Cat Fence help.

MaryK666

Hi all,

I have two rescue cats, both of who are FIV+. Both are neutered, have had all their shots, are healthy and are approx 18mths old.
At the moment they are house cats and seem quite happy as they have the run of the house.
They need to be segregated from the neighbourhood cats for health reasons but I want to be able to share the garden with them if the weather ever improves. I have seen US sites that supply a cat-proof fence which will contain cats to your garden but they seem to be extraordinarily expensive once you include delivery.
I was curious to know if anyone has heard of a supplier here in Ireland that won't charge an arm and a leg for a cat fence and I'd be grateful for any advice on containing them to the garden.
Thanks.

The Sweeper

MaryK, few questions:

How big is your garden?
Is it fenced in its entirety already, and if so, what sort of fence and how tall?

Would you consider a cat run as an alternative?

Do you know anyone with DIY skills?

I have a few solutions, but need a little more information first...

Smilerterry

I was looking for a supplier in Ireland who would do cat proof screens for windows also. we have two indoor cats and as the weather is getting warmer would like to open up the windows. I can see places in the UK and USA, but am just getting fly screens as results in Ireland!

Any recommendations appreciatted.

MaryK666

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

MaryK, few questions:

How big is your garden?
Is it fenced in its entirety already, and if so, what sort of fence and how tall?

Would you consider a cat run as an alternative?

Do you know anyone with DIY skills?

I have a few solutions, but need a little more information first...

Hi MAJD,

Thanks for the quick reply.

In answer to your questions -
The garden's about 57ft long by 17ft wide.
It has concrete post and wood panel insert fencing on both sides and a brick wall at the end which are approx 6ft tall.
I really don't want to put in a cat run as I'd prefer to share the garden with them since they're both real people-cats and love to play with us.
Both myself and my partner are both reasonably ok at DIY - though he reckons he's better :rolleyes:

I actually want to leave the bottom 15 - 17ft of the garden free for planting veggies and other things and we have the shed down there so we'd be looking at something the width of the garden - 17ft - by about 40 ft long which would be freestanding at one end and have some form of doorway for access to the shed/planted area in that side. I've seen something similar on the US websites but it's way too expensive

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Blueprint

I can't help with the fence, but Zooplus do cat netting for windows etc: http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/cats/cat_flaps_nets/cat_nets

beaushalloe

a boardsie on the waterford fourm (theirishmob) has jsut put up this fencing in his garden he is hoping to open a cat sancutary in the future, if you do a seacrh then pm him he may have some info for ya!

The Sweeper

A cat-proof fence is best at around 6ft tall, with an inclining top that comes in at a 45 degree angle. Cats won't dig, but they will squeeze under gaps in a fence and will climb most fences or walls.

To block your garden off, you'll need to block any gaps at the bottom of your panel fence - you can do that either by using a row of old house bricks, for instance, or some sleepers, or just some chicken wire or plastic-coated garden wire that you partially bury in the ground and then tack to the base of the fence panels.

You can cat-proof a six foot fence by putting inclined netting at the top. You fix angled brackets (either bent to 45 degrees so they incline from the top and are visible from the outside of the wall, or bent to 90 degrees so they incline inwards level with the top of the wall) to your existing concrete fence posts and to your brick wall, and then fix flimsy netting across the tops of the brackets. To work, the netting needs to protrude into your garden by around one foot on a 90 degree pole, or possibly 18 inches if you're going to have a 45 degree bend.

The purpose of the netting is to be offputting - it needs to feel to the cat as though it won't hold their weight, so that if they can run up a 6ft wall, they can't get past the overhanging netting. (Better to use something flimsy with small holes so it makes them very unsure of themselves if they do try to hang out of it.)

As your cats have FIV, it's important to ensure that no neighbourhood cat gets into your garden and then can't get out again. Subsequently I'd go for fencing off the entire garden perimeter with 45 degree angled brackets and loose netting.

