My cat castle collapsed after 4 hours, here's what I learned

I built this huge multi-level cat castle out of boxes last weekend. Took me about 3 hours cutting and taping everything together. I was so proud of it, had like 4 levels and a little ramp. My cat loved it for about 4 hours, then I heard this crash from the living room. The whole middle section just buckled under her weight. Turns out I used way too much of that cheap packing tape from the dollar store and not enough actual structural support inside. I had to piece it back together with some extra boxes and those plastic corner guards from an old picture frame. Now I'm wondering if anyone has tried reinforcing the inside with those thin wooden dowels from craft stores? That seems like it would hold better than just relying on tape alone.

2 comments

2 Comments

ellis.victor1d ago

My buddy tried reinforcing his cat castle with dowels like you're thinking, and his cat chewed through them in like a week (go figure). He switched to using PVC pipe scraps from an old project, wrapped them in duct tape so they weren't too slippery, and that thing lasted months. The dowels might work if your cat's not a chewer, but honestly the PVC was way sturdier for him.

blair_green861d ago

Heard someone mention they used bamboo skewers inside the cardboard tubes from wrapping paper and it worked surprisingly well. The cat couldn't chew through them because they were buried inside the box structure and the tape held them in place. Dowels might work but like you said, the cheap tape is the real problem lol.