Here’s a great scratching post for kitties who really like to stretch out and scratch. It’s the Ultimate Scratching Post from SmartCat. It measures 32″ tall and has a sturdy 16″ square base. The durable sisal covering is a favorite scratching material for most cats.
For a little added fun, you can add a perch to the top. This wooden perch slides on to the post and has a reversible quilted pad for comfort. Both the Ultimate Scratching Post and the perch are available from Amazon
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My cats have two of these, and adore them. Every single cat that I bring into the house (my own plus fosters) scratches on them in preference to anything else.
Your post about the Ultimate Scratching Post made me realize I don’t think you’ve ever spoken about the Natural Scratch offerings. http://www.naturalscratch.com/ One of my cats prefers to scratch vertically on wood, so I got the original 32″ cedar post for her. She went to it immediately and she uses it almost exclusively. I highly recommend it!
We are very disappointed with this scratching post. It is not sturdy and moves when cat uses it so cat is back to couch scratching since it’s stable. Also, she doesn’t sit on the top which again I’m sure is due to the fact that it wobbles and it’s very high up off the ground. Very expensive and not worth it, in our opinion.
We have this scratching post (on our 2nd one, actually) & it accommodates our large cats really well. Love it.
We own this cat tree and I can vouch for its awesomeness. We were having a terrible issue with our 4 cats treating our new orange CB2 couch like a scratching post (sigh! so many snags!) when we spotted this in a store here in LA. We were hesitant to throw more money at the problem because we didn’t know if our cats would just ignore it, but we finally ordered it on amazon some weeks later out of desperation.
Well, now we really wish we’d bought it sooner to save our couch from those weeks of damage, because all four cats love the Ultimate Scratching Post and use it 99% of the time. On our first day with the scratcher we sprayed it with irresistible catnip mist and dangled their favorite Da Bird & cat dancer toys around it so they would grab onto it while they were reaching up to play.
For several days afterward we kept a close eye on them and used the catnip & toy combo (along with some positive verbal reinforcement when they used the scratcher) and now, weeks later, I can only think of twice in the last week that a cat scratched the couch (and that was only while we were sitting in it — they were mostly just trying to stretch on it, not scratch it.)
It’s pretty amazing to us. Oh, and btw, we have some really big cats (our largest is about 16lbs and made of pure muscle) and we were surprised that they couldn’t move it! It’s so heavy and sturdy that it doesn’t budge when they are in the middle of a crazy scratchfest.
I purchased this scratching post over a year ago after learning about it here. my cat can get a full stretch if he wants to. he really likes using it for looking out the window. thanks for another great recommendation!
I have had one of these for years and my cats love it! I bought mine at Pet Food Express, they usually have about two in stock so you don’t have to go online if you don’t want.
For those of us who truly love our cats and as members of the vanished middle class, don’t have a lot to spend, we have to make informed choices about what we buy. This is IMHO the best scratching post on the market, and it is a bit pricey, but very worth it. It stands up to repeated and prolonged multi-cat scratching sessions and seems to really satisfy. Plus, it can be sprayed with catnip spray or liberally rubbed with catnip leaves. If you want to buy a QUALITY scratching post that will last, I recommend this one highly!
Thanks. We are planning a kitchen/untility room remodel and have been going bonkers as to where to re-locate our cat boxes. You gave me several good ideas that will take little to do to make them work. I sincerely thank you.
These are $29.99 on the Dr. Foster & Smith website & if you buy 2 it is free shipping!
Very nice scratching post–unfortunately my cats so far prefer the $8 insert for the
turbo-scratcher…
Thank you for the tip on Dr. Foster & Smith, Kittykris! Minimum order for free shipping is much highter than Amazon, but I added stuff I would normally buy at the pet store anyway until I had enough for free shipping. Saved money overall.
This is THE BEST cat scratching post there is because it is so tall. It is very well made and very sturdy, and the little quilted top is the best. We have three for our brood and everyone from the smallest and shortest (5.5 lbs) to the largest and longest (14.5lbs) scratches and stretches comfortably. An excellent product, well worth the price.
THIS CAT SCRATCHER WOULD BE EVEN BETTER IF IT HAD A BED ON TOP!
I had this cat scratcher and I would not buy it again. It looked good, but it did not stand up to my big fat cats; they easily knocked it over each time when they tried to use it and then they would not use it again. I ended up with it permanently knocked over and the bottom broken, littering the floor and getting underfoot. Will never buy this style again.
We have one of these too! Our big guy, a Maine Coon, loves how he can stretch all the way up. Our other two, smaller, cats also prefer this post to any other scratching surface. We placed it at the corner of the bed, in front of a favored place to scratch the box spring. All three abandoned the box spring in a day or two. We haven’t had any problems with the post falling over and even more than a year after purchase, it still looks great. The surface is hardly frayed.
The big guy loves the perch. We did have to hack the cover, the velcro wasn’t enough to keep it on when the big guy jumped on it at speed. we added some thick elastic straps and now it’s fine. The cover washes easily and well.
This arrived Friday. The cats went for it right away. Okay, they were equally intrigued by the box it came in…. but they do like it. I put a bit of catnip on top, which is a game we used to play with out old post, and they went right for it. My small (7 pound) cat likes to climb it and perch on top, although I did not buy the optional platform. My big (17 pound) boy can stretch out all the way for a vertical scratch, and does not tip it over.
The base comes in two parts — two pegs hold the parts together and two screws secure the base to the post. I am not handy but I put it together in about a minute.
Someone on Amazon whined that the screws were not sunk into the base and so stuck out and scratched her wood floors. Either it’s been redesigned or she put the base on upside down because the screws are properly sunk and the base is smooth and sturdy.