Anyone who’s ever owned a cat – or seen a cat-themed YouTube video – knows how much our feline friends love cardboard boxes. But cardboard doesn’t have to be in the shape of a box to get their kitty hearts racing.
Cats love cardboard. To be precise, cats love corrugated cardboard.
What’s the difference and why do cats love it so much?
Cardboard vs. Corrugated Cardboard
To understand why cats get a kick out of corrugated cardboard, we first need to understand how it differs from the “regular” stuff.
Plain cardboard is a thick type of paper stock (or paper-pulp). It’s used for making things like cereal and tissue boxes.
Corrugated cardboard comprises multiple layers of cardboard including an inner and outer layer, and a middle section often in a ruffle shape with air pockets. This is what cats can’t get enough of.
Why Cats Love It
Though science still hasn’t figured out all the reasons cats love corrugated cardboard, a paper published in “Applied Animal Behavior” theorized that the smell of corrugated cardboard has soothing properties that cats like.
Others believe that the texture – a result of the air pockets and ruffled inner layer – are what our cats like so much. Corrugated cardboard is the perfect material for biting, clawing and scratching, all of which are our cats’ natural predatory response to objects they encounter throughout their environment, like toys.
The air pockets make it easy for cats to sink their claws into the cardboard and the inner layer often makes a crinkly sound that cats like, too.
Corrugated cardboard is also great for absorbing and communicating your cat’s scent. Cats have scent glands on their paws and when they scratch a scratching post (or your couch), they’re not only giving themselves a manicure. They’re releasing scent droplets, thereby marking that object as their territory. Corrugated cardboard soaks that right up.
All in all, it’s the perfect stimulant, engaging our cats’ sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste (for those that like to chew on it).
Coastal Pet’s Corrugated Options (& Why Ours Are Better!)
At Coastal Pet, we have several cat toys made with corrugated cardboard, but ours aren’t quite like what you’ll find from other companies.
Like all corrugated toys, ours are recyclable, making them an environmentally-friendly option. And, they’re free of the often-dangerous paste and dyes that are common to packing boxes.
But we go further than that.
Our Turbo Scratcher is designed in a way that keeps the dust and cardboard debris that results from scratching inside the toy and off the floor. The debris lands in the bottom plastic part. All you need to do is dump the pieces into the recycling and put it back out for your kitty.
You can even buy replacement pads, so the cardboard fun never has to end. (The scratcher pads are made with a proprietary rolled design that makes them longer lasting, as well.)
For even more corrugated cardboard fun, combine the Turbo Scratcher with one of our Turbo Transform It! cat toys, which can be configured in four different shapes for endless kitty amusement.
We also offer a range of simpler Turbo corrugated cat toys in four shapes (ball, egg, diamond and dumbbell). These are easier for your cat to bite and scratch – and carry around, but will make more of a mess as your cat leaves pieces of it behind.
And, as most of our products at Coastal Pet, the Turbo corrugated scratch pads are made in the U.S.A.