Cat Care – Using a Scratching Post
It’s a fact that cats love to scratch and they should be encouraged to scratch because it helps not only to clean and sharpen their claws, but also to exercise the muscles from the claws through the legs, shoulders and back.
If you find your cat scratching furniture indoors, consider providing the right kind of scratching post. The fluffy posts that are covered with carpet are not ideal – first of all, how is the cat to know the difference between the carpet on the post and the carpet on your floor? Secondly, the post needs to be covered with something rough, not smooth, like carpet. If you do already have a post that is covered in carpet, you could try taking the carpet off and re-attaching it with the rough carpet backing on the outside, this will be much more appealing to your cat.
The ideal type of post is one that’s made of sisal and these are easily available in most pet stores. Just make sure that the post is large enough and stable enough for your cat to use. If it’s too small it may fall over or your cat may not be able to get a good grip.
In her book, The New Natural Cat, Anitra Frazier explains how to encourage your cat to use the post by turning it into a ritual (which cats love). For example, when you arrive home, rather than immediately petting your cat, you can go to the scratching post and scratch it a little bit yourself with your nails until the cat comes, at which point your cat will probably join in, then you can stroke your cat while he or she scratches the post. This way they associate the post with pleasure – you arriving home and stroking them at the same time.
You can also encourage your cat to use the post just before feeding time. Once again, your cat will associate the post with something pleasurable – food.
It’s unfortunate that many people have their cats declawed because they’ve been scratching the furniture or the carpet when simply buying the right scratching post and encouraging them to use it would stop the furniture scratching. Cats need to sharpen their claws. If you provide the right tools for them to do it then you needn’t worry about your furniture.
March 30th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
My cat Clair won’t scratch anything but certain scratching posts that looks similar to the grey material from the picture above. Luckily for us when we got Clair even though she spent close to a year and a half in a cage at the humane society she quickly learned where she was allowed to scratch. When we got Clair she was 5 years old so it was too late in her life to declaw her which was good since at that time we couldn’t really afford it.