Questions
answered.

Culm is a cat scratching post made from a natural bamboo culm pole with a natural jute sleeve that slides on and off. The sleeve is the part your cat scratches — when it wears out, you order a new sleeve and slide it on. The bamboo post stays in your home indefinitely. You never need to buy a whole new scratcher again.

The name comes from the botanical term for a bamboo stalk. It felt right.

Most cat scratchers are designed as single units — the post, the covering, and the base are all bonded together and treated as disposable. When the surface wears out (typically within 3–6 months), the whole thing goes in the bin, including the perfectly functional structural components.

Culm separates the durable part (the bamboo post and base) from the consumable part (the jute sleeve). The sleeve is the only thing that ever needs replacing. It's a simple idea — we're surprised it hadn't been done properly before.

The Culm post is 1 metre tall with a diameter of approximately 65–70mm. It's designed to allow a fully-grown adult cat to extend to their full height while scratching — most cats, including large breeds, can stretch fully against it.

The weighted base provides stability even for cats that lean heavily into their scratching. The base dimensions are [to be confirmed from prototype] — we'll update this once production dimensions are finalised.

Culm is a scratching post — it does one thing and does it well. Scratching is one of a cat's most fundamental behavioural needs: it stretches the forelimb muscles, removes the outer sheath of the claws, and allows a cat to leave a visual and scent mark on their territory. A good scratching post addresses all three.

We deliberately haven't added play elements, perches, or toys. Those are often the first things to look tatty on a tower, and they're also the hardest to design sustainably. We'll develop other products over time — all built on the same replaceable-surface principle — but the post comes first.

We're in the prototype and real-world testing phase right now. We won't set a launch date until we're confident the product is excellent — both the bamboo post and the sleeve system need to perform consistently under genuine daily use before we're ready to ship.

Join the waitlist and you'll hear from us first when we go live, along with a founding-member discount. We send honest updates — no hype, no spam.

When the jute sleeve has worn through — typically after 4–8 months of regular daily use — you slide the old sleeve off the post and slide a new one on. No tools, no adhesive, no dismantling. The post sits on its base throughout; you don't need to move it.

Replacement sleeves are available to order individually as needed, or on a 6-month subscription if you'd prefer not to think about it. There's no lock-in on subscriptions — cancel any time.

Your cat will usually tell you before you notice — if they start scratching the sofa or carpet instead, the current sleeve is likely no longer satisfying. Physically, look for areas where the jute has worn down to the bamboo beneath, or where the sleeve has started to slip or bunch on the post.

A small amount of loose fibre shedding from the surface is completely normal as the sleeve wears in — this is not a sign it needs replacing yet. See our care guide for a full visual breakdown of what to look for.

No. You can buy replacement sleeves individually whenever you need one. The subscription option exists purely for convenience — it means a new sleeve arrives before the old one is fully worn out, so you're never caught short.

If you do choose a subscription, you can pause, change the frequency, or cancel at any time with no penalty and no dark-pattern cancellation flows. We want the model to work because the product is better, not because we've made it hard to leave.

Compost it. Natural heavy jute, untreated and undyed — which is the only type we use — is fully compostable. If you have a home compost heap or access to a local green waste service, it can go straight in. It will break down within a few months under active composting conditions.

If composting isn't available to you, it can go in general waste. A small piece of natural jute fibre is considerably less harmful than an entire MDF scratcher going to landfill.

We are working toward a freepost sleeve returns programme — where you send worn sleeves back to us for composting at scale — as the business grows. We'll launch this when we have the scale and infrastructure to do it properly. See our care guide for the full story on this.

Bamboo is technically a grass, not a timber — but its structural properties are comparable to hardwood. Moso bamboo, which we use, reaches full structural maturity in around five years (versus 30–80 for most hardwoods) and can be harvested without killing the plant, which regenerates from the root system.

Bamboo is also harder than most softwoods, won't flex under load, and doesn't splinter the way that low-grade timber can. Most competitor products use MDF or softwood — both require resin binders and adhesives that create disposal problems. Bamboo doesn't.

The full comparison is in our materials journal entry.

Sisal is the most common scratching surface material — it's strong and cats respond well to it. But sisal on most products is wound tightly around the post and bonded with adhesive, which makes it impossible to remove cleanly for replacement or disposal.

Jute is slightly softer than sisal, which many cats actually prefer — it gives a little under the claw rather than being completely rigid. More importantly, it can be woven into a structural sleeve that slides on and off without any adhesive. That replaceability is the whole system. Sisal simply can't do it cleanly.

Both are natural plant fibres and both are compostable — the key difference is in the application method, not the material itself.

