Mold Growing On Cat Furniture?!?

cocobutterfly

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Our whole family, including cats, have been sneezing up a storm the past few weeks. The cats have been scratching their ears a lot and grooming themselves more than usual. We chalked it up to allergy season, kept all the windows closed and bought another Dyson air purifier which helped. None of the humans had ever suffered allergies so it was odd.

Then on Sunday, as we were deep cleaning the house, we noticed that our Versa cat condo was COVERED IN MOLD!! Not the entire thing but all the sisal rope covered posts. See photos.

We've only had it for 5 months. And we're not living in the swamps but a rather dry Los Angeles. Has anyone had anything like this happen to them?!
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IndyJones

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Never heard of this happening but you should put the whole posts into a plastic garbage bag and dispose of them. Mold is not something you want to mess with as it is a health hazard.
 
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cocobutterfly

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Never heard of this happening but you should put the whole posts into a plastic garbage bag and dispose of them. Mold is not something you want to mess with as it is a health hazard.
Yep. Right after I took the photos we threw them in a bag and dumped them in the dumpster.
 

margd

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That's really terrible. :jawdrop: The manufacturers need to know about it. You might consider sending copies of these photos to them and asking for a refund. Obviously, you can't return them since they really do need to be bagged up and disposed of ASAP.
 

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That's really weird, unless it had gotten wet somehow. The only time I had that happen was when I had a cat tree in the basement after a hard rain and the basement took in water. But that's to be expected. If your was dry that's just plain odd. I'm not sure the manufacturer had anything to do with it but it wouldn't hurt to contact them, and the place you bought it from. Maybe they had a water problem in their warehouse or something.
 

tabbytom

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Hello cocobutterfly cocobutterfly , mould can appear anywhere in the house. But the most common places are walls which could be damp due to condensation, humidity or leaky pipes behind walls or leaks from ceilings.

Usually it happens when you have a cupboard or furniture like a sofa or items stacked against the wall. So some fabrics may even have mobile growing on them.

So it is likely that the cat tree has absorbed moisture and did not dry out in time and thus mould starts to grow on them. Sisal ropes have to be very dry.

Now your cat tree will take quite a bit of cleaning but I do t think you can get all the mould out as they are already embedded. And I don't think you would want to go through the trouble of stripping the ropes and wash and dry and assemble it again.

Best is to get a new one and place it in another location of the room. Maybe next to the window where sunlight can come in and provide some heat to the new tree.

Meanwhile can try checking out for dampness at the old location :wink:
 
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cocobutterfly

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Thanks all for your response. I've left a message with the manufacturer of the Versa cat furniture (which is Catit). We'll see if they respond. The condo was sitting next to an open stair case. No water or moisture. We have another cat condo (different brand) next to where this moldy piece was as well as a wicker basket that holds cat toys, but nothing else was moldy. It was only the 4 sisal posts on the Versa cat tree that were covered in mold. The rest of the tree was free of mold. However, we've discard the entire thing. The cat tree is totally useless without those posts. Just a bunch of shelves.
 

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How long have you had that cat tree? If not very long, it came with the problem.
If quite a while, then something there caused it.
Humidity acts differently on different materials. Which usually isn't a problem with a controlled indoor environment (heat/ac/windows closed). Windows open and mist or humidity could cause that.
OR, sitting near a ac vent could cause that. Which, would also be an indication of an heat/ac system problem.

BTW, those ropes don't look like sisal.
 
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cocobutterfly

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We got the tree just after last Christmas when we moved into our newly built home. So not long at all. Windows are always closed as we have at least 1 Dyson air purifier tower going nonstop all day every day in each room. We have 10 total around the house. LA doesn't have a humidity problem but a smog problem. We also don't have a heat/AC system as we live 4 blocks from the beach in Santa Monica, CA and inside the house is always 65-70 degrees.
 
