Questions for cat owners

JimRofl

How many cats do you have?
Do you own a cat tree and how much did it cost?
Would you buy a home-made one?

I'm thinking of making them for a bit of cash/a hobby. I've got 8 cats myself and think they Definately need one. I searched around but they cost a bomb, thus I've decided to make my own.

I'll make it look aesthetically pleasing, I think I'll pretty much copy one that a big retailer has already made. I'll also be sure to make it safe too.

If all goes well, I'll make some to give away/sell, I'm just concerned that someone wouldn't buy a home made one due to risks of it breaking or screws stabbing their cats or whatever.

Your thoughts and opinions are welcomed.

UKTigerlily

Hiya,

I have one cat & we do have 1 tree, I think it was around £50 IIRC but she's had it a while.

If I like the look of something I don't mind if it's home made or made by huge companies. I have home made collars for the dog, used to have home made hutches for rabbits etc, you could give some of any profit to a cat rescue maybe?

As soon as word of mouth gets out about something good everyone buys, Strong Stuff collars are home made & he does really well as it's such a quality product.

Good luck!

lisajane8482

I have 2 cats and we have 2 large cat trees. The cat trees cost around £40 each (bought in the sale at zooplus). One is a largish one which is over a year old and should have been £70 and the other is slightly smaller which is only a couple of months old and should have been £60. I chose the ones I got as they were on sale.

To be honest the bed on the larger scratch post is wobbly and when our 5.5kg cat jumps up it wobbles like mad, need to put a couple of screw in it to sturdy it up.

I would be more inclined to buy home made personally as long as it looked sturdy and well made, or they had people recommending them

Dumbe

I have 3 .. One big one and two smaller ones..

I would be more likely to buy a home made one as I would trust it more ..

Suggestions..

Weight (at the base) needs to have a heavy enough base for the cat to use his or her weight against it when scratching stood up ..

Material on the posts .. The cats don't seem to scratch carpet covered posts but do use the cord / rope covered posts ..

gettingready

Cord definitely, hidden nails/screws, good solid base heavy enough to support late's say my 10kg Teddy and shelves wide enough for him to lie down and not hang off....

All commercial cat trees are simply too small for 3 out of my 4 boys for normal use....

I have this one now

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Deluxe-Scratcher-Activity-Scratching-Sleeping/dp/B004XS8ZES/ref=sr_1_18?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1360583720&sr=1-18

No idea where the 245 price came from as I paid about 50 for it.

It is ALMOST good, wide, strong shelves, not wobbly BUT the "hiding bit" is too small, only Macius fits in there.

Danni-R

I'd rather buy a home made one for mine as I'd want it to fit a certain area/ size. She's only a little cat (at 4 she looks like a large kitten) but the idea of a home made one doesnt put me off. The nails thing.... some of her pet shop toys are so shoddy I'm surprised they're allowed and I like to support small businesses. Feel free to send me photos!

Spudsey

Two cats.
No cat tree but am working on my o/h to make one as sure he would make a better job and would be cheaper

lostinrates

Two cats. They had big cat trees when they were younger and when they lived indoors, but now they have day time access outside and scale the side of the house instead.

My cats are light but still managed to make commercial trees wobbly very quickly, and the joining bolts/screws would become loose in the chipboard g and be untightenable because of the damage cause by the cats hurtling up and down them.

At some cat shows there are people selling much sturdier looking trees, and I would have prefered a hopme made one, but zoo us sales made that the sensible option, as the risk of outlay on something they would break within months was big with our cats. But a sturdy home made one, that fitted in the space we needed it to rather than trying to arrange a room around a cat tree would have been brilliant.

ohmochraich

4 cats. 3 trees. All my trees are ceiling trees designed for large cats ( i have maine coons and savannahs) and all cost between £50 -£100. All came from zooplus.
I'd buy a home made one as its difficult to get a tree that's not a fluff covered cardboardy affair! I'd love to be able to get custom made affordable ones that blend in with my decor :j

I'd also love to be able to find sturdy 'step' shelving so my moogs can prowl around the walls at will!

krlyr

If you did sell them, I'd look into some kind of product insurance that would cover you if they did break and injure a cat - or damage someone's property too (cat may be fine and land on its feet but don't imagine a damaged TV or PC would go down too well if it were to collapse on them!). I don't think it's too expensive to get this kind of cover from what I've heard.

lostinrates

ohmochraich wrote: »

4 cats. 3 trees. All my trees are ceiling trees designed for large cats ( i have maine coons and savannahs) and all cost between £50 -£100. All came from zooplus.
I'd buy a home made one as its difficult to get a tree that's not a fluff covered cardboardy affair! I'd love to be able to get custom made affordable ones that blend in with my decor :j

I'd also love to be able to find sturdy 'step' shelving so my moogs can prowl around the walls at will!

Fwiw when we lived in a flat where we did not let the cats out we fed the cats on top of a bookshelf with a rope ladder up to it. It was work for them to get up there and kept them fit and busy.

Only bad thing about it was now no sooner is a ladder put up than they are climbing it with gusto.