Kitten won't use scratching post!

Hello

I have a 3 month old kitten that just won't use his scratching post

We made it at home, at first we bought rope that was made out of cotton, but that didn't seem to work much to me, since he couldn't really climb the pole with it, So we bough sisal rope, and rolled it on another longer pole and we attached it to the other pole, It's quite stable, That's how it looks like


He used to scratch on the chair behind the post in the photo so I put aluminum foil around the place he scratched in, I put him in my room at night and I close the door, so he is not allowed to roam the house unsupervised, So now once he's out of the room he goes to scratch our couch, still ignoring the post

But he does like to climb it, and play on it, and he scratched on it twice last week but no more

I've tried everything, When he scratches else where I say a stern NO and he does stop so I put him on the box of the post, but he just leaves

I scratched the post with my hands and he just goes after my hand

I gave him his favorite treat on the post but he still doesn't use it anyways

And I do clip his nails

I don't know what I can do to make him use the scratching post anymore

Any Ideas please??

Did you try rubbing cat nip on the post? It helped me with one of my cats

No I didn't try that, But does it work on kittens this age?

Cat nip is a good idea. You could also try tipping it on it's side, some cats prefer to scratch horizontally. My Amber uses her indoor scratch pole on it's side. Maybe try that along with the cat nip.

We bought a post for our cat the day we adopted him, and it spent the first two weeks being utterly ignored. We used a four point method:

1) Put the post in a prominent "hangout" spot where he saw it during the day and associated it with being useful.

2) Put a little catnip on it twice a day.

3) Strategically sat on the floor playing with him around the pole, used it as a peek-a-boo device, etc.

4) Gave lots of praise and petting when we saw him try to scratch it.

This has taken some effort, but it's working. He will now scratch the post and then look at me worried he's in trouble. He's getting braver every day.

The black part of this post is hard plastic spikes for scratching his back, but he is actually afraid of that. We had to pull it from the wall to make the whole thing accessible and put catnip in the back. He is slowly starting to hang out on it more.

VBCatParent said:

The black part of this post is hard plastic spikes for scratching his back, but he is actually afraid of that. We had to pull it from the wall to make the whole thing accessible and put catnip in the back. He is slowly starting to hang out on it more.

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• vbcatparent
• Sep 30, 2014

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How unusual, I have never seen a scratch post with a back scratcher before.

I got it at Petsmart. Can't say it's been helpful. We didn't know what sort of texture Regent wanted to scratch, so we got rope/carpet/ plastic all together. The carpet section is clearly his favorite.

@nourhany1 you might want to see about wrapping a towel or small bath rug around the pole to see if cloth is more comfortable on his paws.

I'll try to find some catnip here, I found one store that sells it but It's quite expensive

@VBCatParent okay I'll try doing that

Thank you all very much for your replies

Catnip should not be expensive. I found a nice big bowl at Petsmart for like $3.

Well it's because the one I found is imported, it's not a popular thing to use here
The one I found was with about $9 which is 75 pounds
I found the same one on amazon at it was only $3

He actually started using the post yesterday
I hadn't done anything more yet, but he was in my room with nothing else to scratch on, and he used it!
I also made him one tipped to the side
I'm looking to try the carpet one inshallah, thank you all for your suggestions

nourhany1 said:

He used to scratch on the chair behind the post in the photo so I put aluminum foil around the place he scratched in, I put him in my room at night and I close the door, so he is not allowed to roam the house unsupervised, So now once he's out of the room he goes to scratch our couch, still ignoring the post

But he does like to climb it, and play on it, and he scratched on it twice last week but no more

I've tried everything, When he scratches else where I say a stern NO and he does stop so I put him on the box of the post, but he just leaves

I scratched the post with my hands and he just goes after my hand

I gave him his favorite treat on the post but he still doesn't use it anyways

And I do clip his nails

I don't know what I can do to make him use the scratching post anymore

Any Ideas please??

Click to expand...

My cats love these cardboard scatchers .  You can attach them to any surface to make them nice and secure and  you can buy refills ..  My cats use theirs all the time .

http://www.petco.com/product/116377..._-Planet Petco Cat Cardboard Scratcher-116377

Some cats scratch vertically others are horizontal. Some both. The vertical ones tear up your furniture. The horizontal cats tend to rip up your carpeting. One thing they both enjoy are the corrugated cardboard pads. They are cheap but obviously have to be replaced much sooner than the sisal/carpet trees.

Also double sided sticky tape works great and is better estectically than aluminum foil.

Regent did try to scratch carpet a few times, and he is generally more about scratching the base of his tower. He scratches the vertical carpet side a little.

In the past few days since this thread started, we keep up with the catnip and praise him every time we see him scratch. That post has become his favorite place to lay in the whole house. He will now actually carry other toys over to the tower. He scratches on it about twice a day.

OK, sounds like you did a great job of getting him on track.