Scratching the carpet

[Marisa]

Hello,

I am a first time ferret owner and am in need of some advice. I have a 1 year old male and a 10 month old female, and I cannot get them to stop scratching at the carpet! They scratch at doors even if they have never been in the room they are scratching at. I have tried to discipline them with the pinning technique or to distract them, but its like they are obsessed and it is ruining my carpet. I also have a dig box for them and I try to get them outside occasionally to get all the digging instinct out but not much seems to help. If anyone has some advice I would super appreciate it!

Also on a side note I tried to register to join, but I am still waiting for staff approval but its been quite a while. I am not sure where to go from here but I would love to join!

Thank you in advanced!

Marisa

[Sherry]

With the carpet all you can really do is cover it with something like a carpet protector. I buy it by the roll, and cut it to fit around doorways, extending under the door by a couple of feet each way, and past the door frames by at least 8" either side.
As for membership, I approve them every morning. However, if you've gone over 24 hours with no notification of acceptance that means I likely got a hit on one of the spam sites I check every IP address against and you didn't include a note. So try reapplying and include a short note with it.

[msav]

This is ferret problem solving instinct. The door is the obstacle and since they can not go over it they naturally try to dig to go under it. The carpet must feel like it is moving so they think they are Making progress. I put a old office chair mat cut to the size of the doorway to cover the door threshold. They may still scratch at it for a while, mine eventually felt like they were not getting anywhere and stopped. yours may never stop but at least they will not be doing any damage.