Scratching is not damage-seeking behaviour. It is a stretch, a claw-maintenance routine and a scent mark all at once, delivered by glands in the paws. A cat scratches where it wants to leave a signature, which is why it chooses the arm of the sofa you sit on and not the post in the spare room.
Placement beats persuasion
- Put the scratcher directly in front of whatever is currently being scratched. Not nearby. In front of it.
- Add one beside every sleeping spot. The first thing a cat does on waking is stretch, and it will use whatever is within a metre.
- Add one near the door you come in through, where the greeting and the excitement happen.
- Cover the old target for a fortnight with something unsatisfying: a throw, a sheet of card, double-sided tape.
Offer both angles
Cats split roughly evenly between vertical and horizontal scratching, and plenty do both depending on mood. A tall post needs to be tall enough that the cat can extend fully. Most commercial posts are too short. It also needs to be stable enough that it does not rock, because a post that moves under load gets abandoned immediately. An arch or a flat pad covers the horizontal case in far less floor space.
Surface
Sisal is the usual winner, and woven sisal outlasts wrapped rope because a caught claw does not unravel the whole thing. Corrugated card is cheap, extremely popular and messy. Carpet is the one to avoid: it teaches the cat that carpet is a legitimate target, and your floor is carpet.
You are not stopping a cat scratching. You are choosing where it happens.
Ciara Byrne, Wexfur
The two-week move
Once the new scratcher is being used daily, you can shift it, about a metre a week, to somewhere you prefer. Move it faster than that and the habit does not travel with it. Sprinkle catnip along the surface at the start if your cat responds to it, and reward use the moment you see it rather than telling the cat off for the sofa, which teaches it only to scratch the sofa when you are out.
