How to Make Kitty Playpens

Kittens are small, lively and inquisitive so allowing them to run freely around your home could result in them getting a bit lost. A practical solution is to house them in a playpen. The enclosure provides a safe, restricted area for your kittens to roam around in when you are not able to look after them. It can be made from some simple DIY materials available in a hardware store. You'll need a couple of hours to build it and having a helper on stand-by will be useful.

Things You'll Need

  • Measuring tape
  • Strong 1-inch metal mesh
  • Wooden poles
  • Plywood sheeting
  • Saw
  • Cable ties
  • Carpet
  • Cardboard tubes
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Instructions

    • 1

      Assess how much space you have free to build the playpen. Take measurements of the area using a measuring tape. Essentially the playpen will be a large square cage with a shelf so you need to know the width and height of the area available.

    • 2

      Cut all the materials to size for the cage following the dimensions you measured earlier. Measure five square pieces of metal mesh, plus another for the roof. Cut four wooden poles with a 0.5 inch diameter to the height desired. The plywood shelf has the same dimensions as the playpen's roof, but cut a quarter of the square out so that the kitten can jump up and down it, inside the pen.

    • 3

      Start constructing the kitty playpen. Lie one of the wooden poles flat on the floor and then attach it to the edge of one of the metal squares with cable ties. Feed each cable ties through a square of the metal mesh and pull it tightly so it does not slip down. Attach another wooden pole to the opposite side of the metal square. The two poles are now parallel.

    • 4

      Connect a second metal square to the first metal square using cable ties. Attach it at a right angle to create a corner. Repeat the same method to build a large metal square, making sure to connect each corner with another wooden pole to strengthen it.

    • 5

      Affix the floor of the cage. Place the last square of metal mesh at the base of the cage constructed during step four. Hold it in place with cable ties. Then, flip the cage over so it is resting on the floor.

    • 6

      Nail a 3-inch by 1-inch rectangle of wood onto a corner of the shelf. Then, add another rectangle to an adjacent corner. Each wooden tab protrudes by 2 inches from the plywood shelf. These act as blocks to hold the shelf up and stop it from slipping down inside the playpen.

    • 7

      Position the plywood shelf halfway up the metal cage. Lift it up to insert the wooden tabs between the squares of the metal mesh. Then, ask your helper to hold the shelf horizontal. Nail two more wooden tabs onto the other two corners of the shelf while it is in this position.

    • 8

      Line the floor and shelf of the playpen with carpet for the comfort of the kittens. Then, place cardboard tubes around the playpen so that the kitten can run through them. Use tubes with at least a diameter of three or four inches for smaller kittens.

    • 9

      Add the roof to the playpen. Attach one side with cable ties, and leave all the other edges untied so that it acts as a door. Once the kittens are placed inside. Hold the roof door in place by securing the side opposite to the hinge with a piece of string. You can undo and redo this to access the cage.