Scratch post conversion?

I have two indoor cats who faithfully use the carpet-wrapped portion
of their cat tree to sharpen their talons. In no time at all, however,
they manage to thrash the carpet material and little bits of fluff
litter the area. I received a new tree this past Christmas as a gift,
and already it is beginning to look the worse for wear.

My former cat used the sisal rope-wrapped type of scratch post, which
seems to be more durable and longer-lasting. What might I do to
encourage my pair to love and use this sort of post ...besides or in
addition to rubbing it with catnip?

Also, are there brands of crunchies out there which are allegedly as
"nutritionally complete" as the ones sold only in vets' office and
which are much more expensive? I would imagine that this question has
been asked before in this forum.

Thanks for any information.
Blair.

"blair thompson" wrote :

My former cat used the sisal rope-wrapped type of scratch post, which
seems to be more durable and longer-lasting. What might I do to
encourage my pair to love and use this sort of post ...besides or in
addition to rubbing it with catnip?


I am afraid part of the fun is tearing the carpet up. At least it is
for my cat. (I have two but one will not bother with scratchers.)

One thing that might help is to get a sisal-wrapped post that is
at least 30 inches long, so the cats can get a good stretch in,
and put a dangle toy on top of it, catnip applied to the toy and
the post. Petsmart has these tall ones for maybe $15.

On Tue 20 Feb 2007 06:10:13p, blair thompson wrote in
rec.pets.cats.health+behav
:

My former cat used the sisal rope-wrapped type of scratch post,
which seems to be more durable and longer-lasting. What might I
do to encourage my pair to love and use this sort of post
...besides or in addition to rubbing it with catnip?

I have a big cat tree that needed a makeover, and they, too, loved
to scratch the carpet on it to bits. I just started covering it
bit by bit with sisal. At first they would scratch the portions of
carpet they could reach, but soon they started using the
sisal-wrapped posts. I also left some other "nicer-looking"
carpet covered scratching posts around just in case they refused
to use the sisal. It's always a good idea to provide many
different surfaces and orientations (laying flat, upright,
slanted, etc) to avoid reversion to furniture or floors.

A few pics of the progression of our cat tree from new to shredded
to make-over. LOL

new
http://pets.webshots.com/photo/10482...37512561uxSRyz

shredded
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/shambond...03989685486/65

makeover (not the best pic, but all I could find)
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/shambond...3989696635/115


--
Cheryl