Kittens and young cats scratch as play rather than as maintenance, so they need something to chase as much as something to claw. This puts both into a small footprint: stacked sisal-wrapped balls in cheerful orange and yellow rising up a sisal post, a ball on a string hanging where a paw can reach it, and a grass-effect base underneath the lot.

Sisal is the material to look for. Cats scratch to strip the dead outer sheath from their claws and to leave scent from the pads of their feet, and they will only commit to a surface with enough resistance to pull against. Carpet is too soft, and worse, it teaches a cat that carpet is fair game everywhere in the house. Tightly wound sisal rope gives that resistance, and wrapping it around balls as well as the post creates angled surfaces alongside the vertical one.

• Sisal-wrapped post with stacked sisal balls
• Fruit-tree styling in orange and yellow
• Dangling ball toy on the frame
• Grass-effect base
• Compact footprint for small rooms

On height, we cannot tell you. It genuinely matters: an adult cat wants to scratch at full stretch, and a post shorter than their reach gets ignored in favour of the sofa arm.

Who it's for: Kittens and playful young cats in smaller homes, where one piece of furniture has to cover scratching and batting at the same time.