Outdoor cat enclosures

**Tomiam** · 3rd June 2010, 09:07 PM

Originally Posted by Tomiam

In the next two or three months Im building a large enclosure.....

Ok.. well its now a while since I posted that comment but Im VERY happy to say that Im done

It was a lot more work than I thought it would be, probably six or seven 10hr days to completely erect the frame work, treat the already treated wood, pin on the welded wire mesh and then.. eventually.. let the cats out for a play

I borrowed the works van for a day and headed off to B&Q to grab all the wood & fixings I would need. One thing I will say about B&Q is that when they say "they will cut any wood for you" what they actually mean is any wood that hasnt been treated.
Might not seem a big difference, but when you've just lugged 20x 3m long beams, 10x 3m posts and 4x huge 4.8m posts across the superstore only to be told .. "sorry sir, we cant cut pretreated wood as we would then be selling it as untreated". Kinda takes the... (rude word).

Anyways.. moan over

I went for hot dip galvanised welded wire mesh, sourced from ebay. Ended up using 30m of 6ft wide 1" x 1" mesh and 20m of 2ft wide 1" x 1" mesh. I figured this would be stronger than chicken wire / nylon mesh, and it definately appears to be so.
The enclosure has two gates on it. Both of them are spring loaded (top and bottom) to ensure the gate always closes, and in that respect it does it admirably :D

I let Storvenn and Loki out in it last night and it took them a little while to become confident. What was their 'whole world' (our house) suddenly looked very small to them I bet, but things were quickly forgotten once they discovered "FLIES!!!!"
Both appear to love chasing em down and 'clapping' them out of the air with both paws!

No furniture has been put in there yet, but we have plans to have a ledge under the kitchen window so they can come out of the house that way in the cooler months, rather than we keep the door open all day.

**Karena** · 3rd June 2010, 10:00 PM

Wow, very smart. Clever you! I think it looks lovely. they're going to love it in there. Simba loves catching flies - I think this summer is the most fly free our house has ever been - he is better than any fly catchers I have had before

Also Simba actually eats them - is this OK do you think?

I have to say - my garden may as well be enclosed as he still hasn't ventured out of it - I honestly don't think he ever will - seems quite content to stay in the garden.

**harrymc** · 3rd June 2010, 10:58 PM

Super wow ! love it. I'm sure the cats will love it, great timing too ready for summer. As for the flies, yep Harry does exactly the same and eats them, urghhhh. Trouble is he chases anything, wasps, bees etc which I'm more worried about, cos they aren't so quick and I'm scared he'll get stung.

**Jocats** · 3rd June 2010, 11:08 PM

Hi
I think your cat run is amazing

I wish my other half could build me something like that!!! I had to pay a man to come in and create my cat pens and runs!!!

I must say I am looking to extend and have a spare space on the side of the house where I could have a run like yours built. Thanks for putting the pics on as it has given me some great ideas now

As for the flies, my two coonies are always catching them and eating them which I think is gross, but it doesn't seem to have done them any harm. I reckon as long as they are up to date with their worming treatments it shouldn't be a problem

Cheers
Jo x

**Scrapdragon** · 4th June 2010, 02:11 AM

That looks great!!!

and yes... flies are a great entertainment! especially when the cats stalk them!

**Tomiam** · 4th June 2010, 01:52 PM

Thank you all for your very kind words

I must admit its a bit better than I thought I would be build to achieve....

Ive taken to pointing out flies around the house now. Loki was picked up, put on the kitchen worktop and shown a fly on the window. Needless to say it didnt last long!

**dave** · 4th June 2010, 04:15 PM

That's a great bit of Engineering there !

I'm currently toying with the idea of creating an escape deterent in the form of drain piping running around the inside fence perimeter of our garden. I think it should be very cheap and not too visible if I paint the drain pipes brown like our fence. The concept is each section of fence will have a small wooden curtain size pole attached and the drain pipe would fit over the poles, making it spin if Hank tries to jump up on it.

**H&SWells** · 4th June 2010, 04:53 PM

Wow , makes what we are planning seem very small!!!! Excellent job thank you so much for sharing that.

**mom2coons** · 27th June 2010, 03:58 AM

There was a cute article in the New York Times last week about more and more people building "catios" for their cats.

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