The post is fine. The place is wrong.
Most scratching posts are ignored for a boring reason: they stand where the owner wanted them, not where the cat already scratches. Cats scratch to mark a spot they use every day, right after waking up, next to the place they sleep or the route they take to the food bowl. A post in a quiet corner is a post in the wrong country.
What owners on OnlyMeows found
- Moving the post next to the sofa arm that was already being scratched worked more often than any change of material.
- Cheap cardboard pads, replaced every couple of months, beat the tall carpet tower in many homes with two or more cats.
- A post that wobbles is a post that gets ignored. Weight the base or fix it to the wall.
Pixel ignored the post until we moved it right next to the sofa arm he was already using. Location mattered more than the material.
When to worry
Scratching itself is normal. A sudden change, such as a cat that stops scratching altogether or starts tearing at one spot obsessively, is worth a vet visit, especially in older cats.