That was the question I had for myself when my cat Tabby got pregnant. My wife came home one day, all excited about how she heard of this breeder who was looking to give away kittens because they are moving soon.
We agreed that it would be nice to have a few cats around the house, but then she mentioned that we should probably get a cat house to shelter the cats when it gets too cold outside.
I told her that I didn’t think building a cat house was possible, but she kept bugging me. That’s when I started to look around the internet for cat houses plans . It turned out that there are many sites with free cat house plans , which is really nice, because I didn’t want to have to spend a lot of money on something that the cats probably won’t use anyway.
How do you build a basic cat shelter?
The cat house plans I found online were very easy to follow, but not all of the plans are the same. The one thing that they all have in common is that they require a few tools and some extra materials for making little modifications here and there. For example, one of the shelters needed some vinyl siding applied on it in order to make an enclosed area for the cats to go in when it gets cold outside.
How do you make a simple cat house out of wood?
There were plans for those as well, but they seemed to be more difficult than the ones I could find online. I went with the simplest cat house plan and it didn’t take me very long at all to put it together. My wife was so excited when she saw what I made for the cats that we decided to build a 2nd one just like that first one. With both cat houses built, we now needed to find where we should place them in our yard . We placed both of them near the garden because Tabby and her family may decide to use them as their new litter box until they can get their own set up once they are old enough to go outside on their own.
These days most people seem to prefer having an enclosed cat house so that the cats can be protected from the elements. This seems like a good idea, but what I learned after building my first project is that they are not very useful when it gets cold outside. The cats just don’t go inside them and we’re forced to bring them in during colder weather because they tend to shiver and get sick if they stay outside for too long in the cold.
But what about the people who want an enclosure?
If you plan on keeping your cat indoors most of the time but you still want to give them some fresh air when it is nice out, consider getting a cheap canopy or an umbrella cover.
You can even make one yourself by measuring how much space there will be between two trees and then going to a hardware store and getting two pieces of pvc pipe that are long enough. The only thing you’ll need to do is cut the PVC pipes in half, place them between the trees and then go buy some netting from the same hardware store that has everything else! You’ll soon have yourself an enclosure that will protect your cat from predators while still letting him enjoy a breath of fresh air in his own backyard.
How much does a DIY cat house cost?
Most people ask how much a cat house costs before they remember to ask if they can even build one themselves. I’ve seen so many cute ideas on Pinterest over the years, but my favorite one was when someone made an entire custom miniature room for their cat .
How do you make a big outdoor cat house?
Not everyone has the time and resources to make something like that. But luckily we found plans for a simple cat house shelter online and I was able to use what we had at home to make it happen. The cost of building both shelters was just $30 because we already owned most of the tools and used some scrap wood lying around the garage. This much cheaper than buying a new cat house, but unfortunately these shelters won’t be much use when winter comes around again.
It would’ve been nice if I could find out ahead of time which materials would work best in the cold, but I’m glad that the cats seem to like their new homes regardless of what they are made out of. As long as they have a roof over their heads, the shelter is good enough for me!
