Are Cat Trees Worth It?

[PinkFrogss]

We’ll be bringing a cat home in the next week or two, so starting to shop for everything we’d need. I love the idea of a cat tree and always thought they were so cute, but all the ones I like are quite expensive when we’re already buying everything else as well.

Do most cats like them? Would you recommend getting a smaller cheaper one to start with and seeing if she likes it before upgrading?

Aware I am probably overthinking

Thank you everyone! And yes will try to remember photos! We can’t wait to get her

We got this one - bargain! It did take Ds aged 13 a good long while to put it together, he wanted to do it. My cat loves it!

https://amzn.eu/d/1ZGUnSo

We were given a tall one, it lives downstairs. Cat uses it, mainly the scratch post bits. I bought a shorter one for the bedroom, she likes the circular suspended bad, but also the house part and it gets much more use as she’s in the bedroom a lot more than downstairs. But the fluffy nest bed on my bed is her favourite place in the world and gets kneaded nightly!

We got our first tree off a local selling site, it was brand new as the original owners cat had no interest. Ours loved it so we’ve had a couple since!

Ours like the barrel type rather than the trees -- nice and stable for a full length vertical scratch, and a bed on the top.

I have 2 cats. 1 loves the cat tree and uses all of it. Loves the cup things
The other ignores it

Girlcat used to love the tree, she'd sit or lie on the highest bit and watch the world go by from her throne. Boycat was a real scaredy cat, took him ages to try to get up to even the lowest level, but eventually he decided that the caves were great places for sleeping despite him not fitting - he would have his bum/tail poking out of one side & his head/shoulders out of the other opening, he was a looong cat! Both cats born feral then rescued at 1yo.

Girlcat doesn't seem to bother now her brother is over the rainbow bridge, but her toyboy Tobias loves the higher platform that looks out of the window. He is also well into killing the pompom which is attached to a string hanging from the bottom of the platform, though he does have a tendency to misjudge things & almost fall off now & again. Tobias was a stray from a few months old until nearly 3 as far as we can tell.

We had a cat for 19 years never paid any attention to cat beds, cat trees or anything specifically for her. She used the laundry basket as a scratch post! However, we got 2 ragdoll cross kittens last year & they love their cat tree, & it saved the furniture. One sleeps in the basket but, they play on it a lot. It’s a bit battered now, but will replace. It was £30 off Amazon.
we did utilise boxes too, the kids cut doors, flaps & holes in lots of boxes for them to play.

Thank you again everyone, lots of food for thought. And loving the photos!

You can have the one I got for my rescue cat last year. He's barely touched it and I've tried it in several different places! The normal furniture is enough for him and he prefers to sit on the floor when gazing out of the window.

Ours is three storey but not super high as we didn’t want it to dominate.

Tabby cat (pictured) likes the hammock at the bottom to rest and likes sitting on the top to survey the garden. Her sister likes the little hut and sometimes also the top part. They both like chasing each other up and down it and playing with the pom pom.

Spraying catnip spray on it is a good way to get them interested in it.

We've had a few of various designs, but none of our cats have liked any of them. They prefer to sleep on our beds or laps, or the sofa. Basically anywhere that smells strongly of us.

They have liked those furry beds you can hang off radiators though, and they are big fans of the ones you can stick to windows so they can watch birds.

Yes I have three. …. And six cats. They also love window hammocks and cat tunnels and fluffy blankets, cat beds and my clean laundry.

We have one from the middle of Lidl, it was about £35, the cats love it

Our cat loves hers! We got her as a rescue cat at 18 months, found out she had congenital glaucoma a year later. She is now 3 years old and is completely blind, having had both eyes removed but can still navigate her way around the house no problem and even manages up and down her cat tree independently. She is amazing - I just love her to bits 😻

Impossible to say, our old cat never used his cat tree scratching post thing. Current cat does use the scratching posts and likes the top tier of the cat tree for naps sometimes but never uses the middle tier hidey hole type areas.
I would have a look for a second hand one and see whether your cat takes to it.

When we got our rescue cat, I went all out and bought cat tree, vertical scratching posts, beds, toys…

All ignored bar one catnip toy.

Wait and see, your cat may love climbing and finding high perching spots, if so she/he will probably love a cat tree. If they don’t do much of this then maybe not worth it.

Re scratching- some seem to be vertical scratchers and others horizontal. Ours is definitely horizontal and loves scratching our coir doormats (and carpets sadly). Again, wait and see before you invest heavily

Some kind of cat cave/ hiding place is a good idea for when they first arrive, but this could be a cardboard box with a blanket in… again may not get much use once they feel more secure.

Big hit in my house!

It now looks absolutely ragged though as they’ve destroyed all the scratching posts so I’ve just bought some jute rope to rewrap them!

Definitely worth it, mine all love them.

I needed a really sturdy one with having large breed cats. I had read about Cat Tree King being good for large breeds, but they’re a tad pricey! I then found this which was about a third of the price. The posts are wider than most cat trees, was so impressed with the first one that I ordered a second for the conservatory. Storm (silver and white cat) already weighs a stone at one years old - it doesn’t budge when he hefts himself up to the top level 😹

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Feandrea-Heavy-Duty-Self-Warming-Self-Groomers-Scratching/dp/B0C5QPZ3F6?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1

Posted too soon, meant to add a couple of photos

Our cats love the cat trees, the female cat that didn't have one for the first 5/6 years of her life does enjoy it too, younger boy cats literally live on their trees lol 😂

Have also got a couple of these which they really like as well

https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/scratching_posts/scratch_barrels/194645?activeVariant=194645.1

We have that one too and our cats love it for sleeping in and they actually use the scratch posts too.

For scratching, our cats also really love those corrugated cardboard scratch mats. They are only about £3-4 for the basic ones and well worth it to keep them from scratching the furniture too much.

Just to add, I think there is much more benefit to cat trees for cats who are indoor or where you have more than one cat.