Do It Yourself: Cat Climber

Making your own cat climber can save you money and let you customize to fit the needs and size of your cat household.

A cat climber is a structure for cats that allows them to jump, climb, stretch and scratch their claws. The extent of the structure is solely dependent on you and your feline situation, since you can make the climber bigger for a house of many cats or build a simpler, smaller one for a single-cat home. You can start with a simple climber and add more elements as you want or as an idea strikes you.

Things You'll Need

• Plywood
• Power drill
• Screws
• 6 pieces of wood, 4 feet wide, 3 feet long each
• Carpet tubes of various heights
• Angled brackets
• Carpeting
• Staple gun
• Utility knife
• Catnip toys on strings

Instructions

1. Build a low, wide box, using a power drill and screws to attach six pieces of plywood to make a cube. The box will be the base of the climber, so make it big enough to accommodate the cats that will be using it.

2. Attach as many carpet tubes as you want to the top of the box with angled brackets. Space the tubes around so the cats can get to each of them without any interference from the other ones. The tubes should stand vertically on top of the box.

3. Cut squares of plywood to create platforms for the tops of the tubes. The platforms should be just slightly bigger than the tube to give the cats some place to rest.

4. Attach the planks to the top of the tubes with more angled brackets. You can place smaller tubes on top of the planks to create a second tier of scratching posts.

5. Cover all of the exposed surfaces with carpeting and a staple gun. Trim all of the raw edges of the carpeting with a utility knife and carefully cover the tubes, box and planks.

6. Hang catnip toys from the corners of the carpeted planks with the staple gun. The toys should dangle down at different lengths to meet varied playing and exercise needs of your cats..

Tips & Warnings

• You can experiment with different orientations by adding extra tubes, split tubes and more boxes.

• Don't leave any sharp or abrasive materials sticking out of the climber, or your cat could hurt itself.

References

• Archive: Build a Scratching Post
• Feline Furniture: Feline Furniture Factory
• Thrifty Fun: Making Your Own Cat Tree