The topic of drop traps comes up on a regular basis. A number of people on this site have made their own over the years. This thread is intended to share the plans with others that have made them in the past. I think you can find sites where you can purchase them, but frankly, most people in rescue can't afford them and are looking for inexpensive ideas to make them at home.
Please limit conversation to information about building and using the traps to keep this fairly clean. Thanks!
Here is the drop trap that I made.
If was made entirely out of scraps on materials that I found in my barn along with a couple of screws and duct tape. It probably cost me about $2 to make it.
The frame is made from a combination of 1x2 and 2x2's and fastened together with wood screws. I gave it away before I measured it, but I'll guess that it was about 36" square and about 14" tall.
I used chicken wire for the screening material and fastened it to the frame with wood staples. I wrapped all of the wire seams with duct tape so that the sharp edges wouldn't hurt a cat.
For the door, I used a piece of 1/4" plywood. I attached strips of wood to the frame on either side of the door to make a channel for the door to slide through - basically used thin strips of the 1/4" plywood that was topped by wider strips of 1/4" plywood where the door could slide into. Always place the door towards the corner. When the trap drops, a cat tends to run from corner to corner and if you put a door in the middle for your transfer cage, the cat may not enter it.
I used a block of 2x2 wood for the stick to hold the trap up with a rope tied to it.
If I were to make another one, I would have added a strip of rubber to the bottom of the frame on the side away from the door. When we used this trap on concrete, it had a tendency to slide due to lack of friction between the wood and the concrete. It did fine on grass.
Please limit conversation to information about building and using the traps to keep this fairly clean. Thanks!
Here is the drop trap that I made.
If was made entirely out of scraps on materials that I found in my barn along with a couple of screws and duct tape. It probably cost me about $2 to make it.
The frame is made from a combination of 1x2 and 2x2's and fastened together with wood screws. I gave it away before I measured it, but I'll guess that it was about 36" square and about 14" tall.
I used chicken wire for the screening material and fastened it to the frame with wood staples. I wrapped all of the wire seams with duct tape so that the sharp edges wouldn't hurt a cat.
For the door, I used a piece of 1/4" plywood. I attached strips of wood to the frame on either side of the door to make a channel for the door to slide through - basically used thin strips of the 1/4" plywood that was topped by wider strips of 1/4" plywood where the door could slide into. Always place the door towards the corner. When the trap drops, a cat tends to run from corner to corner and if you put a door in the middle for your transfer cage, the cat may not enter it.
I used a block of 2x2 wood for the stick to hold the trap up with a rope tied to it.
If I were to make another one, I would have added a strip of rubber to the bottom of the frame on the side away from the door. When we used this trap on concrete, it had a tendency to slide due to lack of friction between the wood and the concrete. It did fine on grass.