Surely we all know cats that have access to the outdoors or that live in colonies on the street. Now in the winter, especially during rainy days, getting a sheltered place can be complicated for them, but also for those people who worry about leaving them food, in the case of cats that lack caregivers. In this article on our site we are going to explain how to make wooden cat houses and tetrabricks in an economical and simple way, and also by reusing materials. If you know cats that spend the winter outside, read on!
Materials needed to make the wooden cat house
To make a wooden cat house, the first step is to gather the materials. The necessary ones are the following:
- Wood slats: its length depends on the size we want to achieve, since we can calculate the house for one cat or for several or even just to protect the feed. The thickness will be approximately 1 cm, so that the resulting structure is resistant but not excessively heavy so that we can handle it easily. If we are handy with carpentry, we can cut these slats ourselves. If not, we can buy them with the measures we want in a carpentry.
- Tetrabricks: serves any (juice, milk, broth, etc.) of 1 or 2 liters. The amount that we have to save will depend on the size of the house that we want to obtain. We must expect that we will use them open.
- Cutter or scissors large to cut the cartons.
- Nails or thumbtacks to fasten the tetrabricks to the slats. Staples could also be used.
- Hammer, drill or stapler, depending on the fastening method we use to secure the tetrabricks to the battens.
- Duct tape (optional): to reinforce the structure and increase waterproofing.
- Carton (optional): if we want to make the interior more welcoming. We could use other materials.
Steps prior to assembling the house
First we have to cut the tetrabricks To do this, we stretch them, cut the top flap where the opening system goes and we open them to clean them with warm water and soap. Once dry, they are ready to be used in making handmade cat houses. It is indifferent if we put the aluminum part inside or outside. That yes, outside we will get a uniform color and, therefore, more discreet.
On the other hand, we must have the wood ready In principle, for each house we will need four. We can form a square with them or, better, a rectangle, in which case we will need strips of two sizes. If we want to make a large house, we must include another strip in the middle, at least on the side that makes the roof, since it is more than likely that cats will climb on it and, without that strip, the tetrabricks could give way.
Assembly of the wooden house for cats step by step
When we have all the materials gathered, we can proceed to make our wooden cat house, taking into account the following steps:
- Make the wooden frame into a rectangle or square. To do this we must join the slats with nails.
- Afterwards, we have to line the structure with the tetrabricks, which we will fasten to the wood with nails, thumbtacks or staples. The ideal is to make the house the size of the extended tetra brick, since the fewer pieces we put, the more compact the homemade cat house will be.
- We can reinforce the structure and the joints between the tetrabricks using duct tape. This will prevent water or air from entering. We can paste this tape both inside and outside the house.
- On one of the walls we cut the tetra brick to make the door, taking into account the size of the cat and trying to make it as large as possible. as small as possible so that the house remains more protected.
- Inside we can put cardboard to increase the thickness of the floor, as well as some other material that we consider, keeping in mind that it may have to be changed often because it will get wet and cats will scratch it.
- Now we just have to find a good place to put our wooden house for cats.
Notes on handmade cat houses
Although these houses are designed for use outdoors in order to protect cats from the rain and cold, We can also make them for indoors. Of course, for interiors, materials such as fabrics, foam or wicker are more used, since they do not need to be insulated from water, no cat is going to resist getting into a box, so this type of wooden house is an economic option to provide you with an object that will serve to enrich the environment, also made with recycled material.
On the other hand, we can make this kind of wooden cat house in a smaller size to use exclusively for the purpose of protecting food from rain. In this case, it is not necessary for the house to be large enough for the cat to enter, it is only required that it be able to enter its head to eat. In this case, they would also serve as dog food protection, simply by making them a little larger.
