really worried that we're going to have to pay to get the carpets replaced when we move out.

My roommate is extremely lazy and doesn't like dealing with problems, and also he is convinced that it's not his cat that's doing it (I have a cat as well, but I am 100% sure that it is his).

The exact thing she is doing is this: When the rooms to our doors are closed, if she wants in/wants attention/is hungry, she will dig her claws into the carpet under/around the door and rip at it. She is tearing it to pieces. She did this in our old place, too, but we lucked out and had a flood and they replaced our carpets anyway for free right before we moved out. We have tried:
1) squirting her with water gun whenever she does it - ineffective. she just comes back two minutes later and does it again.
2) chasing her and scaring the shit out of her/grabbing her by her scruff and throwing her around - ineffective. she comes back two minutes later and keeps doing it.
3) grabbing her and locking her in the bathroom - ineffective. she scratches the bottom of the door, causing damage to that. once released, she continues carpet mauling.
4) she has a scratching post and a couch that she can scratch - ineffective. she scratches what she wants, when she wants to.

What's interesting is that she KNOWS she's not supposed to do it. Because whenever I open the door to catch her she bolts and hides. So she's clearly doing it specifically to get our attention. The only effective way of getting her to stop is to feed her. But the issue is that now whenever she is hungry, she will do that, expecting to get fed. This is not acceptable, because she needs to stop doing it altogether. So I'm left with two options: either find a way to physically block the damage from happening, or to train her to stop doing it. I don't think I can do the former (my girlfriend recommended laying tape over the carpet around the door, but that won't work because MY cat loves to eat sticky things like tape). So that leaves only the latter: Train her to stop; so that she stops associating this behavior with the reward of being fed.

How do I do this?

 

Possible resolution: have the cats free-fed so that they never go hungry (as in, always food in the bowl)
Ineffective - one of the many problems with Zeus is that she eats ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. we tried free feeding once. Zeus ate until she threw up, then kept eating till it was all gone.

 

Holy shit. My roommates cat is named Zeus too and fucked up the carpet under the door to their room. I'm pissed about it. I keep my cats outside or in the garage when I'm not around because I realize that animals can do damage.

Luckily, my roommate knows that it was their cat who did it because I simplified the situation so that it couldn't be mine. Now it's a matter of dealing with them, or at least let them know that there's a cost associated. Could you maybe make them realize it's definitely their fucking cat? Take pictures? Videos? Put your cat in a room when you're not around so there's no refuting the fact?

 

not sure there is anything that can be to be honest. if your roommate doesn't believe its his cat doing it so unless he is willing to own up and help deal with his pet i am not sure anything can be done to stop it, short of giving it run of the house I.E. all doors open.

 

They knew it was their cat in my case. I hate that little fucker. They gave it free run of the house. It stopped beating up the house, but now I have to deal with fucking cat hair on my kitchen counters, smelling it's ammonia piss because they're awful about changing the litter, and god forbid if someone closes a door and that little shit was hiding behind something.

 

Can't leave doors open and give her free reign in the place. She takes tacks out of walls and leaves them on the floor, chews through cables, eats posters, knocks things over, etc. etc. etc. If she is in my room, she needs to be watched at all times. Also interesting: she does all of those things, but as soon as you get up to make her stop she bolts. She knows she's not supposed to do all this stuff.

 

Sprinkle chili powder or strong pepper on the spot. When she scratches, it will puff up into her face. She won't like it.

If that doesn't work, tape something down to protect the threshold carpet, like a rubber mat.

 

De Claw her.

 

AH! that may work actually. the doors are really close to the carpet so it might not fit, but i'll give it a try. <3

 

If you want to stop the scratching I can lend you a pair of pliers if you like.  

I would've suggest having the cat's claws removed, but if the owner won't admit it's their cat being the problem then they might not feel like they have to do that (or pay for it).

Perhaps you could put a square of carpet or a doormat over where the cat scratches so it can still scratch there but not ruin the proper carpet.

Damnation - beaten on both suggestions!

If a normal mat doesn't fit under the door you could try a thin straw mat maybe. Or one of those short-bristled tiles (I forget the name - like Flotex). Go check out a flooring shop. They might have a spare offcut of something you can have for free or a small cost. When I used to work selling carpets we were always throwing out old samples. Often we'd sell them as mats.

 

not happening

 

So you're looking for a method to easily and permanently end a behavior in a creature many times smaller and weaker than you? I think you know where I'm going with this...

 

Because...?

 

Definitely need to stop the food as a behaviour reinforcement. And somehow make another area more appealing to scratch. One of my cats loves to scratch brickwork, which I have in my dining room arch. Then she'll climb the arch and hang upside-down from the centre.

A brick, a sack and a trip to the river?

 

Declawing cats can be dicey as it can alter their personalities. Some never recover from the trauma of losing their primary method of hunting and defense, becoming withdrawn and irritable as a result.

 

All joking aside, either A) Get it declawed, B) Learn to deal with it or C) Do the chili powder trick said earlier.

 

Why do the doors have to be closed all the time? Habitual tugger?

 

 

Habitual tugger.

 

My family cat is declawed and fixed and she is just as loveable as ever, and guess what, she stopped destroying all the rugs and funiture in my parents house.

 

That's fantastic, but just because it worked for your cat doesn't mean it will for others.