Scratching is an integral part of cat’s lives. You may notice your cat loves to scratch at your carpet and furniture. However, if you provide your kitty with somewhere to scratch, you can easily direct their scratching to an appropriate place! The best thing to do is provide your kitty with a scratching post. The best kind of scratching posts are made of a material that cats will love to sink their claws into. Besides scratching posts, there are cat trees, ramps, and scratch toys that you can suspend in the air, all providing your kitty with hours of fun. Nearly every cat enjoys a scratching post, but you can experiment with other types of scratching outlets to see which your cat prefers!
My cats love the Seagrass Cat Scratcher, shown to the right. It comes in a pack of two, so you can put each in a place where your cat may have unacceptable options for scratching. I would recommend putting it in areas where your cat has been scratching at your carpet or furniture.
The most important factor in choosing a scratcher is making sure that is is stable. If the scratcher falls onto your cat, you can bet he will never go near another scratcher again! The Seagrass Cat Scratcher is just over a foot and a half tall, and is planted on top of a sturdy base. Another good factor to look for is the material covering the scratcher. Cats enjoy a variety of material, but they particularly like a ropelike material (known as sisal), and any carpet material (as long as it isn’t shag carpet!). Not only is the Seagrass Cat Scratcher made up of tight woven carpet fibers, but it also is created for horizontal and vertical scratching. Your cat will love this scratch tower – mine does!
Another tower your cat may enjoy is the Cat Perch and Scratching Post. This two foot tall post has a perch on top, which is perfect because cats love to sit on top of a perch and look down at people (it is part of their superiority complex!). The perch and top half of the post is made of the sisal material, and the bottom half of the post and base is made of carpet. It also comes with two hanging balls that you can put catnip inside.
To get your cat interested in his new cat scratcher, you should always add some catnip to it. This is integral to training your cat to claw the scratcher post instead of your furniture!