There's a particular kind of disappointment that comes with buying a cat bed. You choose something soft, you put it somewhere sensible, and your cat looks at it once, walks past it, and goes to sleep on the pile of clean washing instead. The bed sits there for weeks. Eventually you move it to a different room and the same thing happens again.
The usual conclusion is that you bought the wrong bed. Nine times out of ten you bought a perfectly good bed and put it in a spot your cat had already ruled out.
Cats decide where they want to sleep long before you get involved. They're picking based on temperature, height, sight lines and how likely they are to be disturbed. Get the location right and almost any reasonable bed will do. Get it wrong and the most expensive bed on the market becomes an ornament.
Spend a few days watching before you buy anything
This sounds obvious and almost nobody does it. Over three or four days, note where your cat actually settles. Not where they pass through, where they stay put for an hour or more.
You'll probably find two or three regular spots, and they'll usually have something in common. Maybe they're all high up. Maybe they're all near a heat source. Maybe they're all tucked into a corner with a clear view of the door. That pattern tells you what kind of bed to buy, and it's far more useful than any product description.
Once you know the pattern, the choice gets a lot simpler.
If they're chasing warmth
Cats run warmer than we do and still seek out heat. If your cat is permanently parked on the radiator shelf, on top of the boiler cupboard, or in whichever square of carpet the sun hits at two in the afternoon, warmth is the driver.
A radiator bed is the obvious answer here. It hooks over the radiator so the cat gets the heat directly, and it lifts them off the floor at the same time, which suits cats that like a bit of height as well. The hanging hammock style with a padded cushion is the most common design, and it takes up no floor space at all, which matters in a small flat.
The one thing to check is the weight limit and the radiator itself. Older column radiators and some slimline panel designs aren't always a good fit for a hook-over bed. Measure the depth of your radiator before ordering.
Worth saying too: a radiator bed is a seasonal favourite for most cats. From October onwards it'll be the most popular spot in the house. In July it might sit empty. That's normal, not a failed purchase.
If they're chasing height
Some cats sleep on top of the wardrobe, on the back of the sofa, on the windowsill, or on your desk in the exact spot where your hand needs to be. That's a height cat. They want to be above the traffic with a view of the room.
Desk-mounted cat beds solve this one neatly. They clamp to the edge of a desk or table and give the cat somewhere to sit that isn't your keyboard. The rotatable designs let you angle the bed towards the window or away from your screen, which is handy if you work from home and your cat has decided that your working day is a group activity.
For a height cat that also likes to climb, a bed built into a cat tree often works better than a standalone bed on the floor. The platform bed near the top of a tower gets used far more than the same bed would at ground level.
If they're chasing privacy
Then there are the cats that disappear. Under the bed, behind the sofa, inside the wardrobe, in the cardboard box that arrived last Tuesday. These cats want walls and a roof more than they want padding.
An open cushion bed will not get used by a cat like this. Look at enclosed and hooded options instead, or one of the raised wicker designs in the cat houses range, which give a covered space with a washable cushion inside. Nervous cats, rescue cats still settling in, and cats in busy households with children or dogs almost always fall into this group.
Put an enclosed bed somewhere with its back to a wall and a clear view out of the entrance. Cats want to hide, but they still want to see what's coming.
The cardboard option nobody expects to work
Cardboard scratcher loungers look like the least appealing thing on the list and they're often the most used. The corrugated surface is a scratching board and a bed at the same time, and cats like the texture for both. Most come with a sachet of catnip to sprinkle on the first time.
They're also cheap enough to replace when they get shredded, which they will. If your cat scratches the arm of the sofa and then falls asleep next to it, a scratcher lounger placed at that exact spot solves two problems at once.
Size, shape and washing
Cats sleep two ways. Curled tight in a ball, or stretched out flat. Watch which one yours does most. Curlers are happy in a small round bed. Stretchers need something longer than they look like they need, and they'll spill out of anything too snug.
On cleaning, a removable washable cushion is worth insisting on. Cat beds pick up hair, dander and the occasional hairball, and a bed you can't wash becomes a bed you throw away. Cool wash, and let it dry fully before it goes back, because cats are quick to reject anything that smells of detergent.
Getting them to actually use it
Don't put the new bed somewhere new. Put it in the spot they already sleep in, even if that spot is inconvenient for you. Move it later, in small steps, once they've claimed it.
Rub a blanket or jumper that already smells of them into the bed before you introduce it. Add catnip if the bed came with some. Then leave it alone. Picking the cat up and placing them in the bed is the fastest way to make them suspicious of it.
Give it two weeks before you decide it hasn't worked.
If you've got more than one cat, buy more beds than cats. Two cats and one good bed means one cat sleeping on the floor, and it's rarely the one you expect.
Everything in the range ships free to the UK mainland, dispatched within 3 to 5 working days, with no hidden fees at checkout. If you change your mind, returns are welcome, though return postage would be down to you in that case. Anything faulty or damaged, get in touch and we'll sort it.
Browse the full cat beds range.
