Building a Cat Room

[Isabelly2000]

I live in the suburbs with reasonable size yards and there are hawks and coyotes in the area.
My troops total 30 and I plan to build a cat room with a private yard to keep them safe while they can also go our for sunning and playing.

Any suggestions of what the ideal set up would be (linoleum flooring, big windows, heat/air)?
I intend to have things like cat trees and lots of comfy laying pads.
Also, of course running water, medicine and food cabinets, etc.

What I am looking for is ideas of how to keep the cats entertained and socialized.
Most importantly, what not to do.

Is there any literature/magazines on this subject?

Isabelly

[Top Cat]

Hi Isabelly2000, welcome to the forum. I've never done a cat room or anything before but I will give the internet a good scan later to see if I can find any ideas for you.

So what's your plan anyway? Are you converting a room that is currently in your house so all the cats can go in it? And then make a hole in the wall somewhere so they can go into a section of the yard but in a caged area of some sort so those coyotes etc can't get to them? I'm just trying to get a picture in my head of what the layout/size is going to be. Got any pictures you can take to show us what room you're thinking of converting etc? (If you're converting a room and not building one from stratch)

Even if you supply the above, I probably still won't be able to help, but even if I don't find some ideas on the net I'm sure some of the other guys will chip in some ideas of what you could possibly try.

[Isabelly2000]

Hi, Top Cat! A little more detail: it's a room about the size of a 2-car garage, connected to a separate section within my backyard. I will have slide doors to open up completely. The room is attached to my office and I am installing a glass pane on the connecting wall so that I can watch them while I work, and they feel closer to me. The yard is no problem. A patch of lawn with a couple of shady trees, surrounded by a high wall.

It's the indoors that I am looking for ideas. For example, I have thought of building a wall of cubes open at the front, in which I can put a towel for each cat to lay in. The towels are easy to gather and wash, and by using various bright colors, it would add an easy decorative touch to the whole thing. What about large cat condos instead? They are charming, but require more maintenance. Alternatively, I could do the same with metal cages similar to the ones you see at animal shelters (a little cold, but great in the summer). That's the kind of thoughts/experience I am looking for.

[Top Cat]

There's so much cat furniture etc out there now there's loads you could do with that space. But obviously some of this stuff comes at a price.

What about large cat condos instead? They are charming, but require more maintenance.

Yes, the condos and cat trees look very good. Some of them look huge. There's also things like pet steps:-



Which I found at 7th Heaven Cat Furniture. You could pretty much create your own little house for them if you wanted to. That site also has "Cat Gyms", but half of them are just condos/cat trees really if you ask me. The above site is just an example, the price may not be appealing and there's probably better and cheaper sites out there. Or maybe you could simply create your own.

With regards to flooring maybe for some of the flooring you could stick down some cork flooring. Although if your cats really like it and start ripping it up and things then maybe you won't want to spend too much on cork flooring if you do decide to get some. But I'm guessing they'd probably like the feel of it and love to stick their claws into it

[AKUNA]

It's one thing to set up the cat room and quite another to keep it clean and odour free .... I would recommend concrete flooring which is easy to wash down and hose off with smell-killing cleaners, and perhaps a few rugs and mats about for those who wish to loll about on the floor with other old furniture of chairs and cat gyms etc for those who want to go up high.

Akuna