In keeping with our scratching theme, I’d like to share with you these elegantly simple and unique scratching posts that offer some different materials for scratching. Natural Scratch is a line of handcrafted scratching posts made of solid natural cork or solid white cedar wood. As we saw in the photos last week, lots of cats like to scratch on wood, so this may be the perfect solution.
Both the cork and the cedar scratchers have incredibly sturdy bases made of red cedar. The cedar post measures 32″ tall and the cork post comes in both 24″ and 32″. These posts have some really great details, designed to entice your cat to scratch, including the antenna toy made of stretchy string, and a “mouse hole” at the top. You can poke the antenna toy through the hole or hide treats or other toys so kitty will reach up to investigate and then dig her claws into the post.
The wood post is made with Wisconsin-grow Northern white cedar. This wood has a nice rough texture that cats love, plus it is very soft, so they can really sink their claws in. The company says that in all the years they’ve been making these posts, no one has ever reported a cat getting a sliver in a paw.
They sent us one of the cork posts to test, and as you can see, it is a big hit. It took a while for them to get used to the new material, but the toy at the top really helped attract them to the post. It gets a lot of use now, and although some crumbs flake off each time it gets clawed, you can barely see any wear. A little vacuuming cleans-up the cork bits. I think we will get many, many years of use out of this scratcher. And the cats especially love how tall it is, they can really get in a good stretch, as Ando and Theo are both demonstrating above.
Natural Scratch just came out with a line of horizontal scratchers, too, in both cork and cedar. They also have the string toy attached, as well as some holes that you can fill with catnip.
All Natural Scratch products come with a booklet with lots of helpful tips for training your cat to use the scratching post.
BONUS GIVEAWAY!
Natural Scratch is offering a 32-inch cork post for one lucky winner! To enter, please leave a comment on this post with your thoughts about the Natural Scratch products. The winner will be chosen in a random drawing on May 16. One entry per person. This giveaway includes free shipping to the lower 48 states. Readers outside this region may enter if they are willing to pay the extra shipping charges.
July 24th, 2011 at 4:16 pm
This look wonderful. One of my cat would love the horizontal scratcher as she “loves” scratching the carpet.
November 8th, 2011 at 11:32 am
I purchased the natural cedar scratching post about 8 years and it has been “sculpted” by the incessant scratching of two cats. I wish I could post a photo of it. It is a great product that simulates scratching a tree because of its very stable base and sufficient height for the cat to stretch up. In truth, I have also used sisal scratching posts, and some have preferred it, but I prefer that they prefer this product because it will withstand a lot of use and outlive even a well made sisal scratching post. I thought it was a great value! I have a new “rescue,” an 8 month old kitten, that I am training to the cedar post, but I would be interested in trying the cork as well.
March 11th, 2012 at 7:38 am
These look awesome!!!
April 16th, 2012 at 10:18 am
Oh, I really hope to win this one for my kitty. She would absolutely adore the textures.
April 26th, 2012 at 8:08 am
My cat would love these as he prefers wood or sisal for scratching. He wont touch the cardboard or carpet scratchers. These are wonderful.