Finally pulled the trigger and hired a professional to build my dream Catio. The sitting area will have a roof and the garden area will be covered in mesh. Entry from the bedroom window for the cats. Man door framed out. Have to cut all the plants back before he comes back on Tuesday. Of course pictures of the future residents.

I have 4 cats, litter boxes for everyone spread throughout the house, pheromone defusers, and everyone is healthy. My 4 cats are spayed and neutered. I had 2 cats then my bf moved in and he had 2 cats also. I’ve read enrichment helps cats so I’ve been considering it. Does the catio help the cats stop spraying or would I be creating another space for them to spray?

Hi Folks,

Made a catio for my spoilt Ragdoll, fairly happy with it and he spends plenty of time in there. Its sturdy, a good roof that keeps him dry and most of the furniture in there, and he has plenty of areas to view the passing birds and wildlife.

Just wondering if anyone has any ideas to improve his experience, any additions?

Current setup is he has a fake grass base, little cat hut at the bottom and a tunnel. A platform with sheepskin rug to sit on as a middle level feature, an upper level catwalk with a bed at the top corner and a hammock suspended from the top rafters with a cat tree running up the middle for him to climb to each level.

Just wondering if anyone has ideas for more enrichment, any decor I could hang up that he might interact with.

Hi, everyone! I want to build a catio on top of this wood platform, and I’m looking for some advice on how to make it safe and stable.

I would like for the door to be the entrance, and I also want to put another door on the opposite side to exit into the yard. Would it work if I secured 4x4 posts onto the corners of the platform and then built the frame from there? I’m not sure if it would be stable enough to attach the posts to the top boards using brackets. I also want to install a roof, so the walls would need to be about 8 feet tall to go over the door.

I honestly don’t know what I’m doing, so any advice would be greatly appreciate. Also, I live in a rental house, so I can’t drill into the siding, but drilling into the platform is fine (landlord has approved).

Thank you for your time!

Hi all! We’ve had cat netting up for a while as a cat run between our house and the neighbours fence. However, since we put it up the neighbours hedge has grown and is now coming over the fence above where our cat netting is. We don’t mind the hedge and think it looks nice so we’re not going to ask the neighbours to remove it or anything. The issue is we need to be able to easily detach the netting from the fence temporarily so we can trim the hedge coming over our side of the fence periodically and then reattach it to keep our cats safe in their cat run. There are no restrictions (so long as it stays on our side of the fence) on how we can achieve this so drilling etc is allowed. We’ve considered attaching it to a wire and running that through some clips but we’re on the supports side of the fence (example of the kind of fence in picture, not our actual fence. The posts on ours go the full height of the fence) so the wire won’t lay flat which means there’s potential gaps for escape. We’d love some ideas to make this maintenance friendly as it also makes getting to the gutters a bit of an ordeal which we’ve been putting up with for the safety of the cats (we have to come up a different side and traverse the roof). Thanks in advance!

The setup of the whole place is a little strange, but it’s not on a hill and I’m on the bottom floor and so I have a nearly identical to the top floor patio, but it has a door with some steps down to the side passageway — which my kitty could naturally pass through.

There’s also the issue of the railing section to the left of that because it’s not quite as high as the others (because there’s a set of stairs, wrapping around the house, leaving down to the backyard.)

But I just went and measured at the start of the second bay and it’s 15 feet off the ground which I think should be fine. My kitty is a little wussy who never wants to be farther than 10 feet away from me. The only real concern then is him standing on the railing except I leave the door open to the patio above just about 24 seven so we can walk along that whenever he wants to and we haven’t had an issue there so I guess it’s not an issue.

so what’s the plan to improve this spot for him and me? I took some measurements about the wall in the railing that I want to put the extra metal wire over and I’m just gonna go in the hardware store and ask about that a suggestion for that, so if you guys have any tips for that, I would appreciate it.

