We’re sure every cat owner wants to make their feline friend happy, which means lots of cat toys and fun playtime. Not only do cats enjoy playing with toys, but one of their guiltiest pleasures is scratching. If you don’t want to have your furniture ruined and want to keep your home scratch free, we’ve got you covered!
In order to keep your furniture intact, we brought you a step by step guide on how to build a cat scratcher — from scratch. 😉 But this is not the usual, boring cat scratcher that you are thinking of right now, but a cactus shaped one. That’s right, you can now build your own cactus shaped cat scratcher which will surely be a nice touch to your living space and on top of that, your cat will also have a lot of fun hanging from it and hunting it down.
Firstly, here is a list of what you’ll need to complete this project:
- 15 x 15 inch round plywood (the thicker and heavier the better, as it gives a stable base to the structure)
- 0.25 inch dia. natural sisal rope, 210 ft. long
- Green dye (for 160 ft. of rope)
- Glue sticks (warning: you’ll need lots, so the bigger the pack the better)
- Glue gun
- Green spray paint
- Electric drill
- 4 wood screws
- Stones or concrete to fill the body of the scratcher
- Fake flowers for a touch of cuteness
- 4 inch dia. plumbing pipe, 3.2 ft. long (or cut a longer one to size)
- 1 pipe lid
- 2 single tees
- 2 90° elbow pipes
- 2 3 inch polystyrene baubles
Also, here are some pro tips before you dive into this:
If you want the scratcher to last a long time, make sure to glue gun the rope very tightly around the pipe and use a generous amount of glue.
Take your time with fixing the pipe lid to the base. It is very important to place it in the centre of the plywood because this will give stability to the structure.
Use gloves when dying the rope, and be sure to leave it enough time to soak up the liquids. Before this procedure, secure the end of the rope you cut off as it unfolds easily.
And last but not least, follow the steps with illustrations from the guide below and build the best looking cat scratcher you’ll ever have. The guide can be found here: https://www.buyrope.co.uk/cactus-cat-scratcher-guide/