A Cat Tree Makes A Great Climbing Play Place For Feline Friends

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We love our pets and want them to be healthy and happy. Cat owners who are interested in increasing the quality of daily life for their feline friends should definitely provide lots of opportunities for play during the hours they are left home alone. To accomplish this goal, adding a little environmental enrichment goes a long way to provide for kitty contentment and vitality. A cat tree or other cat structures transform a boring human environment into a fun-filled kitty playground.

A cat tree or tower should be considered a pet staple for any home with a cat. These structures provide a scratching post, exercise column, and cozy spot for a map all in one convenient space-saving piece of cat furniture. They are available for every budget as well, including easy-to-construct models for the do-it-yourself pet owner.

Why a Cat Needs a Cat Tree

If you want to prevent conflicts between you, your cat, your carpet, and your furniture, look around your home and carefully consider if you have provided items in your mutual living space that provide for a cat’s instinctual activities and behaviors. Is there high ground on which your cat may perch up above things and survey her environment? Can he exercise by climbing?

Cats must scratch so where is it safe for your cat to do this? Which part of your home may be established as your cat’s exclusive territory? Can your cat hunt and practice prey stalking behavior? If your furniture is off-limits for all these instinctual feline activities, then have you provided an acceptable alternative for your kitty?

A cat’s natural behaviors may seem like merely destructive ones when that cat is confined inside an apartment or house all day long. Our first impulse is to scold or punish the cat for doing what to him is perfectly normal for cats to do: scratch the furniture, climb on the counters, and perch on top of the refrigerator.

Cat furniture is created specifically to address the instinctual needs of felines and is necessary to the well-being of cats because it offers them a place to safely vent all these normal behaviors without destroying your upholstery or other property. Cat furniture helps relieve a cat’s environmental stresses from sharing his or her habitat with you and other pets.

A cat climbing tree, for example, fulfills the need of cats to seek different heights and vantage points, to climb and explore their environment. Many of these posts and tree houses are covered in sisal material, which provides structural strength while inviting and accommodating a cat’s instinctual scratching.

A cat scratching post trims claws and allows the cat to leave behind a scent with which to establish territory. Provided with their own cat tree house, they will not feel the need to mark another territory with their urine spray, a habit homeowners definitely won’t tolerate.

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The Purposes and Designs of the Modern Cat Tree

Cat furniture pieces should be designed to encourage exercise and activity. Look for carpeted cat trees (or those wrapped in sisal) that provide kitties a safe place to indulge their natural desire to scratch and maintain the health of their claws. You and your upholstery will much happier if you do.

If the tree has boxes or round tubes included as perches, the shy cat that tends to hide under the bed is provided with a place to hide in the open and above the rest of her environment which provides security and invites her to be more social. Some cat trees are short, rising only a few feet above the floor, and ideal for kittens. Others incorporate a maximum vertical range for climbing and exploration, rising from floor to ceiling.

More height provides more opportunities for multiple cats to use a cat tree at the same time. With more than a single cat perch located at different heights along the tree, one to several pets can occupy it according to their family social hierarchy. If a tall cat tree is placed by a door or window, your felines may also use its perches to enjoy watching the world outside.

A cat tree condo can accommodate cats who are observing their environment from a high perch, exploring the corners and cubbies of the tree, practicing their pouncing and swatting prey-catching behaviors with the tree’s attached breakaway toys, and sleeping in a comfy carpet-covered tube on one of the branches. This is the best cat tree design of them all for it provides for all conceivable uses.

Helpful Tips for Do-It-Yourself Cat Tree Construction

If you are handy with tools, you can easily build your own DIY cat tree or condo for your feline friends. Materials such as plywood, particle board, and MDF come in handy as well as PVC pipe and screws, nails, and a staple gun. Carpet scraps and a carpet knife are also useful. If you have a saw, a drill, and a hammer you are good to go.

There are many wonderful free cat tree plans available on the Internet to download and create your own cat furniture. Building one yourself can save you money and allow you to customize your tree to suit your own cat’s personality and particular needs. You can also make it to your own size and aesthetic preferences so it looks nice in the space in which it will be used.

If your cat is a climber, build it tall and include lots of perches. If your cat likes personal space, include places to hide and sleep that are covered and private. At the same time, keep the design within your carpentry abilities and make sure the finished structure is sturdy and safe for heavy use by your pet.

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What to Look for in Cat Trees

First and foremost, the cat tree must be sturdy and steady. If your cat leaps from the ground to a high perch, the tree should not wobble at all or the cat will not trust nor use it. The taller the tree is, the wider its base needs to be to keep it steady. Sleeping spots are a must. Perches should be of ample size to provide for the comfort and safety of each cat using the tree.

“U” shaped perches allow cats to feel support against their backs and know they are free from the danger of ambush from the rear. They also love to be high for another reason: warm air rises and cats love to be warm and cozy. The price range and variety of models of cat furniture is wide.

What matters the most in your selection is what your cat will think of it and cats want height, comfort, and sturdiness. Whether store-bought or homemade, expensive or DIY, a cat tree can be a refuge for cats who share their home with children and dogs, or other pets. It is also a refuge for each cat in a multiple-cat household; a place where each has a perch according to their own privately established hierarchy. A cat tree is the perfect playground for cats.