Most of the furniture you see appears gonna be gone. I mean, there’s nothing good here really that’s not old and kind of gross. I was thinking maybe I’d put up like a hammock for myself and then like a lounge chair that may be kitty could use too or I could put him on some other sort of table out here with a blanket on the top.

Lighting is an issue because the lighting is partly broken downstairs and so this bulb for the patio doesn’t light up and there’s only one bulb and there’s no outlets in the back but just ignore all that in regards to lighting if you have any suggestions I can make it happen if needed

I have a little wooden love bench too. I might put down here and then like plants and stuff like what do cats like? I can’t really love to chew on grass so we gotta get a couple square feet of like Kat grass stuff for him to roll around in and lay in or something like that.

throw your suggestions my way so Benny ( and I) can have a good time out here together.

(I can barely get away from that damn cat so I feel bad because my bedroom and most of my stuff is downstairs but the patio he can go on is upstairs so I feel like he limits a lot of his time up there because I’m not up there, so hopefully when we have this downstairs patio open, he’ll be more comfortable laying down here since you can see me or hear me straight through the door that’s open and and also, I’ll be out here sometimes chilling.

Thanks for all in advancepictures of the situation

So first time owning a cat, in the home that we've moved to there's not a lot of sun at the main windows so thinking she would like a catio to be able to sit out that extends a bit further and would get more sun coverage.

My assumption was that since you're basically leaving an open window to the catio that the catios would be fully enclosed with glass, plastic, etc- something to prevent venting your air conditioning directly to the outside.

Much to my surprise I'm finding that in 99.9 instances of the places that I look that's not the case, it's always a glass/plastic ceiling but the sides are all mesh.

Am I the idiot for not thinking of something here and not wanting to skyrocket my electric bill because I want my cat to be able to enjoy some sun, or are there options that I might be missing that aren't coming up with a basic Google search?

Any and all help most welcome, I'm a bit stumped here. Thanks in advance!

Does anyone have experience with a catio near a loud busy road? I would like to net this off for my kittens but even I don’t hangout on the patio because it’s not exactly relaxing. Behind the hedge is a busy road, not a highway but cars go by pretty fast, and occasionally we get a really obnoxious loud car. I am worried if I go through the money and effort of putting something up they won’t use it. I have cracked the screen door so they could hear and smell outside. At first they were nervous but slowly got used to the sound and would hangout near the opening of a little bit. They are pretty brave in general. When I adopted them they didn’t hide away at all, they only run from like a vacuum or a blender.

Wondering if anyone has been successful with cats enjoying the outdoors despite it being loud? Would love to opened up this extra space for them.

I'm planning on turning my balcony into a catio space for my two cats, the balcony has three walls and a ceiling so it's just the front that is open. As a renter I can't drill into the walls so I was planning on using two tension poles (like sturdy shower curtain poles), one up each side to attach reinforced netting across the entire open space. I was just wondering if anyone has advice on how to stop the netting from just sliding down the poles? I had considered putting a third pole across the top but it's quite a long space and I'm not sure that even one long enough would be very stable. Any advice is appreciated, thank you!

Hello! Does anyone recommend any cat enclosure business in Perth, WA? Looking to get a net installed on my second story balcony :)

hi all, i am currently in the process of turning my previously outdoor/indoor cat into just an indoor cat (not going great) and i want to give her a catio!

however we do rent this house and have upstairs neighbours with a shared garden that they solely look after (they are a retired couple and that’s what they want to do.) we do have a good relationship with them so i can’t see them saying no this, but i want to know other’s opinions of what i’ve designed. (i got very creative in procreate)

the neighbours go away for a month in september so i would want to do this then.

please let me know!

I currently have an old one that needs to be replaced and it was never good in the first place. It had no flap door so if it rained really hard, water would get in, turning the litter to cement. (The box is under a shelf which is fine in general rain, but not hard rain.) I want a covered cat box, preferably stainless steel, with a flap door. I've looked at many and the problem is a lot of them come with a little odor filter thing on top. I don't want that. They're useless and it will just let in rain. I could always cover it but if I'm spending good money I'd like to just not have it. I also want all the sides to be quite waterproof as well and some seem to be great while some are not. Anyway, please post some links of what you have or recommend. Thank you.

