Know a good vendor for cat trees/condos/gym/tower etc...?

[NetWareHead]

Anytime i visit any of the big name pet supply stores, I'm tempted to buy one of these fro my cat. But I always balk at the price tag. A 1 high foot scratching post made with a sheet of plywood, a vertical 4x4 post with some cheap carpet glued to it shouldnt cost $50 or more, forget about some of the taller more elaborate stuff I see; $250 to $350 and higher. Complete ripoff...

I searched on the web and many of the prices seem much more reasonable for the same construction, with the high prices reserved for specialty craftsmanship or special types of wood.

If anyone has ever ordered somethign like this from an online vendor, please share the experience? Thanks...

 

[IronWing]

I built my own using plywood and carpet remnants.

 

[MovingTarget]

I built my own using plywood and carpet remnants.

This. But what did you use to affix the carpet to the plywood? An adhesive or staples?

 

[jonny13]

I just bought one for my GF at Costco for $70. I've seen the same type of cat tree for over $100 on amazon.

 

[Nohr]

Armarkat is good and more reasonably priced than retail pet stores. They also sell on ebay so make sure you search there for the model you want and compare prices.

 

[IronWing]

This. But what did you use to affix the carpet to the plywood? An adhesive or staples?

I built mine entirely out of 1" plywood sheets, no tubes. I assembled it using metal corner brackets and screws. I used a staple gun to affix the carpet. This works but I can't recommend it. The reason is that the cats will eventually find a way to pull out the staples and if they should swallow one, it could be expensive and/or fatal. Glue would be a better bet for safety. Because of the staple issue and the fact that the tower was the cats' favorite puking spot, we ended up removing the carpet and sanding and painting the plywood. We wrap one corner of the tower with heavy rope to give the cats a scratching post.

I'm not home right now so I can't take a pic of the tower. The tower is four levels forming three cubes. The bottom cube has two solid sides, one open side, and one side with a bottom rail. The middle cube has three solid sides and one open side. The top cube has four open sides with corner posts formed by plywood strips. The top level is the roof of the third cube. I cut square openings in the top three levels to allow the cats to climb from level to level. The tower is 24"x 24" wide by about 48" tall. Home Depot had a clearance sale on 24" squares of plywood so I designed the tower to fit the cheap plywood. I think a customer had ordered the pieces and never picked up.

I don't have any good pics at the moment but the tower is visible for the first 4-5 seconds of this video plus a bit at around 1:40.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0in8aIiTNwM&feature=g-all

And also on this one at 0:05-0:10.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XGLp9HYHqM

 

[IronWing]

I just remembered this thread. Here are a couple pics of the tower. We've since pulled off the carpet, sanded down the sharp edges, and painted the tower as one cat kept pulling out the staples. It is also easier to keep clean as we just put blankets on it to give the cats something soft to lie on. We also wrapped one corner post with rope to serve as a scratching post.