Chicken Wire Ok For A Catio?

Ok, well surprisingly we were able to put together a catio today. It's not the prettiest thing, and very mismatched materials, but it should work. We had enough old lumber laying around that the frame when up pretty quickly, under Tiger's supervision of course, and with help from my collie Blaze.



We had some old chain link laying around that I hadn't really thought about, so we used that for the bottom few feet of the catio. We also had about 10ft of old 1" chicken wire that we use for the last little bit were the chain link left off and the top. The door is metal window screen we had. We've been using it for years for our windows and the front door screen door. The cats regularly climb it on the screen door to the house so I know it can contain them.



It took all day though, so we'll do more, like add some shelving, tomorrow. For now it's a fenced in box, good enough for the cats to at least check it out. CJ is not too thrilled with it yet, she went out in it, jumped down to the ground and then went right to the door like "ok now open this door".



As I mentioned in my original post, that is along the primary access to the back of the property so I couldn't really make it extend too far from the house. I need to be able to get vehicles past the house down that way.

That looks really good! With a few shelves in there it's going to be a fun place for your cats to hang out. What about a litter box, do they have one indoors they can easily get to?

If you're short of space you can always expand upwards, as well as along the side of the house. Cats love vertical space as much as they do horizontal space.

I have a covered litter box like this, which now has a cushion on the top of it.



It's an outdoor litter box that doubles as a sun lounging deck. Maybe you could make something like that if they need a litter box in there too?

Norachan said:

That looks really good! With a few shelves in there it's going to be a fun place for your cats to hang out. What about a litter box, do they have one indoors they can easily get to?

If you're short of space you can always expand upwards, as well as along the side of the house. Cats love vertical space as much as they do horizontal space.

I have a covered litter box like this, which now has a cushion on the top of it.

View attachment 295726

It's an outdoor litter box that doubles as a sun lounging deck. Maybe you could make something like that if they need a litter box in there too?

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Well I do plan to expand it later, I can go farther up and down along the side of the house, the next part will be a bit higher up because the next window is higher off the ground. We pretty much used up all the easily accessible wood for now (the stuff that doesn't require prying boards off fence posts and sanding), and the fencing we could find around the property, so a bigger/longer catio will have to wait.

They do have litter boxes in the house, and one of them is just one room over (like 10 feet) from the open window. I'm going to have to think about what else to put in the catio though. I've got some old plastic litter pales I could probably use, and maybe some cheap tunnels from the dollar store (I bought a bunch for them for inside, the cats love them, they don't last but are cheap to replace).

Oh on a side note, my semi-feral, Tux, is loving it so far even empty. I think we just made his day. He never goes out (never even showed any desire to) since we trapped him and brought him inside about 5 years ago. He keeps darting in and out of the window to the catio looking around like a kid in a candy store, it's so cute.

More photos of some of the cats enjoying the catio additions. I'm slowly adding more stuff.

Very nice! I have to get on the ball and make one. I keep saying I'm going to do it. I have a loft full of 2 x 4s. I just need to do it!

Did you fasten it to the house? What did you use? My dad claims that screwing though the siding will result in moisture getting in and rotting the wall, but I'm not convinced.

Willowy said:

Very nice! I have to get on the ball and make one. I keep saying I'm going to do it. I have a loft full of 2 x 4s. I just need to do it!

Did you fasten it to the house? What did you use? My dad claims that screwing though the siding will result in moisture getting in and rotting the wall, but I'm not convinced.

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Yes it's screwed to the house, but the siding was put up over top old ceder siding on that side of the house. You can see some of the old cedar siding (the red boards) along the bottom of the house, so I'm not really worried about moisture since it's really screwed into ceder boards not actually into the wall of the house.

If it was around the other side that just has plywood under the siding I would be more worried about it though. I would need to seal it where the screws went in, maybe use rubber washers/gaskets or something.

Well so far all but one seems to be enjoying it. CJ, one of the ones that use to get free roam outside, and go for walks with me and the dogs is still protesting and trying to dart out the front door. She is also trying to figure out how to unlatch the catio door so she can get out.

She doesn't understand the seriousness of the situation, and honestly I don't think she cares what happened to Mystic (the cat I lost last month). There was actually a coyote in the driveway, like 20-30 ft from the house Sunday morning before the dogs went out. It darted off when my husband went outside along with the dogs. It was behind the car so I guess the dogs didn't see it from the front windows, my rottie was on high alert the whole rest of the day though.

I'm late to this but keep an eye on the cats. When I was a kid I had a pet chicken outside and the neighbors cat was able to tear through the chicken wire. Just a word of caution

MoonstoneWolf said:

I'm late to this but keep an eye on the cats. When I was a kid I had a pet chicken outside and the neighbors cat was able to tear through the chicken wire. Just a word of caution

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Yeah the cats are only allowed out when I am awake and home (I rarely leave the house). The windows get shut at about sunset, and I open them when I get up in the morning. It will also be closed once the temp drops and snow starts to fly in another month or two. The chicken wire will hopefully be replaced next year, likely with welded hardware mesh, and with any luck a bit of an expansion. So far the cats haven't really even tried to mess with the chicken wire, CJ is more focused on how to unlatch the door. She is one of the cats that has unlock and open doors in the past, so I might have to add a small board if she can manage to reach the latch. Right now the door fits pretty tight though, so even if she did manage to unlatch it it wont open. I have to lift up and kick the bottom of the door to open it from the inside.

In case anyone is curious I decided to go back to the idea of taking CJ out for walks, using the harness I have. We just did a quick walk, she did ok, but kept wanting to go do her own thing and go under the cars and stuff like she is use to doing.


I'll look at getting a different/better harnesses later, but this should work for now I hope, once I snug it up a bit.