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cocobutterfly

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BTW, those ropes don't look like sisal.
You're correct. That was Amazon's crappy description of it. I just googled it, and the material is actually "SEA GRASS." I wonder where it was sourced from.
 

basscat

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Santa Monica, 4 blocks from the beach, no heat/ac system? That sounds perfectly nice, and probably mostly very comfortable.
However, right now, the humidity there is 83%. (I think the yearly average is above 70%).
Especially that close to the beach, certain materials will mold quickly.
Maybe that sea grass stuff is one of them?
 
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cocobutterfly

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Right. Note to self and everyone else... maybe research further before purchasing anything made of sea grass. We have two other cat trees and their posts are made of sisal rope, and no indication of mold on those. No mold on anything else around the house, even all the rattan baskets placed around the house.
 

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Sea grass is prone to mildew, fungus and mold. A lot of sea grass mats and products are shipped from overseas, and that trip here is rife with conditions that keep the spores alive.
 
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cocobutterfly

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Sea grass is prone to mildew, fungus and mold. A lot of sea grass mats and products are shipped from overseas, and that trip here is rife with conditions that keep the spores alive.
Wow, good to know! Sea grass never again!
 

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Hi cocobutterfly. I know this is an old post, but I'm pretty sure you are the one who left a review on Amazon and saved me from buying that Vesper cat tree. So if you did, thank you for that! Speaking from personal experience mold can wreak havoc on multiple systems of the body in humans and cats, and it can't be cleaned from porous materials (spores, MVOCs, and possible mycotoxins). I'm avoiding any sea grass thanks to the Amazon review and this post. I'm still searching for the perfect cat tree, and we're most likely going to build one. I bought an unfinished expensive cat tree that showed up "pre-molded". Luckily I noticed it right away--the shading of the wood wasn't right--and it was barely out of the box for 5-minutes. Just enough time to take pics and return it. That was the FrontPet Apex Modern Cat Tree on Amazon. All other reviews were positive, so I don't know if ours was a fluke or if other people just don't have a critical eye for that kind of thing. We're guessing it was made out of green wood that wasn't allowed to dry properly prior to manufacturing. Then I also ran into a review about mold growing on the Smart Cat scratching post, so I went with a different large scratching post. I feel like it's more difficult these days to find quality manufacturing. In the meantime, our two new kittens are using the pub height table as their perch--can't blame them with no other high furniture around. I realized your user name has a butterfly in it too. :) MaiMai was my cat Maya's nickname, and she LOVED butterflies.
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So I know this post is about a year old, but the same thing just happened to me! Same brand of cat tree and everything. We’ve had the tree for two years and just noticed it was covered in mold the other day, I don’t know how it happened, but after seeing your post I will be reaching out to the manufacturer.
 

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Our whole family, including cats, have been sneezing up a storm the past few weeks. The cats have been scratching their ears a lot and grooming themselves more than usual. We chalked it up to allergy season, kept all the windows closed and bought another Dyson air purifier which helped. None of the humans had ever suffered allergies so it was odd.

Then on Sunday, as we were deep cleaning the house, we noticed that our Versa cat condo was COVERED IN MOLD!! Not the entire thing but all the sisal rope covered posts. See photos.

We've only had it for 5 months. And we're not living in the swamps but a rather dry Los Angeles. Has anyone had anything like this happen to them?!
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Our whole family, including cats, have been sneezing up a storm the past few weeks. The cats have been scratching their ears a lot and grooming themselves more than usual. We chalked it up to allergy season, kept all the windows closed and bought another Dyson air purifier which helped. None of the humans had ever suffered allergies so it was odd.

Then on Sunday, as we were deep cleaning the house, we noticed that our Versa cat condo was COVERED IN MOLD!! Not the entire thing but all the sisal rope covered posts. See photos.

We've only had it for 5 months. And we're not living in the swamps but a rather dry Los Angeles. Has anyone had anything like this happen to them?!
View attachment 183305
View attachment 183306
View attachment 183307
I just came across this post today while searching how to clean Sissel rope on a cat tree.

i cat trees in a basement in Nashville TN, and went out of town with my cats. AC, which works as a dehumidifier was turned OFF and we had lots of rain. My cat trees in basement are covered in mold when they wouldn’t have been if the AC had remained on.

After reading comments, I’m thinking they’re not cleanable. Learning experience. 😕
 
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