Any wire preferences on large enclosures?

My brother, SIL and I have been working on a deck alongside my cathouse this past week. It's 30' by 8', will have 2x4 flooring and a metal roof. (Comes off the side of the building at 8' and slopes down to 6'. The framing is going to be the same as for a house, 2x4's every 16 or 24 inches. I'm not sure, that's my brother's department. My first inclination is to use chainlink all around with anything above the 6' mark just enclosed with plywood.

I used vinyl covered wire on my enclosure in town and have chickenwire on their current outdoor space, but it sets on top of another building (a roof actually) and so it's far enough off the ground that things that go bump in the night can't get in there.

We have the beams cemented in, floor joists in place and are going to do the floor tomorrow. (If it's not 107 degrees) I once had a 3-4 month old kitten get it's head stuck in a 2x2 inch vinyl covered wire, so I do have concerns about the chainlink. I know you can special order it with smaller mesh, but it's about double the price.

Any words of wisdom? I have to pick up the wire in the next couple days.

is what we use in our outdoor enclosure. The grid is about 1/2 inch square. When I say cloth, it isn't cloth. It is heavy wire. No chance for any part of a cat to get stuck anywhere. We had an old one and the top was chicken wire. In the night, a racoon chewed through it. Chicken wire, IMO is too flimsy. Good luck.

I was thinking hardwood cloth or welded wire. You can find these in a good building supply store (although some urban areas don't carry this type of material). If you live in an urban area, drive out to a rural "farm and fleet" type building supply store.

I agree chicken wire is too flimsy. It will hold a cat in, but may not hold a larger animal out.

Wow, you guys, this is funny.

My brother showed up this morning with a section of wire and says, "How about this? It's what they put in the bottom of rabbit cages."

I called the local farm store and they also refer to is as hardware cloth. They have a ton of sizes, but I'm leaning toward the 1"x1". At first I was concerned because it doesn't come in 6', the widest being 4'. But my brother reminded me that there will be 2x4's every 2 feet, so we just have to cut 6' pieces and attach it that way. Duh.

The cost for the hardware cloth vs chainlink is about $50 more, but I really think I'll be much happier with it. We put the whole deck down today and tomorrow will figure out what lumber we need for the rest of the framing. Hopefully another week or so and it'll be done. I'm using a door we took off our house for my access and still have to work out how I want the cats to go from the enclosed building to the deck.

I'm taking pictures of the whole process, so hopefully I'll be able to show you how it turns out.