Beware of cheap cat trees!

[laureen227]

Originally Posted by ryanjay

The walmart trees used to be built much better(got one in 2000) and it lasted till 2003 then bought a new one lasted a few years, went to buy a third and after taking it home i returned it(the carpet was not what a cat would want to scratch-it almsot looked like in/out carpet) I bought a tree off ebay in jan...nice tree and its a lil wobbly but i have quite a few cats trying to kill it lol. I;m guessing its got a few more months left in it tho

RJ

mine is a 'free-standing' armarkat that i bought on eBay. i secured it to the wall using l-brackets, just to be on the safe side - especially with a 14 pounder [Chip] using it now!

 

[cinder]

I generally build my own but recently purchased one at a shelter thrift outlet. It was one of those huge wooden spools that phone/electric company wire comes on, covered with a nice grade of carpet. (obviously homemade as a donation) Unfortunately, the maker used a very short carpet tack to secure it. You could pop them out by just grabbing the carpet and giving it a tug. I pulled them all out and redid it with an air stapler. Now it's beautiful! I called the place where I bought it to warn them simply because I didn't want an animal or kid to get hurt when the tacks popped out. I left the message on their machine and never heard back. I think it ticked them off, but I felt they really needed to know.

 

[goldenkitty45]

That's why its good to check and see WHAT the tree is made of - anything with cardboard is not sturdy (except a very small tree/post - even then it won't last).

We got a medium size solid wood one at Petco for about $80.

Hope you have better luck - you might want to tie the tree at the ceiling if you can.

 

[yobabsyo]

I bought an armarkat on ebay in January and so far no problems, my two kitties love it...

 

[lotsocats]

Here is the cat tree we bought for our cats. It was expensive, but well worth it. Mine is close to 7 feet tall and weighs almost 200 pounds! They had to ship it by train and then by semi to the house because it was too large and too heavy to come by regular methods! But, this tree is so solid that I could even climb on it and it wouldn't tip over. My cats absolutely love it!

 

[gizmocat]

That's certainly a beauty. I got a very well made one for Gizmo that has three 'kitty cups' for about $160.00 not including the shipping. It's sturdy and she loves it. But it's under five feet tall and while it weighs sixty pounds, it's not impossible for me to move!

 

[bella713]

Originally Posted by lotsocats

Here is the cat tree we bought for our cats. It was expensive, but well worth it. Mine is close to 7 feet tall and weighs almost 200 pounds! They had to ship it by train and then by semi to the house because it was too large and too heavy to come by regular methods! But, this tree is so solid that I could even climb on it and it wouldn't tip over. My cats absolutely love it!

We just ordered our 2nd one from that same company we ordered the Big purr hollow cat tree, we haven't gotten it yet, but they said someone has to be there to help take it off the truck! I can't wait to see it!