Never had a kitten before, but i got her from a friend of a friend for free. She is a couple weeks shy of 3 months old and is an absolute sweetheart. No accidents outside the litter box after a week, and she has even let me trim her paws!
She was 2lbs 5ozs when i got her and she is growing well. She's way less shy than when i got her and has become super curious and playful the past week.
I see you have a scratching post. Excellent! Number one mistake new cat owners make is not having somewhere for the cat to scratch (it's a physiological need for them), then they get annoyed when the cat scratches their furniture.
She's got a few scattered around the apartment, as well as some boxes. She still takes the occasional pock ay the carpet or my bedding, but nothing excessive.
I placed a scratching post next to the couch and bed so that the cat can't damage the furniture. As of the carpets, they are quite robust and cheap to replace, I'm on the same boat with you. Good thinking!
My younger cat needed a lot of convincing to use only the scratching post. Every time I saw her scratching the couch, I'd pick her up and put her in front of the scratching post. Took a few weeks, but we got there. She hasn't scratched the couch in ~2 years now.
This is more targeted to other people than you, but was the post right next to the couch? One of the smaller details that people often overlook is that scratching leaves their scent behind and says "I live here", so they will often want to scratch in socially significant parts of the house. So, if the only acceptable scratching surfaces are hidden away from the rooms you actually hang out in, they're probably going to find something else to scratch on.
Unfortunately, the same logic is sometimes behind litter box issues too.
Yup, absolutely. We have 2 posts in the two rooms we spend the most time in for exactly this reason.
Is not just a matter of being in the room, but being where the cat wants to scratch. I had a lot of luck just putting one of those cardboard scratchers right next to the couch and mine focused on that instead of the furniture.