[Sprinkesrdelish]

I am a brand new cat mommy, and have never owned a cat before in my life, so I need a lot of help haha.
When I adopted my cat from the shelter, I learned after she had been abandoned she burned all of her paws on something, so when I brought her home I wasn't surprised that she didn't want to scratch anything (maybe sometimes a towel but that's it). Now her paws are almost completely healed and she scratches a few spots on my couch, and its starting to get ripped up. I have a scratching post for her and a scratching toy you hang on a door, but she ignores them. I looked on many websites for tips, and have done what they say, yet still she refuses to use the scratching post. Does anyone have any tips on how to train her to use a scratching post?

Also, I bought her a bed when I first got her, she has never used it though. I always put her on it, and give her treats so she knows being on it is a good thing, but she ignores it. Is this just a cat thing or is there a way I can train her to use it?

Thanks for any and all input, its greatly appreciated. I have never had a cat before so I am kind of at a loss of what to do. Thanks!!

 

[MowMow]

Give her the cardboard box the bed came in when you ordered it, she'll like that more. I've bought cat beds too and they usually ignore them and sleep on the furniture. I just bought a stack of cheap pillowcases at the dollar store and lay one on their favorite spots. I buy lots and change them as they get hairy, tossing the dirty ones into the laundry pile.

Have you tried rubbing catnip on the scratching post? Does she ever use it? She needs to be praised for using it so she knows it's the spot.

YOu should try a few different kinds. Some cats prefer cardboard scratchers (MowMow). SOme like ones that lay flat on the ground (SHepherd Book). In fact Book prefers an old sisal door mat to ANYTHING else so I gave him one of his own (though he does sometimes use his tower).

Book used to scratch the couch but a "No." while I picked him up and moved him to the scratcher and then praising him to high heaven when he used it was enough to focus his attention on the right place for the most part.

 

[nicichan]

My cat doesn't like cat beds either, but I noticed that she's just not keen on really soft pillows etc. and prefers harder ones. I just put a blanket down on a place where she liked to sleep and she uses that as her bed now or the den on her cat tree which also just has a really thin pillow inside. I'm struggling to get my cat to use cat scratching furniture as well (she has a tree and a cardboard thing and ignores both in favour of my curtains, chairs and plants), so not sure about that.

 

[hoofmaiden]

What kind of post do you have? What covering, how tall, etc?

 

[Nan]

She will probably use the bed when it gets colder. My cats seem to sleep in different places and change their preferences from time to time.

Cats have preferences in scratching posts too. Harli likes a sisal vertical one. Lily likes a carpeted one (it's kind of a utility-carpet). I thought I got it at Petsmart but I can't find it online. It 's hollow with two little holes with bird toys inside. Harli sometimes rubs against it and plays with the toys but she doesn't scratch it.

I bought a couple sisal ones that lay flat on the floor (that was the favorite kind of my prior cat Sophie), but Harli & Lily ignored them.

You an rub some catnip on them to make them more enticing, but if she's a kitten it might not have any effect yet. Also make sure it's in a place she normally walks by.

 

[Jacq]

Io likes both her flat cardboard scratcher and her vertical sisal one! She also loooooved the carpet scratcher at the rescue, but we decided to teach her all carpet was off-limits. We did this because the cat I cared for before, Cheshire, had a carpet post, and it was fine until we happened to move into a place that had the exact same carpet (colour and texture) all over the basement. We could never quite catch him in the act often enough to teach him that THIS carpet was good but THAT exact same carpet was bad. So with Io we're trying preventative measures to make up our shortcoming as owners.

I'd love to get her this one;

Anyways, I posted about getting Io to use the verticle sisal post a little while ago in another thread, so I'll just quote what I said there:

THEN, I had a genius idea. I'm super proud of this. I took out one of her treats, and held it in my hand, so she bats at it with her paw. Then I held the closed-hand-with-treat up to the post, so shed get her paws on it. Then I held the treat between two fingers, and slid it up and down the post until she scratched at it. When she scratched the post I gave her a treat.

She started using it on her own after that, but she'll still run over to the post and scratch at it sometimes when I waggle the treat bag. :grin: