Homemade Cat Enclosure

An enclosure allows your cat the freedom of the outdoors without fear it will run away or meet with danger. While many commercial pet pens are on the market, an affordable homemade cat enclosure may fit your wallet and needs better. Take the time to plan out your pet's new surroundings, and it can be as simple or as extravagant as you like.

  1. Porch Enclosure

    • Creating a feline enclosure on a porch comes with some advantages, such as built-in shade, support columns and a roof. Purchase nylon mesh from the hardware store. The nylon mesh is flexible enough that the pets will not want to climb it. Avoid screening because they will climb that. Wrap it horizontally from one side of the porch to the other, securing it with large staples to the side of the house and the porch columns. If you need more than one layer to reach from floor to ceiling, use plastic ties to secure the layers together. Staple to ceiling and floor as well.
      This plan can be altered to frame in a door as well.

    Privacy Fence

    • Line the inside of a privacy fence with mesh or chicken wire. Cats are notorious escape artists, so even the smallest openings between boards can lead to an escape. The mesh liner will help prevent this. Measure into the yard the distance you want to fence off. Install posts the height of the fence every few feet. Run chicken wire from the privacy fence around the poles to attach to the privacy fence on the other side. Top the enclosure with more chicken wire, using plastic ties to attach the top to the sides. Cut and fashion a door just big enough for the cats or large enough for you to get in and join them.

    Cat Door Access

    • Install a cat door in the side of the house. Use 2-by-4s to frame an enclosure the size that works for you. Attach it around the cat door. Use small-gauge wire fencing to side in the enclosure, including the top.

    Tips & Hints

    • Provide shade. A tarp over part of the pen will give your pet the option of sunbathing or a shady nap. Another option is to build it under a tree.
      Consider how you plan on cleaning the interior. The cat can fit through a cat door, but you may want to make one side of the cat pen a hinged door complete with latch.
      Consider how the cat enclosure will fit into your landscaping design. Will it look more natural with plants around it as an extension of your garden or as a statuesque treehouse next to the patio?