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Cat Forum / Health and Behavior / September 2004Berber carpet OK for cats?
I am going to be replacing the carpet in my basement with something tough and durable like Berber given that I have a home gym in the basement. However I was wondering two things: 1) Whether my two cats will always be clawing the carpet and getting their claws stuck in the Berber "loops", or whether they will leave it alone. My cats do claw at carpet but I don't have Berber carpet anywhere in the house, and one of my friends told me that their previous cats hated Berber carpet and would never claw it. It would be great if they didn't bother clawing at Berber carpet. 2) Given that the litter box is in the basement, whether they will track kitty litter into the Berber carpet which may be difficult to remove (i.e. anybody know if its unusually difficult to vacuum kitty litter out of Berber carpet compared to "normal" carpet)? Thanks. >I am going to be replacing the carpet in my basement with something >tough and durable like Berber given that I have a home gym in the [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > >Thanks. In my experience, Berber isn't good for cats. It snagged badly, and the snag would leave a line in the carpet. They don't really even have to claw it, Yoda's back claws caught in it really bad and we had to be extra diligent to clip them. Others may have had better experience; mine was not a real high-quality grade. Sherry > I am going to be replacing the carpet in my basement with something > tough and durable like Berber given that I have a home gym in the > basement. However I was wondering two things: > > My cats do claw at carpet Just a side note: if you don't have any fresh horizontal scratchpads, check out the ones at WalMart, PetSmart and some grocery chains. I began with the "SmartyCat Superscratcher Plus" by Worldwide. It is just a shallow box you put catnip in, then a rough corrugated cardboard type lid goes on. When I got it my cats went from clawing the rugs and furniture every day to maybe once a week. When I added an "Alpine Scratcher" by Cosmic Catnip, they just stopped scratching rugs and furniture. The latter is the same thing but on a slant and they just hunker down every morning and go to town. >> I am going to be replacing the carpet in my basement with something >> tough and durable like Berber given that I have a home gym in the [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] >thing but on a slant and they just hunker down every morning and go to >town. We also have the flat shallow box with a corrugated insert and they love it! One of the guys always runs to it when he is having a *happy* like when the fridge door opens at dinnertime or when we come home. -mhd >1) Whether my two cats will always be clawing the carpet and getting >their claws stuck in the Berber "loops", or whether they will leave it >alone. My cats do claw at carpet but I don't have Berber carpet >anywhere in the house, and one of my friends told me that their >previous cats hated Berber carpet and would never claw it. It would >be great if they didn't bother clawing at Berber carpet. if they have long overgrown nails they will get stuck in the berber. Some like to claw it and rip up the loops. >2) Given that the litter box is in the basement, whether they will >track kitty litter into the Berber carpet which may be difficult to >remove (i.e. anybody know if its unusually difficult to vacuum kitty >litter out of Berber carpet compared to "normal" carpet)? if they miss the box for some reason berber seems to leave a bigger stain that's almost impossible to get out. I think vacuuming is about the same, not sure I have berber carpet and it doesn't seem to affect my 2 cats at all. My one cat likes to claw the carpet, but so far he hasn't snagged it at all. Once in awhile their claws get stuck in the carpet, but then that's an indication to me that their claws need clipping. If I ever have to replace the carpet, I wouldn't hesitate to get berber again. S. > I am going to be replacing the carpet in my basement with something > tough and durable like Berber given that I have a home gym in the [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > > Thanks. >I have berber carpet and it doesn't seem to affect my 2 cats at all. My one >cat likes to claw the carpet, but so far he hasn't snagged it at all. Once [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > >S. I'm really glad to hear this. Because I love Berber, I think it adds so much character to the house. But the piece we had ended up snagged really badly over the cats. I always wondered if we'd had a higher-quality piece we would have had better luck with it. It sounds like that's probably true, from your post. Sherry When we bought our house it had the berber carpet already. I worried that the berber wouldn't be good for the cats but it has held up just fine (almost 2 years). We were told it was a high quality carpet, maybe that's the difference. S. > >I have berber carpet and it doesn't seem to affect my 2 cats at all. My one > >cat likes to claw the carpet, but so far he hasn't snagged it at all. Once [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > had better luck with it. It sounds like that's probably true, from your post. > Sherry My downstairs berber carpet was the second cheapest the store had and it has worn beautifully for 5 years with 3 cats. I just did the upstairs but couldn't exactly match it because the downstairs carpet was discontinued. This has a little bigger loop but the cats are fine with it. Just clipped them because claws were catching in it but with a clipping no more problem. -- Barb Of course I don't look busy, I did it right the first time. >My downstairs berber carpet was the second cheapest the store had and it has >worn beautifully for 5 years with 3 cats. I just did the upstairs but [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >-- >Barb Well, darn. I guess we're just slobs. Because ours was snagged so awful in a couple of years we replaced it! Sherry Different cats have different hobbies, I guess. -- Barb Of course I don't look busy, I did it right the first time. > I am going to be replacing the carpet in my basement with something > tough and durable like Berber given that I have a home gym in the [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > previous cats hated Berber carpet and would never claw it. It would > be great if they didn't bother clawing at Berber carpet. The only carpeting (Vs. area rugs) in my house is on the staircase, & it's a very tiny looped & dense Berber. Herrie (cat) likes to occasionally work at it with his claws, but it shows no signs of wear form him doing this, at all. > 2) Given that the litter box is in the basement, whether they will > track kitty litter into the Berber carpet which may be difficult to > remove (i.e. anybody know if its unusually difficult to vacuum kitty > litter out of Berber carpet compared to "normal" carpet)? > > Thanks. I'm not sure - as I said, mine is a very tiny looped variety & so the litter - if any gets tracked onto it - tends to stay on the surface instead of sinking down into/under the loops. Cathy |
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