DIY inexpensive outdoor catio cat enclosure

You can build your own catio for $80 in the USA. It sounds incredibly cheap but of course you have to put the effort in as this is DIY. The video shows you how to do it. You can see that it is quite a small catio. Catios very tremendously in size and they can be as basic or as luxurious as you want them to be. I would classify the one in the video as small but nonetheless very useful.

DIY inexpensive outdoor catio cat enclosure. Screenshot.

For many years, I have considered the catio to be a great compromise between providing a safe environment for your cat while, at the same time, allowing him or her some outside space where they can smell the air and feel the grass under their feet. The added benefit is that it protects wildlife. Attitudes are changing on wildlife conservation and cat predation.

Although, it should be said, that the catio in the video does not have any grass under their feet! I think she could have grown some grass. Update: I just noticed some grass or foliage on the other side of the catio so she has not forgotten about it.

Catio's enhance the life of a cat and in doing so, I argue, that it can change their behaviour for the better. It means they are more able to express their natural behaviours which should result in a better-balanced cat in terms of their emotions. It can reduce stress and we know that stresses can affect health and health affects behaviour.

This is a window box, which in effect is a mini-catio:

Cat window box. A mini-catio. Photo by Catio Spaces.

And this is another mini-catio on the cheap:

Mini-cat preassembled and sold commercially. Photo in public domain.

And here is a pretty one being enjoyed by a cat:

Pretty catio. Photo in public domain with words added.

In the video below, the lady who did the building with a bit of help it seems has a specific reason for building the catio. She wanted her cat to keep distant from another cat when going outside. And that's quite a good reason. A lot of indoor cats are going to see cats allowed outside who are strangers to them encroaching on what they perceive as their territory even though it is outside and beyond their reach.

A catio can create that compromise as it allows the full-time indoor cat to sample the air and be within nature to a certain extent while keeping distant from any other cat who might be hostile.

The biggest advantage obviously is that there is zero danger of a road traffic accident. Road traffic accidents are probably the biggest cause of domestic cat death in many countries. In America, I'm going to guess and say that predation by predators such as coyotes are probably the biggest cause of death to cats allowed outside.

And there is the conservation angle too. This is very important nowadays.

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

This should be a postscript to this article. Many years ago I sent £100 to a man in Pakistan who was rescuing feral cats he said. I wanted him to build an enclosure, a catio, for the cats. He stole the money instead and it rankles with me. His name is: Ahsan Ulhaq. If you get involved with him remember that he cannot be trusted.