Cat Scratching Tree Toys

Cat Scratching Tree Toys

Just like dogs, cats need enrichment in order to feel happy and secure. Giving them regular activities that engage their hunting and exploring instincts prevents destructive behaviour and what many a cat parent might term "the zoomies," periods of pent-up energy that leads to your pets becoming especially skittish and given to zooming around from room to room. Scratching is a natural tendency for cats and is not something you can healthily train away. While you may be cowering in fear for your leather furniture and your carpets, fear not: What you can do is provide them places where it's permissible for them to scratch. Cat scratching toys and trees are an easy solution, some of which provide even more than a place to work on your kitty's claws.

Scratching is an important, healthy part of how your cats groom themselves. Working their claws on something coarse sharpens their claws but also helps them file off bits of dead or chipped claws. This, along with regular trimmings with a pair of cat nail clippers, keeps them from getting too long to catch and snag on objects, people or other cats. This is why you'll catch a cat scratching on the sides of your furniture or even in doorways. Behaviourists will tell you that curbing this destruction requires providing an alternative. Cats are going to scratch, so give them places where they can. Then they will leave your belongings alone. If your pet does not take to a new scratcher immediately, try sprinkling some catnip on it to attract them.

Pet suppliers offer a number of unique cat scratching posts and mats. These can range from an upright twine or carpet cylinder to cardboard cubes to cat beds in strange, waving shapes. They're small enough to place in any living space, and because you are part of your cat's family, you do want it in the open where you also hang out. It helps your pet to feel like they own part of the space and are welcome there.

Cat scratching trees are usually so much more than a scratcher. With multiple levels, cat scratching trees take the concept of a post and turns it up, literally. Cats enjoy being able to survey the world around them, whether it's the world outside your window or the room everybody loves to spend time in. Along with a scratching post, sometimes multiple posts, cat trees allow your pet to do all this watching from a safe vantage point, where they can see you, any visitors and other pets. Some models include other amusements, like dangling toys for them to bat at, cubbies to hide away in and steps to climb.