Where can I get a cat scratching post that isn't naff?

[taffetacat]

We get a kitten from Battersea on Saturday and I'd like to get him a scratching post in a probably futile effort to keep him off the new sofas.

All the ones I've seen online are grim : naff old beige carpet and the like. Battersea said it needed to be fairly high as when he's fully grown he needs to be able to stretch on it.

Anyone come across any non naff ones?

Are you looking primarily for something he can scratch or more of an "activity centre" or "cat tree" style one with different levels? If you just need a scratching outlet you can make one fairly easily with carpet offcuts or carpet tiles (at least you can choose funky colours then!) stapled/pinned/nailed to a board or directly to the wall. Don't make the mistake of thinking a carpet-covered board can just be leant against a wall though - learnt that the hard way when our old cat nearly pulled it over on top of himself when he got a claw caught and tugged too hard!

If you're after an activity centre there are some fairly funky ones here: www.petplanet.co.uk/category.asp?dept_id=816. Kittens will play on or with anything, but if we'd got something fancy like that for our old adult cats they'd have probably turned their noses up and still favoured the sofa-arms for playing and lounging on...

zooplus have some varied ones, check out the difference sizes etc.

TBH they're all going to have an element of beige because the sisal rope they use as the scratching stuff is beige.

Ours really like this one - they're on their second having shredded the first.

good luck with training them to a post.

oh no - humourous link went wrong

THIS

but probably anything on the page not intended for cats would do.

Well, I am hoping he'll be an outdoor cat as we are semi rural, have a good size garden and fields at the bottom of the garden. I don't know if access to outside means they need activity centres less?

I was kind of hoping we could get away with just a scratching post as like many people I am sure I am so fed up of revolting looking crap ( aka DC's toys ) all over the place.

DH is quite the DIY man and likes to save a bit of money where possible, but he doesn't have any rope or MDF handy so by the time he's been and bought some and made the thing, it would probably be cheaper to buy one.

He's has an activity centre at the shelter at the moment, and I'd like to prevent him from scratching the sofas if possible.....I went into Pets at Home today and they had quite a reasonable looking one that hada sisal base rather than carpet - would a kitten like this?

Thanks for the links lol tootootired

Some of the activity centres cost a fortune! And are quite, quite ridiculous. One has a hammock, ffs.

So how do I keep his claws off the sofa? Spray gun? Is this cruel?

You might need to observe the cat for a bit and see what he tries to scratch - i.e. textures, horizontal or vertical surface. Then try and get a similar type of shape. Ours have often gone for stairs, we gave up & nailed a piece of old carpet on the bottom step. Another cat likes to be underneath things and she would probably like one of those with a sort of box to hide in. But then I have always had rehomed cats who were set in their bad habits.

You can also buy catnip spray that will attract a cat to a particular place, might work. If he's little a firm "no" should keep him off the sofas.

try a nice new sofa

Wow at this one

We have bought all sorts of scratching posts over the last 15 years and we found the cheap smallish ones from Argos were the best ( a foot long post covered in sisal with a furry ball attached to the top).They have heavy bases so the cats don't pull them over The cats just lie down and reach up to scratch it when they are bigger. We make sure we rubbed cat nip onto them before they used them and they go mad for it. We have 2 in the house at the moment.At £6.99 they are cheap and small enough to be fairly inoffensive. With a small kitten a little one is fine.
I don't think there is such a thing as a pretty scratching post except perhaps a nice sofa.
Enjoy your kitten

Good advice re observation tootootired. I just know I am going to be too soft on him.

I recall seeing "sticky paws" or something to that effect that's a bit like double sided sticky tape - you put it on the leg of the chair or wherever the cat wants to scratch, then their paws get stuck to the tape and it puts them off. They're not proper stuck like flypaper, just the texture/slight stickiness is offputting! You might not want that permanently but it might be handy for the first couple of months to get the cat in a good habit of not picking a particular scratching place, because once they've found one they like it's hard to break the habit. Similarly you can get repellant sprays that you can apply to particular places and that puts them off - although my mum still had to drape a tea towel over the corner of the bottom stair to put one of our beasties off once he was wedded to that as "his place"!

Outdoor cats do hopefully burn most of their enegery off outside climbing fences and trees, so indoor structural toys should be less of a necessity once he's old enough to go outside.

I got sticky paws when DCat1 decided to scratch my new sofa - seemed to work as they don't scratch the sofa now (but do have a scratching tree). But I thought it was pricey for what it was.

Ooooooooooooooooo - DCat1

Do I get to use a new acronym from Sat??

thanks for the tips ladies, Jelly has ruined the leather dining chairs so i've given up on them but the sticky paws thing looks good and the Ikea scratching post looks like cat heaven - wish it was £40 cheaper.