Yes. Jute is a food-grade natural plant fibre — it's the same material used in produce bags, coffee sacks, and food packaging. Small amounts of loose jute fibre ingested during normal scratching behaviour are not a safety concern.

If the sleeve develops long loose strands as it wears, we recommend trimming these with scissors as a precaution — not because jute is harmful, but because any long strand (natural or synthetic) could theoretically wrap around a cat's mouth or paw. This is mentioned in our care guide.

As always, if you have concerns about your individual cat's behaviour around the material, consult your vet.

The bamboo post may have a light application of food-grade mineral oil or cold-pressed flaxseed oil as a surface conditioner — both are entirely non-toxic. We do not use chemical stains, varnishes, formaldehyde-based sealants, or synthetic coatings of any kind.

If your post ever looks dry after extended use, a light re-application of food-grade mineral oil is all it needs. Full cleaning and care instructions are in our care guide.

Yes — meaningfully so. The core reason is structural: by separating the durable post from the replaceable sleeve, Culm eliminates the main reason cat scratchers end up in landfill. Over a five-year period, a typical cat owner might buy 8–10 disposable scratchers. With Culm, they buy one post and replace the sleeve as needed — producing a fraction of the material waste.

The materials also compare favourably: bamboo over MDF, natural jute over synthetic carpet, no resin binders, no plastic components. None of this is perfect — bamboo travels from East Asia and jute requires water to grow — but the relevant comparison is against the existing alternatives, not against some idealised zero-impact product.

We try to be specific about our claims and honest about our limitations. The full analysis is in our landfill article.

We want to be the most circular brand in the cat furniture industry. That means a freepost sleeve returns programme, compostable packaging for sleeve refills, full transparency on material origins and end-of-life routes, and eventually a range of modular cat furniture where every surface is replaceable.

We're not there yet. Right now we're a pre-launch business with a prototype in testing. We'll build toward those ambitions as we grow — and we'll be transparent about where we are on that journey rather than claiming things we haven't delivered yet.

Not currently, and we're cautious about offsetting as a primary sustainability strategy. Offsetting can be a meaningful tool, but it's often used to avoid making actual reductions — which we think is the wrong order of priorities. We'd rather build a product that generates less waste in the first place than ship a wasteful product and buy credits.

As we grow and have verified data on our footprint, we'll evaluate offsetting as a supplementary measure for the emissions we can't yet eliminate — transport being the primary one. We'll be transparent about methodology if and when we do.

The bamboo post is priced at £79.99. Replacement sleeves are £22.00 each, or available on a 6-month subscription for the same price with the option to cancel any time.

Waitlist members receive a founding-member discount at launch. Join the waitlist at the bottom of the page to secure yours.

UK only at launch. We want to get the product right and build a reliable fulfilment operation before expanding internationally. If you're outside the UK and interested, join the waitlist and note your country — it helps us understand where demand is and prioritise accordingly.

30 days from delivery, no questions asked, for unused posts in original packaging. If anything arrives damaged, email us within 7 days and we'll replace or refund — your choice. Full details on the shipping & returns page.

Honest answer: we can't guarantee it — cats are cats. What we can say is that Culm is designed with the factors that influence scratching behaviour in mind: sufficient height to allow a full stretch, a texture (natural jute) that provides appropriate resistance, and stability that doesn't wobble when leaned into.

The most important factor for getting a cat to use a scratcher is placement. Put it near where your cat sleeps — cats most often scratch immediately after waking as part of a stretch reflex. A scratcher placed in the right spot is far more likely to be used than one in an out-of-the-way corner.

If your cat doesn't take to it within the return period, our 30-day returns policy applies.

Yes. The bamboo post is a natural bamboo culm — hollow by nature, as all bamboo is, with structural strength derived from its dense fibrous walls rather than solid infill. The weighted base is designed to remain stable even when a large cat leans their full weight into it. We've tested with cats up to [weight to be confirmed from prototype testing] without stability issues.

Bamboo is structurally harder than most softwoods, so the post itself won't flex or deform under load. The sleeve sits firmly on the post without adhesive but grips well enough that a vigorous scratcher won't shift it.

The post itself will hold up indefinitely — it's the same bamboo regardless of how many cats use it. The sleeve will wear faster with multiple cats using it daily, so you may find yourself replacing it more frequently than the 4–8 month estimate for a single-cat household. That's fine — the whole point is that the sleeve is cheap and easy to swap. You're not replacing the post each time.

In a multi-cat household, you may also want more than one post to reduce competition for territory markers — cats often prefer to have their own scratching site rather than sharing.