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Cardboard Scratcher for cats

Our shelter and foster cats and kittens LOVE to scratch. These simple cardboard cat scratchers will help them relax and keep their nails trim, plus save the furniture and curtains from any unwanted kitty destruction!. 

Materials Needed:

  • Old brown cardboard boxes
  • Glue stick or hot glue gun
  • Masking tape or any other paper-based tape
  • Scissors or craft knife
  • Ruler and pencil
  • Cutting board or a pile of newspapers

Instructions:

  1. Flatten your cardboard boxes, try to keep them in as large pieces as possible 
  2. Work out which direction the corrugation (the zig zag pattern inside the piece of cardboard) in the cardboard goes as you want to cut ACROSS it so you can see the zig zags along thelong side of your strips. 

ROUND SCRATCHER

  • Measure your cardboard into strips about 5 cms wide. They need to be even width, so it 's a good idea to use a pencil and ruler to measure them out.
  • Cut into strips using a craft knife or scissors. Ask an adult to help you if you are using a craft knife, those things are sharp! 
  • Take one of the strips and roll it up into as tight a coil as you can manage. Once you reach the end, put a piece of tape on it to keep it rolled up tightly. 
  • Using a piece of tape, start another strip onto your first one and keep rolling it tightly around the first strip to form a coil. Adding some glue along the length of the strip and a piece of tape at the end will help keep it all tight. 
  • Repeat with more strips until your scratcher is about the size of a large pizza (about 30 cm), making sure you fix the last piece with glue and tape on the end to hold it all in place
  • Allow to dry overnight

BOX BOTTOM SCRATCHER

  • Cut the bottom part off of a corrugated cardboard box, leaving a shallow tray about 5cm in height
  • Cut your cardboard strips to the length as the long side of the box, and the same width as the depth of your box bottom. Stack the cardboard strips into the box, with the cut side facing upwards

  • Continue filling the box until all the strips are packed in tightly. This method doesn’t necessarily require glue or tape, but you may want to glue in the final pieces just to make sure that it is extra secure

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