Cattery

I have decided to put this here as it seemed to best fill this category as at the end of the day it dictates the health of my boarders

I am currently having a cattery built and the builders came today to have a look at the site and discuss measurements.

The cattery has to appear to be temporary because my house is in Zona Rustica, so the material used would be treated wood and mesh. I could probably get away with block built as well but do not feel inclined to risk it just yet. The other catteries on the island have wood built pens also.

We have decided that the indoor section of the pen should be 1.25 meters deep and 1 meters wide, with a shelf and window which gives access to the outside run. The shelf will have room for a bed (or 2 in double pen which will be wider) and underneath will be the food, water bowls and littertray (not too close to food bowls at other side of room infront of the human door).

There will be a human size door so that I can have access for cleaning feeding etc.. but due to the climate here this will be half/mesh and wood not full wood.

The outside pen will be 1.5 meters x 1 meter and half covered the remaining roof will be mesh. Given that it is a very mild climate here i thought it would be nicer for the outside run to be left slightly open, I would have the roof covered with wood and felt not crrugated panels because it may have a green house effect.

The floor of course will be fully tiled for ease of cleaning.

Between each run will be fully covered in with wood panels to avoid contact with neighbouring cats.

I intend to put scratch posts in each outdoor run along with a shelf for sunbathing and possibly drift wood trees etc... What Do You Think ?

Running the full length of the pens will be a covered safety run of a meter wide.

I am only having 5 pens built to start with but later I hope to have another 5 with a work room housing a sink and work surface and a cupbboard to store food and litter.

I know that the climate here is very different to the UK where most pens have heaters but that realy would not be necessary here.

What are your thoughts on measurements ?
Can you suggest something I may have missed ?
Would I be better covering the whole roof ?
What are your concerns about scratch posts and contamination?

Your coments would be most appreciated.

Only suggestion I have is to limit the amount of wood you are using. I can see using it for the basic frame, but would not have any extra. Any panels, flooring you use should be washable - wood absorbs odors and if the cats spray on the wood - you won't be washing that away!

Don't think waterproofing the wood would be good enough to prevent the urine from getting in there.

I have a pen that has wood panels. The paneling dosen't seem to be a problem (dosen't absorb) but the frame is wood and I'm already seeing how the wood absorbs urine. Luckily it won't be a common problem for me. I have linoleum tiles on the floor and that works great. However if it manages to seep through then it could represent a bigger problem long-term.

One other suggestion based on the above. I would either seal the cracks between the tile VERY well or use one solid piece of linolium so there are no spaces like in tiles.

I was going to use concrete and ceramic tiles as I thought they would be easier to clean.

We have wood framing that is sealed and painted with non-toxic semi gloss paint, before assembly and before the mesh was added. My door is a Vinyl-clad screen door, made for homes. I walk my boy on a leash so he does his spraying while we are out. He hasn't yet sprayed inside his enclosure so I don't know if painting the wood to seal it keeps urine from soaking in. Where we have solid wall we bought a finished paneling that is a white washable surface and we used a silicone type calking to seal all the seams to prevent anything from running underneath. We are in a changable climate so this is an indoor studroom with windows. We also have a concrete floor that is sealed with an epoxy paint.