Cat Scratching Training Is Aided By Treat Rewards

Most animals respond well to food rewards and so do cats. Attracting cats to Natural Scratch is aided by the pleasing odor of catnip but when it comes to reinforcing good cat scratching behavior, nothing beats a treat the cat craves. I have yet to meet or hear about a cat that didn't have a pronounced love of a certain food morsel.

Some cats don't like typically available kitty treats but even fussy critters generally are moved by *some* form of snack. A good example of this is a female black Manx--a tailless cat--that we acquired from the Humane Society that my son named Midnight. In classic cat style, she turned up her nose at typical treats. Complicating matters was the fact that she was a completely solitary creature who didn't like interacting with her companion Twinkles. This was particularly a problem because she didn't like scratching where he scratched. Not good.

I began trying to interest her in various table scraps and finally discovered that she went wild for plano white bread. This discovery quickly led to her becoming a Natural Scratch-exclusive scratcher. Never had a problem with her after. Since I began selling Natural Scratch more than a dozen years ago I have heard from customers of cats who like one or more of a long list of unusual food items, from apples to zucchini. (To help, I am now offering a treat sampler of unusual snacks at http://naturalscratch.com/rewardsampler.html.) More later...