Question
My cat loves to bite and pull at the carpet everywhere there is a seam (between rooms, patches, etc). I've tried squirting him with water, but now he just runs away if I even move while he's doing it. Since I can't be there all the time, I need some way to keep him from ripping up the carpet while I'm at work or asleep. I've seen products that are supposed to keep cats away from an area, but that would require spaying the doorway. I don't want to prevent him from entering those rooms, just to stop messing with the carpet.
Answer
Some cats are horizontal scratchers instead of vertical ones, they like pulling and yanking at carpet and stuff rather than, say, a couch or something, if they don't have something appropriate. You can get scratchers that are just corrugated cardboard stuck together in flatter box shapes that you set on the floor - I had a cat who was determined to yank up all my carpets, and then I gave him something like this, and he stopped trying to pull my carpet up, and chewed and scratched on the cardboard thing instead.
If it isn't a scratching need, then you might want to try putting pepper (cayenne or black pepper, I have used both) in the area you want to keep him out of, like along the seams. I do this to keep my cat out of plants and other places, and it works pretty well. Also lemon juice or vinegar also work, although make sure they won't damage your carpet.
You could also get a small rug and try to train him to only pull at that one, but I have never really gotten it to work (although other people apparently have.)
There are commercial sprays you can use, that claim to keep cats from scratching at things, but I can't speak to how well they work.
It also might be a boredom thing, or an attention seeking behaviour, and he might just want more active playtime, and there are a large variety of toys and things you can get to help with this.
Also, I found some cats responds better to a noise deterrent than being sprayed with water - for one cat I had, I used a can/jar with rocks in it and shook it right near him when he was doing stuff I didn't like, and it worked well.
Answered By - Ash