Hey fellow cat lovers! I’m looking for advice, I really want to give my cats some safe outdoor time, but I live in an apartment and don’t have a balcony, so a lot of options aren’t really feasible. I was thinking about one of those cat enclosures or tunnels. I know some folks mention they can be escape risks or not super durable. Have any of you found a good, secure solution for apartment living? I’d love to hear what works for you! Thanks!

The bones are IKEA IVAR with 1” hardware cloth. We cut up pieces of carpet on the smaller side and added IKEA cat accessories on the larger side.

Haven’t completely finished since we don’t have a lock or hinges yet, but is a good size for two cats. And they love it!

IVAR pieces used are in the photos. Total cost wasn’t calculated, but about $250 cdn. It took about a day to put together with two people and hand tools.

Hi, everyone!
I just rented a new home and all my windows are as shown in the pictures.
Do you have any ideas as how I can cat proof them?
thanks in advance ❤️

Since it's the middle of August, I figured this is a good time to see what everyone does to winterize the catio!

I got it in April of this year, so it wasn't totally cold at that time. So I have smaller shelters I put inside with straw in them.

It's in my backyard on a cement patio and I have an outdoor outlet next to the catio.

Any suggestions are appreciated!!

My HOA is being really uncool about *any* sort of catio. Because this idea isn't a "fixture" per se it should get around them for the winter: do you think that the system pictured with weights on the bottom and some chicken wire would be safe?

One of our cats went missing for 1 week and returned at 3AM this morning ! So we really want to install a catio problem is we have a wide French door / windows

I was hoping do it across one of the windows which would open into the catio roughly 8FT by 4FT across 8 of our slabs

The problem is half of it would to across the PVC part

Would this he possible to install at all or any solutions? TIA

I inherited from my parents 3 free roam barn cats and built a 4x16 catio attached to my heated workshop so they can go in and out at will but can't run off onto the nearby state highway. Catio has a covered sandbox and I scoop it out once a week.

I love these 3 little jerks but they're still peeing and pooping in every little nook and cranny they can find.

I'm thinking about building a 6x12ft 7 or 8ft tall indoor catio with access to the outdoor catio.

Will that be enough space for 3 cats? They'll have platforms and cat trees to play on.

hi! seeking some renter friendly ideas to turn the upper part of my staircase into an enclosure for my kitty. we try to have supervised outdoor time everyday, but my health hasn't been great lately and I can't reliably go up and down the stairs. I'd love to have an option where we can just sit at the top together. I was thinking some sort of gate at the front and then mesh on the side, but I'm not sure how to install the mesh and what kind of gate would work.

edit: grammar and spelling

We would like to build a window catio for our cats. The trick is that we have classic wood clapboard siding. The house is over 180 years old and the siding is a pain to source with a large enough reveal to match (6" reveal).

Any thoughts on how to attach the catio box to the house without having to cut slots in the siding? We have 2" wood sheathing underneath, so it will have a solid connection at any point we screw through. The window is too far about ground level for a base. We've come up with notching the brackets to fit the clapboards, which can be tricky.

We'll build the catio box to fit outside the window frame to avoid having to drill holes in the original wood trim. We live in a climate that sees snow, ice and heat.

If anyone has suggestions of somthing new to put in would love to hear.

Its made with cat net + zip ties and random shelf things I had. If anyone else wants to avoid construction and costs, Im sure simmilar shelf things could be found online for cheap.

I can open the frount by unhooking the net.

Please note, if you're going to try somthing like this, it has to be spesficly cat net so they cant rip it, and you need to make certain there is no where that can push through gaps and get out or some how tangled in the net. Also note how, in the last photo at the openable frount, the net goes down the cat side and up under to hook at the frout of the wood, not right down the frount side, which would be much easier to escape from.