Building a cat tree can be a cheap way to get some good cat furniture

A good cat tree can be easy to build, and for those who find commercial cat trees a little expensive this can be a good way to save some money on your pet furniture.

There’s a few simple things to remember and if you’re handy with a hammer and nails it shouldn’t be too difficult to build your own cat tree.

The first thing to remember is that a good tree for a cat needs a very wide base. This is because as your cat climbs the tree it exerts sideways pressure on the tree. If the base is not wide enough the tree becomes unstable and can fall over.

Of course the taller the tree the wider the base will need to be. However remember that before you build your cat tree you need to know where it is going in the house and to ensure that there is adequate space to house it there.

Any decent cat tree needs a base at least 3 to 4 feet square, and preferably from solid timber so it is nice and heavy.

The easiest tree to make is one with a solid chunky centre pole. If you use timber at least 3 or 4 inches square it is easy to fix nice and securely to the base so it does not rock. Use metal angle brackets to secure it to the base.

You can then build horizontal arms, or branches, which come out from the centre pole and use these arms to secure some interesting items that make some fun things for cats to play on.

It’s quite possible to scrounge all sorts of interesting items such as plastic tubs. Screw these onto the branches either intact or cut in half to give the cats lots of nooks and crannies to play in or sleep in. Read the rest of this entry

Parts 4 and 5 of our videos about building a cat tree

This is the final 2 videos about how to build a cat tree. You get to see the cats playing in it as well.

And part 5. You can see just how much the cats enjoy their cat tree here.

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If you’re following our building a cat tree series here’s videos 2 and 3

Here’s the next 2 videos in the series building a cat tree. You can see the tree starting to develope well.

Think you could build your own cat tree? Why not give it a try?

Here’s number 3

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