Scratching post

Hello everyone. I'm looking into scratching posts, and although having had cats before, I've no experience in this field. All my previous cats learnt not to scratch furniture and carpets very quickly, plus they were allowed outside when ever they wanted.

As the new kitty is going to be an indoor car, with supervised access into the garden, I'm considering a scratch post for enrichment, and to spare my sofa!

my questions...

are MCs' buggers for tearing up your furniture?

what type of scratch post or scratch matts do you use?

what do you recommend, and what should I steer clear of?

thanks x

Oh dizdesigns thats a new one kitten thats going to be an inside car....luv it...someone who can be as bad as me,I very often look back on posts & cringe at spelling etc.... but all good fun...... :smile:
Like all breeds they differ,some don't bother about furniture at all & others can be a nightmare.....one very good reason for upending babe from the start & get it used to having its nails clipped,mine get done monthly {got into that habit with the show cats} if for any reason I leave them a couple of weeks longer they have talons,not good for playtime as well as furniture....
There are lots of scratching posts out there & in the past I have had what seemed like good hard wearing ones but they have never lasted as long as I would have liked,with a few cats in our house & very often all flying at the tree together we splashed out on a Tigga Tower,brilliant,pricey but was designed by a maine coon owner so knows exactly what is wanted & what it has to contend with,you can start off with the besics & as you can afford it build it up,the beds are easy to keep clean & wash forever,the original ones that were on the tree are out in the cats pen now still as good as new as is the whole tower,just trying to work out how long it has been here but at the moment can't,just know it was more than worth the money spent & wish we had gone for it a lot sooner...... Whatever you buy steer clear of the ones that have toys attached by elastic in fact steer clear of elastic toys altogether unless you are in the same room,have seen an adult MC nearly strangled by it......
Oh boy my posts always seem to give out doom & gloom but a lot of it comes from having worked at a vets for 40 years you see these freak things & try to avoid with your own but having said that have had some scarey times with mine too,oh boy....xxx

Hi there dizdesigns,

If you can let us know what country your in that would be great as I have bought a massive stratch post for my 2 boys and it was a very good price. I obviously haven't got my kittens yet but they won't get through this post in quite a while hopefully as its so huge.

mine loves any kind of fabric - except leather, she doesn't scratch leather - and another thing she doesn't like to scratch her scrathing mats.... I have here an old armchair that HO wanted to throw away because she's scratched it so much it looks all frayed and dirty - I we finally decided to keep because of our pirate, the logic being while she scratches that she won't do anything else - well big mistake, this cat is the multitscratcher from hell... good job we have quite a tough carpet...
HOWEVER: I found a cardboard scratching mat lately which seems to do the trick, one of those honeycomb pads, you know... we threw a bit of catnip there at first to make sure she'd accept it - she'd accept anything with catnip - and voila, she's much better with the carpet now, though I still catch her from time to time, looking at me like "yeah? you like that carpet? well look what I'm doing to it... take that! and that! and ner-ner-ner-ner! you can't stop me!" (yes I get all that from a look...

Hi!
can I just ask how you're planning on going about the supervised access to the garden? I'm wondering how to manage this myself. Thanks!

I'm a new with MC myself but she is here for couple of days and what I can tell in my case is she loves to climb so we got her a ceiling tall tree which is great fun for her. She have couple of flat cardboard scratchers, ok, sometimes she will scracth them but mostly she prefer vertical ones. I made her one of cardboard. Whole thing is about 1.3 meter tall, took me a week of slow work. Base of MDF and top is a some chipboard I found for free in B&M covered with foam and then a pillow case. It is a bit wobly as it is so tall so I think I will just add some cord to hold it to this bookcase. This is rented flat so I can't screw it to the wall. She still prefer sisal ones but maybe because this one is new.

BTW writhing this with cat on your desk is not so easy... :P
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Great job!!!

Hello everyone, and thanks very much for your responses.

Just to to confirm, I'm not getting an indoor car! :rofl: It will definitely be a cat!! :nod: Auto correct and predictive text always get the better of me.

im located in the uk, I'll update my profile.

i have looked at tigger towers, and by god they are amazing, but probably out of my price range... I could always sell my husband?

Ahhh if your in the UK I can give you the links to the Scratching post and Climbing center I have got my 2 boys.

Cat Tree/Climbing frame: Leopet® KBD009/2blau Cat Tree Scratching Post Kitten Climbing Excercise Activity Centre Sisal Height 2.30m! (Blue): Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies

I actually got this straight from Jago24 in Germany as it was out of stock on Amazon and I didn't know if they would have it back on Amazon so ordered direct and it got here very quickly and looks really good in blue.

