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.
May 10th, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Wow, I really would love to have something like this for my 8 rescue cats.. I’m redoing a room and house trying to ad new more modern stuff and I know my cats would love this..
May 10th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
My cats would LOVE this, and I love that it’s all natural.
May 10th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Oooooh baby! My cat needs to stop scratching my couch and start upping his scratch game with this bad boy.
May 10th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
Oh boy, I get another chance to win a scratching post to file my paw nails. Thanks!
May 10th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Love the natural look – I am sure kitty will like much more than my sofa arm!
May 10th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
My cats aren’t too fond of sisal and they’ve never scratched on the bare wood support beams in the basement, but I could really see them going after cork. What a great idea and so natural.
May 10th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
WOW! This is fantastic. My indoor/outdoor cats would probably be more apt to staying inside. Their favorite thing outside is scratching the trees and climbing, hehe. Amazing! Just another great feature you all are sharing with us. Thanks!
May 10th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
My kitty Lucy loves to stretch when she scratches, she would love this. Can we have some info on how to order one or did I miss it in the article?
May 10th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
That looks very comfortable and stylish for kitthy scratching. I’m sure my kitties would love to use one of those.
May 10th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Hi! I just bought a new vacuum cleaner, so I am ready to pick up any cork crumbs left by my bevy of scratchers.
May 10th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
The assistant manager at my apartments would love this! She has four cats and, of course, they tend to go after her couch and chairs. They love using trees and posts when they go outside, so I’m sure they’d love this!
May 10th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
This would work way better than the unscratchable things I have currently available for scratching.
May 10th, 2010 at 3:28 pm
The cedar is a good idea. It smells great and in theory, the more it is scratched, the more it scents the room. It’s a win-win. My gang would love this.
May 10th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
great looking posts, love the height, way better than short carpet posts.
May 10th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
it’s so tall — minoush and mishu would love to get their strrrretch on!
May 10th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Very nice, and they look like a good option for our one recalcitrant kitty, who still prefers the silk-covered sofa to any of the many scratching surfaces we have tried!
May 10th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Very funky! I LIKE it, and I’m guessing my kitties would too! Eco-friendly AND nifty looking. Just what we’re all looking for these days.
May 10th, 2010 at 4:17 pm
These look about as natural as you can get. My cats have destroyed their towers that were covered in carpet and now they look awful. I think they would really go for these.
May 10th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
This looks like a well made product! Cat trees can fall apart so quickly when your cats actually use them… but this looks like a cat post that would last for a long time. And the string? That’s a great addition! I think my cat would go to play with the string and start scratching while he was up there. My bed might actually be safe from scratching!!
May 10th, 2010 at 4:59 pm
Oh my goodness, that looks great!
May 10th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
this looks like a great product. i would love to get the cedar one for my three cats…
May 10th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
Our cats love to stretch and scratch and I know they’d love this! Currently they use the sun porch posts; this would be a great improvement.
May 10th, 2010 at 6:43 pm
I really like natural-material products for my kitty. I think he would love this and it would be a great addition to our bedroom!
May 10th, 2010 at 7:11 pm
I love the concept but prefer a more elegant and modern stand/base. Naturally my 4 cats would scoff at such a notion and demonstrate that function ultimately trumps form. I on the other hand, want both function and form. So to that end, I would like to see this on something similar to a speaker stand or atop wrought iron (or steel, etc) legs/feet w/o sacrificing practicality (hello function!). I’d happily place the current offering in my home office in a heartbeat, whereas my partner would disapprove of the “arts and crafts” aesthetic and lobby for the basement placement (and lose).
May 10th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
Awesome post, I really like the height.
May 10th, 2010 at 7:42 pm
These are really gorgeous and my cat would love it.
May 10th, 2010 at 7:47 pm
Definitely…a very interesting product! Am curious to see how our kitties would take to it!
May 10th, 2010 at 7:48 pm
That looks wonderful, and I think my cat would love it.
May 10th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
this would be awesome for my kitties!
May 10th, 2010 at 8:02 pm
My kitties aren’t big scratchers but I would love for them to have this unique toy.
May 10th, 2010 at 8:09 pm
Our cats seem to like alot of surfaces. Would love to give this “natural” one a try
May 10th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
Ms. Sophie would love to scratch on one of these instead of my couch!
May 10th, 2010 at 8:16 pm
BET MY 5 WOULD LOVE THIS!!!!!
May 10th, 2010 at 8:30 pm
I love natural goodies in my home, and that goes for my pets as well. My cat Stubby loves to shred my wallpaper (ahem!) in the bathroom in his quest for natural wood, so this would definitely be a life saver here as well…
May 10th, 2010 at 8:54 pm
I love seeing al these products made from renewable and/or recycled materials. It just adds to their simple beauty.
May 10th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
My cats have scratched the heck out of our hamper. They really need this natural post.
I love how tall it is!
May 10th, 2010 at 9:03 pm
Hopefully this type of post would age better than my sisal covered trees and cat gym have (though 20+ years of use by the cats is not bad; only now is the sisal getting a bit ‘threadbare’). It would be fun to watch my very pampered indulged girls investigate a cork scratching post.
May 10th, 2010 at 9:21 pm
This would be great for my three little felines!
May 10th, 2010 at 9:21 pm
My cats use rug scratching posts. I never thought of wood or cork.
May 10th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
cool cool~ my cats need a good stretch
May 10th, 2010 at 11:00 pm
Heck, if I were a cat, I’d want to sink my nails into those myself!!
May 11th, 2010 at 3:53 am
my kitties would love this!
May 11th, 2010 at 5:47 am
How gorgeous and excellent Paws Up photos from the kitties. I’ve never heard of cork as a scratching surface.
May 11th, 2010 at 6:32 am
My 9 cats have gone through those carpeted covered scratching posts like crazy.These would (wood) be perfect!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 11th, 2010 at 8:14 am
These look great!
May 11th, 2010 at 9:33 am
my baby would love this!!! she always scratches on a piece of wood we have outside.
May 11th, 2010 at 9:44 am
Wood is paws down Magellan’s favorite thing to scratch! He has a small branch, but it would be cool to have a variety of woods for him.
May 11th, 2010 at 10:01 am
Wow, I love the idea of teh cork. I might have to look into buying one of these if I don’t win!
May 11th, 2010 at 10:04 am
my big baby Mo really needs a scratching post and they are pretty expensive on fixed income
May 11th, 2010 at 10:21 am
I love that these are made from completely natural material. I also love that they are an alternative to sisal, as one of my cats tries to eat the sisal on many cat posts. I currently use cardboard, but it makes a mess and doesn’t last very long.