Scratching Posts for Cats – Find the Best Scratching Posts for Cats!
Welcome! Here is some useful advice on finding the best scratching posts for cats.
In the wild, cats keep their claws sharp to defend themselves or to catch their prey. They do this by scratching on the bark of a nearby tree or other fibrous object. Although a housecat is fed by its owner and if indoors doesn’t need to defend itself, it may have a natural inclination to sharpen its claws.
It may do this by scratching couch or chair corners, the carpet, shelving or doorways. In order to keep a housecat from ruining furniture by doing what it’s natural inclination tells it to, a cat owner should buy a scratching post for cats.
When considering a scratching post for cats, the individual cat needs to be thought of. What does it tend to scratch on most, a carpet or a wooden table leg? What position is it usually in when it scratches? And does the cat scratch many different things, or does it return to scratch the same object each time?
Ideally, a cat owner would have more than one scratching post in the house, and will make each one different for the cat to use as it pleases. A cat needs to use scratching posts not only to shed the claws’ sheathes, but so that it can stretch its feline muscles that make it so flexible and agile.
There are many different types of scratching posts for cats. There are, of course, the regular scratching posts for cats that stand straight up in a cylindrical style. Recently, the most recommended type of post-style scratching tool is made of sisal fabric, which has a deep, fibrous, vertical texture up and down the pole.
It is called the Purrrfect Post and was developed by a veterinary. There are also Intergrooved Scratching Posts for cats that are made by Active Cat. Also providing vertical texture, it is made of wood, so it very closely approximates the natural experience of using a tree in the wild. The other option for vertical scratching posts for cats is to house a real tree and make it accessible to the cat to use for scratching.
Vertical corrugated scratching tools are an alternative to the traditional scratching posts for cats. It is inclined and provides the opportunity for cats to stretch muscles that are not used on a vertical post. Corrugated cardboard is a favorite to many cats, and the Cosmic Alpine Scratcher is baited with catnip as well as a hole where a toy mouse dangles enticingly to exercise a cat’s sense of play.
If a cat seems to enjoy horizontal scratching, or if this is an option a cat owner would like to include in the house, one recommendation is the Furniture Scratch Lounge. It provides a honeycomb scratching pad inside a three-sided lounge bed that makes a nice personal sitting spot for the cat.
Also for horizontal scratching is the Blitz Turbo Scratcher for Cats, which has a circular scratching center and an outside ring-groove that houses a ball for chasing when the cat needs something to play with. These don’t follow the traditional scratching posts for cats, but are just as important depending on the individual cat’s scratching style.
Cat towers covered in various textures, and with multiple landings that can provide vertical, horizontal, and perhaps multi-textural experiences for an active cat can also be found. Any of these vertical or horizontal scratching posts for cats could be bought at a local pet store, or online.