Best cat tree for a new kitten

Getting a cat tree in place before scratching habits form is exactly the right instinct — you're ahead of most new kitten owners. The most important things in a good cat tree are stability and height. A tree that wobbles when your kitten launches off it will be abandoned immediately, and cats feel genuinely safer when they can get up high. Cheap, lightweight trees fail on both counts and end up ignored while your sofa takes the hit. To point you at the right one: how big is your kitten likely to get when fully grown, how active does she seem already, and how much floor space can you give the tree?

A medium cat who's already climbing everything at 10 weeks is going to want height and scratching surface more than anything else. The good news is you've got enough space to do this properly. For a kitten at this stage, the priority is a tall sisal post — not carpet, which wears fast and teaches the wrong texture — combined with a sturdy base she can't tip. What's your rough budget? That'll help me narrow it down to one specific model rather than a range.

That budget gets you something genuinely good. I'd go with the Feandrea Cat Tree, 150cm — the UPCT150Y model. It's tall enough that an adult cat will still use it, the base plate is wide and heavy, and the main posts are wrapped in natural sisal rather than carpet, which means she'll scratch it instead of your sofa arms. It has a top perch for surveying the room, a hammock, and a condo box she'll grow into. Crucially, it does not wobble. At 10 weeks, getting her used to sisal now means she'll go back to it for life. Put it near the furniture she's already eyeing up — cats scratch where they feel the urge, so location matters as much as the tree itself.

Yes — don't leave it to chance, especially in the first week. Rub a little catnip into the sisal posts on day one. Then, whenever you catch her about to scratch the sofa, calmly pick her up, carry her to the tree, and gently run her front paws down the post. Don't force it, just guide. Most kittens need three or four of these redirects before the penny drops. You can also dangle a toy from the top perch to get her climbing it early — once she's slept up there once, it becomes her territory and she'll keep returning.

Good call. Set it up somewhere she already likes to hang out rather than tucking it in a corner she ignores — visibility matters to cats. If she's scratching a specific sofa leg right now, put the tree right next to it for the first fortnight, then gradually move it a foot at a time once she's using it reliably. You're doing the right thing early — furniture scratching is almost always a habit that sets in before an owner acts, so getting ahead of it now will save you a lot of grief.