# Kitten tearing wallpaper:-(



## Matilda32 (Oct 18, 2011)

My British Shorthaired kitten, Matilda, is 10 months old. She is a lovely little cat BUT she is tearing wallpaper off around my house and I don't know what to do with her. She started in my bedroom only decorated a year ago and she has jumped up and torn pieces off on 3 strips, it looks a mess. My hallway that was only decorated before christmas she has torn a huge piece down bit by bit. Then today I came home and I noticed she had torn 2 pieces off around my landing window. Then I noticed a huge cat scratch horizontally down my wall on the stairs, really high up too??? so I dont know what she has been doing to get that high. 

We have another British Shorthaired cat, Angelica, she is 18 months and as good as gold, we had none of this when she was a kitten.

We have 2 cat trees, really big one in their playroom. Yet she still goes round doing this. Her nails are quite long so I shall mention it to the vet when I pop up there next, but this is just her behaviour I guess tearing wallpaper.

Any tips? I just don't know what to do. She has also pulled threads all over my sons bedroom carpet, it is ruined


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

If Matilda is an indoors only cat then it is a good idea to clip her claws regularly to blunt them a bit. They would get blunted naturally if she was an outdoors cat, climbing trees etc.

Your vet, or vet nurse, can show you the correct way to clip her claws yourself using clippers.

You mention you have a couple of cat scratching posts, but I am wondering whether Matilda is actually using them, or whether, as they no doubt have Angelica's scent on them, she sees them as being *off limits* to her and is instead scratching the walls to mark her scent.

I would suggest acquiring a couple more scratching posts and placing them around the house. One of the best on the market IMO is the Diogenes Barrel which can be bought online from zooplus.

Pet Supplies, Pet Food, Dog Food, Cat Food and Pet Accessories at Zooplus

The advantage of this one is that it is a good size, sturdy, stable and very attractive to cats!

Then, you will need to be very conscientious about training Matilda to use it in preference to your walls. Every time you see her go for the wallpaper, 
don't tell her off but quietly carry her to the new scratching post, and gently move her paws up and down on it, mimicking the movement she would make herself. You may need to do this dozens of times before she gets the hang of it as unfortunately she is well into the habit of using your walls

Once she has marked her scent a few times on the new scratching post she will return to it again and again to reinforce her scent. She may have the odd hiccup where she goes for the walls, in which case I would recommend having a small water pistol handy and giving her a quick squirt when she goes for the walls. But make sure she *does not* see you squirting her, or the surprise/shock of not knowing where the water is coming from will be completely lost. All that will happen if she knows it is you squirting her is that next time she will wait until you are out of the way

The combination of re-training (using a new scratch post) along with a squirt from the water pistol if she slips up is likely to work. If you just squirt her with water when she scratches the walls, without retraining her as well, it will just confuse her and be counterproductive.

If you find after a fair period of trying the above method it is not working with Matilda, then I can only suggest removing all the wallpaper, and having 
paint put directly onto the walls. If the walls are uneven they may need professional re-skimming with plaster first before being painted. But the end result can look very good.


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## welshjet (Mar 31, 2011)

Ive given up with ours!

When we moved in, up the stairs and the bedrooms had an anaglipter sort of wall paper, i guess with that sort of paper, the nails went in the raised bit, for us, its on our todo list and we'll get there someday


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## porps (Jun 23, 2011)

i've given up too. Even the cats who reguarly use the scratching post still take time to have a good scratch of the wallpaper. So im just gonna get rid of the wallpaper at some point, when i can be arsed. Prefer painted to wallpaper anyway.


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## sarahecp (Aug 22, 2011)

You could try Feliway spray, I used it when Seb started scratching the sofa, sprayed it on there and it stopped him


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