What is the daily life of raising a cat like?
After spending a long time with cats, you will find that this magical creature will make you love and hate it.
Love, of course, is their soft, cute and easy-to-pull appearance~ Touch them every day after work, and all the pressure, worries and unhappiness will melt in the furry world;
However, under this cute appearance, there is also an amazing destructive power, which can instantly turn your mood back to its original state~~
In addition to the terrible hair loss attack mentioned in the previous article, cats like to stretch their “claws” to every corner of the house:
Every day when I get home, the newly bought sofa in the living room is scratched again, and the hole in the corner of the mattress in the bedroom has been torn to reveal the sponge pad, ready to be retired at any time; the toilet paper roll is as shattered as your heart, and even the carpet is not spared, and it is scratched to make three-dimensional silk and curling…
Tell me, what can I do? ?
Of course, I choose to forgive them~
If you are still troubled by the above problems like I used to be, it means that you have not learned to use the essential artifact for “well-behaved cats at home” -
Today, I will analyze the problem of cats sharpening their claws from three aspects: the necessity of cats sharpening their claws, the necessity of cat scratching boards, and the practicality of cat scratching boards; in addition, there is a thoughtful purchase list with specific recommendations for single products at the end of the article on how to choose a cheap and durable cat scratching board!
Promise me that you must read to the end~
1. Why do cats have to sharpen their claws?
Claws, as an indispensable survival weapon for cats, are the biggest support for cats to hunt, defend, and escape when they survive in the wild!
It is said that “If you want to do your job well, you must first sharpen your tools”, and this is no exception for cats.
Even if domestic cats live a comfortable life and have no worries about food and drink, regular sharpening of claws has long been deeply written into the behavioral genes of cats!
① Prevent claws from growing too long
Cats sharpen their claws for the same reason rodents like to chew and sharpen their front teeth. Without external intervention, only constant “use” can keep their claws at normal length and sharpness.
Otherwise, overly long claws will not only pierce their soft foot pads, but also affect their normal movements;
② Declare territory
Yes, cats are born with a strong sense of territory. While sharpening their claws, the special smell emitted by their sweat glands on their paw pads also marks this area accordingly: This is my territory, I can scratch it however I want!
At the same time, it also alerts other species that intrude on the territory (such as shit shovelers): This place has been occupied, you pay attention to this cat~
③ Exercise tendons and joints
In order to recover quickly after lying/prone/lying for a long time, cats often arch their backs first, then extend their front paws forward or upward and make a relaxing action of scratching the ground to fully stretch their muscles, joints, and tendons.
At this time, a sofa leg or mattress that can provide leverage becomes their clawing point. Relax and scratch to regain the feeling of claws~
④ Express excitement
This is easy to understand. When people are happy, they can’t help dancing. When cats are excited, they will also use the action of grinding their claws to fully release their emotions. At this time, they probably think: I scratch, I scratch, I scratch, scratch, scratch…!
2. Why must you buy a cat scratching board?
Back then, the story of Dayu’s flood control taught us: blocking is worse than drainage.
It’s actually the same to deal with cats grinding their claws. Forcibly beating, scolding and stopping can only control it for a while. Only benign guidance can make cats and furniture live in harmony, and everyone is happy!
How to guide well?
First of all, you can choose not to buy cat teasers or cat snacks, but you must not buy a cat scratching board!
After all,
Cat teasers can be replaced by a stick + a rope;
Cat snacks will make cats fat and picky if they eat too much;
But without a scratching board, everything in your home that can be scratched will be in trouble~~
Some cat lovers may say, it’s okay, my things are the cats’ things, they can scratch them if they want, and buy new ones when they are damaged.
This kind of doting thought is a bit dangerous~
Not to mention, indulgent discipline may make cats destroy things at home more and more; with the owner’s tacit consent, scratching will not be punished, then over time, in the cat’s cognition, this will become a natural and correct thing.
If you go on a long trip and you put your cat in someone else’s house (parents’ house) for foster care, it will become a “naughty child” and destroy things everywhere outside, this picture is not very beautiful.
If a child is not taught, it is the fault of the father; if a cat is not taken care of, it is naturally the owner who will take the blame.
At this time, a cat scratching board that can guide and train cats to sharpen their claws will come in handy!
How to guide cats to use it?
① “Legislation” as soon as possible
What can’t be scratched, where to go when you want to sharpen your claws… These rules must be understood and learned by cats as early as possible. If you have a kitten, let it get familiar with using the cat scratching board from an early age; if it is an adult cat, you need to correct and guide it through certain rewards and punishments;
② Patient guidance
Cats are like children. Rebuking, beating and scolding them to change bad habits may be counterproductive.
