If you are tired of your cat scratching your furniture and you don’t want to spend money, you can follow these steps to make a scratching post for your pet. At the same time, you can put to use the cardboard boxes that you have piled up in your house. Cats need to scratch to sand their nails. Doing this also helps them release stress. By digging the nails and anchoring them, they loosen your body, pulling to stretch the muscles. In addition, it allows them to mark the territory by leaving a visual and olfactory signal.
Tips to get him to use it
1. Look for a strategic place: As much as the scratching post looks nice in some corner of your house, it is important that you place it in an area that your cat frequents. Avoid noisy places.2. Scratch yourself: you can do this as a game with your pet. If you repeat it several times a day, taking care to make noise, you will help the cat to adopt the same behavior. You can also take his paws and run them through the scratching post after you’ve done your demo.3. Move it near the places it scratches: If your cat is used to scratching your couch or chairs, you can place the scratching post in these places. Thus, he will impregnate it with his pheromones, a hormone that he has in his pads. This will make it easier for you to recognize it and keep using it even if you move it.4. Reward good behavior: You can reinforce the use of the scratching post by offering animal treats, petting it, or doing something that it likes when it is finished. In order to relate both actions, it is important that you do not let time pass between one and the other.
5. Play with him: when the cat approaches the scratching post, play some kind of predatory game on it. You can do this with a feather tied to a piece of string. This could encourage other visits.
6. Impregnate it with catnip: If none of these tips work, you can always stimulate your pet with catnip (Nepeta cataria), which is irresistible to felines. To do this, rub the scraper with some leaves of this herb.
How to make the scraper
You will need to
- Shoe boxes of any type and size (at least five medium-sized ones) Masking tape
- a cutter
- A rule
- Scraps of paper, felt, or fabric
- Decorative paper or fabric
Instructions1. Choose the height you want the scraper to be. The one in the picture is 2.5 centimeters.2. Measure and cut your cardboard boxes into strips of the same width. Do this so that the corrugation runs across the strips horizontally.3. Start rolling the cardboard in your hands. Fold in each undulation so that it naturally takes on the desired shape.4. Form a tight circle with one of the strips and secure it with masking tape. This will be the center.5. Add another strip and secure it with two pieces of masking tape. Choose which side will be on top and make sure that side is always even.6. Keep adding cardboard strips until you have the desired size.7. To finish, decorate the edge with some paper or piece of fabric that you like.
Sources: Tricks to get your cat to use the scratching postUNDERSTANDING SCRATCHING BEHAVIOR IN CATSDIY PROJECT: RECYCLED CARDBOARD KITTY PAD