Strong Scratching Posts?

Shanao

Arrived home last night to find that my (fat) cat and his tall and skinny yet somehow equally as heavy buddy, managed to break their second scratching post. And this was not some small weedy little thing, this scratching post was easily as tall as myself and my OH has actually sat on one of the levels without a problem. Yet somehow the idiots managed to break it. With two maine coons on the way, I really need to get a good, solid scratching post that wont break so easily and I was wondering if anyone knew of a good place to get one? I'll probably end up buying one on line (have my eye on one on zooplus) but I wanted to see if there was anywhere else to try before settling on it.

Alicat

My cats are big and they've broken all single-post scratching posts. I would suggest getting one that has two supports for each level, to give it some strength. Depends on your price range really! My two broke the very top level off the current tree because it was a single post, but the bottom two levels are fine because of the two posts.

Or zooplus do indeed have some special strength ones, made for big cats like Maine Coons link

Shanao

I wouldn't mind so much if it had been a single pole post but this bloody thing was €150 and fairly strong. It has four posts attached to the base holding up the first level, then another two holding up the top level and they still managed to break it. I was having a look at the rapunzel cat tree on Zooplus, but I'm not sure if it'll be strong enough for my loonies. I think the main problem is the siamese cross and his tendency to tear around the house so fast he practically crashes into it as he makes a leap for the levels.

Alicat

Shanao wrote: »

I wouldn't mind so much if it had been a single pole post but this bloody thing was €150 and fairly strong. It has four posts attached to the base holding up the first level, then another two holding up the top level and they still managed to break it. I was having a look at the rapunzel cat tree on Zooplus, but I'm not sure if it'll be strong enough for my loonies. I think the main problem is the siamese cross and his tendency to tear around the house so fast he practically crashes into it as he makes a leap for the levels.

Yeah my two think are equally accomplished gymnasts! They've actually knocked the whole thing to the ground numerous times!

Have to say I'm kinda stumped! How on earth did they break it with four posts? :eek:

tk123

FYI OP - Zooplus have 20% off cat trees!

Shanao

Thanks, but the one I wanted is sold out at the moment so I have to wait for it to come back in.

As for how they broke it, they somehow managed to break one of the ledges by jumping on it so it collapsed and the pole that was holding it up was then useless. A little unbalanced, it was then knocked clean over until it hit the opposite wall and the bolts were pulled loose; cracking off the wood. Seriously, I'm going to murder the little buggers :P Hopefully I'll get one soon, need one before the maine coons arrive though. Also realised yesterday that our 10 week old rescue kitten is huge for his age, he's already nearly two kgs compared to the 0.4 kgs he was when we found him five weeks ago!! Think there might be some coon in him as well. I really need to find a strong post

tk123

Our cat was quite big and used to knock his over all the time - I ended up getting tree that went up to the ceiling and some of the ledges were screwed to wall for extra support and no probs after that. When he was having a funny half hour he used to fly up and down it just using his claws in the pole part - the tree was in my room and the half hour was usually at the crack of dawn to get me out of bed to feed him!! :pac: