Watch the video here - https://youtu.be/SfTccFiNznY
Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to give up your sofa, carpets or favourite arm chair the moment you bring your kitty home, despite the many tiny daggers attached to those cute fluffy paws. However, we've all been there when you set your brand new scratch post down, just to see it left totally ignored in favour of your duvan bed or plush new squashy carpet.
However, it's not enough to plonk a scratch post down and hope for the best. In all honesty, sofas do make better scratchers than most posts! They are big and heavy and padded so they can realy get their claws in and have a good pull down without it giving way.
We need to make sure the scratchers are the obvious choice for your cat. They need to be better than your sofa, or your carpet or whatever object they are choosing to have a go on next. And there are a few things to keep in mind to make their scratcher the obvious choice.
Make it tall and sturdy with a nice big area to scratch on - cats usually want to stretch up to their full height to scratch. Think about what material they want to scratch on - not all cats like the sisal rope most posts use. Where you put it is important too - remember they are marking as they scratch and might want to leave a mark in that specific place. Some cats want to scrach down and not up, so they'll go for your sofa and not the vertical posts - a cardboard scratcher will be better for these kitties. There is so much more to think about - who knew it was this complicated!
Does your cat scratch your furniture? Or do they use their cat tree without a problem? Let me know in the comments!
