Redirect kitten scratching early

Catching this at six months is genuinely the best time to act — habits aren't locked in yet, and a Siamese this age will redirect pretty easily if you give them something better. The most common reason cats ignore scratching posts is that they're too short, too unstable, or the wrong material. Cats need a post tall enough for a full-body stretch and solid enough that it doesn't tip when they lean into it. Quick questions: how big is your Siamese right now, are they scratching the carpet flat on the floor or pulling at a vertical edge, and is it always the corners specifically?

That vertical corner scratching tells you exactly what she wants — a tall, upright surface she can lean into and really stretch. The fact she keeps returning to the same two spots means she's already chosen her scratching locations; you just need to swap in something better. What's the carpet made of — is it a looped pile or a cut pile? That'll tell me whether she's after the texture or just the resistance of something she can really drag her claws down.

Perfect — she wants that drag and resistance, which means sisal rope is going to be a much more satisfying substitute than carpet-covered posts. Sisal gives cats that same pull-through texture but it's tougher and she'll wear her claws on it properly. My recommendation is the SmartCat Ultimate Scratching Post. It's 81cm tall — enough for a full stretch even as she grows — and it's wrapped in woven sisal rather than sisal rope, which gives a really consistent scratching surface. Critically, it has a wide, heavy base so it won't wobble when she leans into it. Wobble is why cats abandon posts. Place it right at one of those two corners she's already using, and she should take to it within a few days.

Start with one, placed at her favourite of the two corners. Once she's using it consistently — usually within a week — you can quietly move it a few inches away from the wall and closer to where you'd prefer it to live. For the second corner, a flat sisal scratcher laid on the floor works well as a cheaper backup and covers the horizontal angle too. But honestly, if the post is in the right spot from day one, most cats drop the second location naturally.

A little silver vine or catnip rubbed into the base of the post on day one helps draw her in. Don't spray — just rub a pinch of dried herb into the sisal fibres. Then when you see her near it, let her investigate without any fuss. If she scratches it even once, give her a calm, quiet bit of praise. Avoid picking her up and placing her paws on it — that tends to put cats off rather than on. With a young Siamese you probably won't need much encouragement at all; they're curious enough that the new texture will do most of the work.