Blitz TurboScratcher - Happy Cat, Sleepless Owner
Written: Jul 29 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: cat loves it, inexpensive, durable
Cons: the noise gets annoying after hours and hours and hours and hours...
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| Moonvine's Full Review: Blitz Audio Blitz Turboscratcher |
My cat, Shimmer, is a very aggressive scratcher, and I chose this product in an attempt to reduce the amount of scratching he did on my furniture. In addition to this product, I purchased a traditional vertical scratching post and another horizontal scratcher – love those Pets.com coupons! This product is the only one he uses.
This product is a large round piece of plastic (they come in 3 colors, purple, blue and yellow – mine’s purple, of course!) with a channel on the outside and a ball that kitty can roll around inside the channel. The center consists of a depression in which a sturdy round piece of corrugated cardboard fits. It comes with a very small plastic bag of catnip to rub into the cardboard to attract your cat to the toy initially. Once the cardboard center gets torn up (this could happen very quickly or not so quickly, depending on your cat) you need to purchase refills, which come in packs of two. I purchased two packs of two refills from Pets.com for $3.49 each; they also stock these at Wal-Mart, but I didn’t check the price there. The TurboScratcher itself sells at Pets.com for $7.89.
Changing the center is easy; just pop the old center out and put the new one in. There are four small plastic tabs that go over the cardboard and keep it in place.
Once I rubbed the catnip into the cardboard, Shimmer made a beeline for this thing. I’ve had this toy close to 3 months and his interest hasn’t waned yet. He completely destroyed the cardboard center in about 3 weeks, to the point there were shreds of cardboard everywhere. He rolls the ball around for hours, and when he gets tired of that he curls on top of it and goes to sleep. If he is hiding somewhere and I can’t find him (his favorite place is in the cabinet on top of the refrigerator) all I need to do is roll the ball around a few times and he comes right out. It keeps him entertained for hours while I am at work, too!
I’ve had mixed results with this as a scratcher. Some cats are primarily horizontal scratchers and some are primarily vertical scratchers; I’m blessed with one who is just about equal in his scratching preferences. The TurboScratcher takes care of most of his horizontal scratching needs, but I’m still trying to find a way to deal with the vertical.
The only real problem I have with this that the noise the ball makes rolling around gets super annoying after a while. I live in a studio apartment and I actually have to hide this toy in the closet overnight while I am trying to sleep – otherwise forget sleeping! We made a deal, though – I can put the toy away to sleep as long as I get it out immediately upon waking in the morning.
If you don’t already have one of these I’d definitely recommend getting one (or more than one, if you have more than one cat). It may or may not completely alleviate unwanted scratching, but it is sure to give your cat many hours of fun.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Moonvine
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Location: Austin, TX
Reviews written: 116
Trusted by: 119 members
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