We can adopt a step-by-step approach to improve it step by step, for example -
When it wants to scratch the sofa/bed, raise your palm above the cat’s head and warn it that it is not allowed to do so;
Take it to the cat scratching board, guide it to sharpen its claws, and give it snacks as rewards in time;
At the same time, spray the parts of the furniture that are often “attacked” with liquids that cats hate (orange peel smell, perfume smell), or stick them with wide tape to reduce the comfort of their scratching.
In this way, smart cats also know to change places, that is, to sharpen their claws on the cat scratching board we often guide!
③ Improve the experience
Only when the scratching is comfortable and enjoyable will the cat be unable to stop scratching. Continuously working to improve the experience of using cat scratching boards is also the key to guiding cats to completely change bad habits and successfully train them!
Next, we will enter the most practical part of this article – buy buy buy!
3. How to choose a good scratching board?
According to the material classification, there are generally two types of cat scratching boards.
The first type is the most common and is often bought by everyone: a corrugated scratching board.
In fact, it is essentially the same thing as the carton we receive express delivery. Looking from the side, it is a layer of corrugated core paper interlayer (that is, what we call “corrugated core”), plus a layer of flat cardboard, so that the kraft paper is stacked up layer by layer.
The thicker the carton, the more interlayers there are inside.
For mysterious reasons, cats generally like to scratch carton, but the four flat cardboards of ordinary carton have poor scratching and biting resistance. In less than two days, you will get a carton that is worse than soaked in water.
However, the carton with layered structure on the side has very strong scratch resistance!
The touch of corrugated paper pressed together tightly will be dozens of times more pleasant than ordinary cardboard.
I wonder who discovered this secret first? In short, the corrugated scratching board, in simple terms, is something that uses the sides of a dozen carton pressed together and then cut into a board shape.
When choosing this kind of scratching board, pay attention to the following 3 points to greatly improve the pleasure of using it for your cat!
① The pressing should be tight!
The tighter the better, so that it is the most scratch-resistant!
I bought the cheap one, and after scratching for a while, the pressed layers inside fell out one by one, which was also drunk; a good quality scratching board, even if it is scratched for 2 months, at most the surface layer is scratched and mushy, and it can continue to be used after a little cleaning, which is very strong!
② Try to reduce the amount of crumbs!
Although I always talk about scratching boards, I actually prefer scratching boxes. It is the kind of open cardboard box with a scratching board at the bottom, because it does not drop crumbs. . . . The scratching board drops crumbs, and I have to sweep it every day when I come back. If I don’t sweep it, it will look very messy, which is really a headache. Buying this type of box, you can keep most of the paper scraps in the box, and just dump it out when it is empty.
Of course, buy two basic scratching boards and a cardboard box with the same bottom size, and you can put them together yourself.
After all, the scratching boxes with cute patterns printed on the outside are generally good-looking but not practical. They are too small! ! My cat, which weighs more than 10 kilograms, will be full once it jumps in. It is not cost-effective. A small one costs 30 yuan, and it will cost at least 60 yuan to make it twice as big. How many large cartons can I buy?
I will share this money-saving secret with you secretly!
③ It is best to hang it on the wall!
As mentioned earlier, cats prefer to put their claws on vertical objects to stretch and sharpen their claws. This is why sofa legs and mattresses always suffer. Although the box-type scratching board does not fall off, it is still a scratching board placed on the ground. Cats cannot stretch as much as they want, and they will still “harm” the sofa after scratching. .
So on the basis of the scratching box, adding two vertical scratching boards will be perfect.
For example, this triangular one, or just buy a simple scratching board and hang it wherever you want, it’s fine~
But you will definitely say that this kind of scratching board on the wall is still easy to fall off!
So I will introduce another kind of scratching board next, this is it – sisal scratching board
Cat lovers who are interested can also buy wooden boards, PVC water pipes, hot melt glue, and hemp rope to DIY a high column with low-profile boards. I won’t show off if you are not good at it. There are many online searches, which are definitely much better than buying this one!
Of course, if you want to tb, you can also buy a good sisal column climbing frame with a budget of 500. I don’t recommend it, mainly because it takes up too much space. I don’t know where to put it after buying it. Don’t consider it if you rent a house. Once you move, you will collapse (smile)
Post time: Sep-11-2024