Cat trees?

So I am looking at building my own cat trees for my kittens, since I don't want to buy one. (the size I'm looking at they are around $200!!) Anyways, has anyone else built one before, or even just have pictures of your? What do your cats seem to like?

to be honest, i was going to do that. but instead i found this site
http://stores.ebay.com/Original-Arma...sxQ3asstQQtZkm

and i bought my cat tree from there. i paid $0.99 for it plus shipping. the shipping was about $60 or so though, but it was so worth it. my three cats absolutely love it and it has never fallen over and 3 years later is still in great condition. basically you are buying them directly through the manufacturer.

specifically this is the one that i own.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Armarkat-Cat-Tre...742.m153.l1262

its HUGE.

Awesome, thanks!! I'll definately think about it. I was wanting to make one partially b/c I think it would be fun to design one, but also to save money. That is a great site!!

They literally took a $.99 bid? I may have to check them out later!

Just a buyer beware I would like to add.........but keep in mind it is a general statement......I have no particular insight to those products. When a bid is so low or when is is so much lower than shipping you have to read their refund policy. If it states the will refund "purchase price if defective or not satisfied". This would be you would get a $.99 refund and would still be out the shipping. Just one item I checked would have cost me $92.63 in shipping. I have bought literally hundreds of ebay items over the years and just a tip I picked up along the way.

I have built several. It is fun to design your own. You can also make the dimensions and colors to it fit your house. We can added natural limbs to one. My cats loved the natural bark.

Ooo....do you have any pictures of the one you built?I'm realizing I'm going to need more pipe to hold the thing up, but I'm still aiming to build one over the break.

There's a gentleman that lives near us who makes them. He's really cheap, and they're great quality. They're usually 25% of what you'd pay in the store. I have yet to buy one from him, but someday I will. Certainly beats paying out the tush for "shipping". The bids are just low so that the seller saves on ebay fees. You're paying for the item with the extra shipping that they quote you, and as someone else said, if something goes wrong, you're screwed, you'll only get that $.99 back, not the actual amount of money the seller made on it.

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Originally Posted by tweets_4611

Ooo....do you have any pictures of the one you built?I'm realizing I'm going to need more pipe to hold the thing up, but I'm still aiming to build one over the break.

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I know I've got some somewhere.....
I'll get back to you....

as i stated, i've purchased one, which is why i posted the link and i've had it 3 years now and couldn't be more satisfied.

as for building your own, when i'd built one, i used an old stepladder, the kind with steps on both sides. i covered the steps with carpet remnants and wrapped the vertical parts with sissel rope. then just made shelves or hammocks that connected between the steps.

Here's one of them. This was the short tree about 3 feet tall.

http://tarazod.com/other_hosted_pics/cattree1.jpg

Here's one of my boys lovin' it.

http://tarazod.com/other_hosted_pics/cattree2.jpg

those are pretty neat! i bet the cats love the texture.

I'd stay away from those really. They are very top heavy looking and if you have cats who are like mine (who bounce off the walls) those cat trees will tumble over in a second if they start any kind of rough housing to hard jumping around on it. I got one of petsmart and it looked like one of those big crazy ones on that site and my cats had it falling over left and right. I ended up taking it back before they got hurt or broke something in my house with it falling over.

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Originally Posted by lillyorchid

I'd stay away from those really. They are very top heavy looking and if you have cats who are like mine (who bounce off the walls) those cat trees will tumble over in a second if they start any kind of rough housing to hard jumping around on it. I got one of petsmart and it looked like one of those big crazy ones on that site and my cats had it falling over left and right. I ended up taking it back before they got hurt or broke something in my house with it falling over.

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Actually no. That stand was not top heavy at all. The ones we made ourselves, like the one pictured above never tipped over. I have two 16 pound big Colorado stock cats. We had that stand for 8 years. They beat the hell out of it. It did rock a little when they did the leaping "I'm a flying cat" thing. It depends on how good you make it. We made the base big enough to handle them.

kitsunex: Yes, they loved the real bark texture. Just make sure you use wood that is not green or full of bugs.

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Originally Posted by lillyorchid

I'd stay away from those really. They are very top heavy looking and if you have cats who are like mine (who bounce off the walls) those cat trees will tumble over in a second if they start any kind of rough housing to hard jumping around on it. I got one of petsmart and it looked like one of those big crazy ones on that site and my cats had it falling over left and right. I ended up taking it back before they got hurt or broke something in my house with it falling over.

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are you are referring to the links that i posted near the beginning? if so, i've NEVER had mine fall over, and that is with 3 large cats running all over it and with a 2 year old toddler thinking its a jungle gym. it hasn't so much as wobbled. they were designed quite well to maintain a low center of gravity.