Cat Tree Post: Cat Scratching Posts

This thing is MASSIVE lol, have a look on my other post for a picture of how big it is!! Can't see them pushing this over for a while lol.

Hope this helps you out and the Scratch post from Zooplus is truly massive and I can't wait to see my 2 boys having fun with it :)

Thanks Matrix, that great of you x

I love your home-made tree, Valdez, it's really cool! I think I might try and do something like that myself, I have been looking for a project...

Personally, my problem with spending a lot of money on a tree is that either Neevie will take to it and play with it all the time, in which case it will definitely be worth it - ooooor she will completely ignore it in which case we'll have spent 102£ on a great design that's useless, and HO will use his catchphrase "right, it's the last time we buy anything for that Coonie of yours" (she is mine when she's naughty. she's his baby-girl when she's cuddly of funny). So, if I can make it as free as possible, it would be great! Less disappointing when she doesn't use it... And even more thrilling if she does...

forget anywhere like pets at home for these things. i bought one off ebay around 6 years ago. supposedly it retailed at £300 but on ebay it was £140. i seem to recall it was an american company although i have no idea what their name was but the quality is fantastic. having compared it to what i have seen in pets at home, i cant see their stuff lasting more than a few months whereas the one i bought does need the sisal ropes replacing but other than that it is still going strong. i have seen smaller activity centres which appear to be the same make. the only identifiable mark that i have spotted is a paw print in the corner of the base. i really cant say a bad thing about it, my 3 cats love it and with a maine coon coming in a month, hopefully he will love it too. i am tempted to buy another but i am reluctant to buy a straight activity centre due to the weight of the cats. the one i have has a corner with MDF boards leading away in 2 directions at a 90 degree angle which makes it very stable. i am not sure how stable a different type would be with big cats jumping on it from a running start

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AFK_Matrix

Ahhh if your in the UK I can give you the links to the Scratching post and Climbing center I have got my 2 boys.

Cat Tree/Climbing frame: Leopet® KBD009/2blau Cat Tree Scratching Post Kitten Climbing Excercise Activity Centre Sisal Height 2.30m! (Blue): Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies

I actually got this straight from Jago24 in Germany as it was out of stock on Amazon and I didn't know if they would have it back on Amazon so ordered direct and it got here very quickly and looks really good in blue.

Cat Tree Post: Cat Scratching Posts

This thing is MASSIVE lol, have a look on my other post for a picture of how big it is!! Can't see them pushing this over for a while lol.

Hope this helps you out and the Scratch post from Zooplus is truly massive and I can't wait to see my 2 boys having fun with it :)

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AFK: I got that huge scratching post that you have a link to on Zoo plus. It is just fantastic!!!!!!!!!!

Personally I think keep it simply.

A scratching post is to emulate a tree, not a theme park.

And you might save yourself a lot of money in the process.

This one is simple, big and cats love it. Big cats can't knock it over, small ones race to the top.

Cat Scratching Posts

Our adopted MC wouldn't have anything to do with any posts we had before. They need to be taller than your cat can reach on hind legs. He loves this one!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JohnT

Personally I think keep it simply.

A scratching post is to emulate a tree, not a theme park.

And you might save yourself a lot of money in the process.

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OK, but where is the fun? :-) It's a bit like grandparents who love to spoil their grandkids, and buy them really cool stuff, and then the kid ends up playing with the box.... ;-P

I agree with Alekto, my 2 boys absolutely love their blue climbing center and have used it pretty much from day one. They didn't take much notice of the massive scratching post I got them as well, only when i ran a toy up it did they get what to do with it lol. Then they were scrambling up it and sitting on top, I did have to move it close to the climbing center though as they got up the post and then sat on top really not sure how to get down lol, so now they jump across to the climbing center. So I personally think the more things they have to climb over and play on the better as it keeps them happy and active.

Our last moggy had used the same scratching post for 14 years. Sidney killed it in 3 weeks, and he was still a kitten.

I fell in love with the Tigga Towers, partly because they look more like furniture and less like cat toys and they are so well made. I had a good rummage through the garage and sold a load of stuff on eBay which raised enough to stop my husband completely freaking out - we now have a Tilly Tigga with a domed basket on top.

It looks rather nice in the conservatory and it gives my husband something to grumble about - £400 for a scratching post?

We have had Felisafe fencing put up on top of the 6ft garden fence and up till last week it was fab - then s bit of branch started to dangle and provided an escape route. One very sad cat couldn't get back in on his own - had to be grabbed at arms length at gone 11 at night. Some careful pruning and Fort Knox is re-established, and Sid can't quite work out why the trees are different. I heartily recommend the fencing - you just need to check regularly to see how plants near the fence are growing and keep stuff trimmed properly.

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