In terms of what you use as brackets, this is where the DIY element comes in. You'll need a drill with a masonry bit to fix the brackets to the garden posts. Ask your hardware store for suitable fixers - they'll direct you towards a bolt, possibly with a washer that sits between the bracket and the wall.

The brackets themselves - you can buy metal poles of various varieties at most hardware stores, and use a hacksaw to cut them down, or alternatively find someone who produces metal gates - they may be able to make you a set of brackets. You want something that you can drive a bolt through in two places - the base of the bracket and just under the angle - those two bolts will hold it to the fence post. Then you want a hole through the other end of the bracket , because if you can thread a thick piece of wire through holes in the brackets , that gives you a firm structure to attach netting to.

Picture the sort of inclined nets you have at the top of some sports grounds to stop balls going over the fence - that's the sort of effect you want to achieve. You can paint the brackets once they're attached to your fence posts with the same paint you'd use on an exterior metal gate, for instance.

It's a good bit of work, but when you do it once you won't do it again. There are some very simple anti-cat fence designs out there, including an ornamental fence-topping that's made up of three loose poles that will spin if stepped on, but I'd be worried they'd tumble a cat into your garden, or one of your cats out of your garden.

Once you've fenced off your whole garden, then you can look at keeping the cats out of your vegetable patch - you might not need such a dramatic solution to keep them out of there once they're garden-bound.

MaryK666

Thanks MAJD, that's a real help. We'll be off out to the hardware shops at the weekend to source materials and see what we can come up with.

Thanks to everyone else for the tips too. It'll be great to be able to let the cats out to run around and play and not have to feel guilty for keeping them locked inside while we chill out in the garden.

The Sweeper

Let me know how you get on - we have colorbond fences here, that's a six foot tall solid panel of enamelled steel fencing, hung off enamelled steel posts. One of my neighbours has two outrageously overweight british short hairs that she can keep restricted to her garden just through the use of that fence - it's a smooth facing surface and they're too unfit to run up it. She was suggesting I do the same - so I smiled and nodded, while behind me my big tabby and my two juvenile bengal crosses were rubbing their paws together and humming the tune to 'born free'.

I wanted to do the inclined netting thing on my own garden, but it's about 45 metres in length and 23.5 metres wide, and that's a lot of netting, plus Id' be trying to attach brackets to steel posts (again, probably using a drill bit designed for metal and a bolt and washer system - but my neighbours may well freak if I start drilling our communal dividing steel fence, so I'm probably looking more at a cat run).

The other thing you can do is google 'cat run designs' - there is a LOT of information on the web about cat-proofing your garden, with designs and pictures, and most of that is work carried out by home DIY-ers as opposed to people buying ready-built cat fences. People use things like trellis to bring wall height up to nine feet, and clear perspex to prevent cats from getting over gates, but at the same time the clear perspex is less of an eyesore on street-facing walls.

biko

You can also look into the PVC solution http://www.kittyklips.com/details.htm
Cats can't get a hold on plastic and will not get past (at least that's the plan)

MaryK666

Magnus, is that your fence - the first one? It looks just like what I need. If it is your garden and it's a DIY job, please let me know how you did it.

Thanks.

biko

Hi, no that's just some pic from google.

I would try the plastic solution first, cheaper and easier than setting up poles and netting. Just cut PVC pipe and put over fence top.

More net fence, seems easy to set up http://www.purrfectfence.com/ although this would allow cats to get in. Lose netting is probably better as said above.

MaryK666

Hi Magnus,

The pipe system would probably be a cheaper and easier option but I'm not convinced that it would contain Genie who can do somersaults of Olga Corbutt complexity :rolleyes:
My other concern would be that if it did work, there'd be nothing to stop other cats jumping into our garden and then not being able to get out again. And with FIV, I don't want to risk my cats having an unnecessery confrontation with other cats and possibly spreading the disease or getting injured and picking up infections. I know I sound like an over-protective mother but I've done a huge amount of research on the disease and know that, without access to certain drugs that are not available in this country, the best way to keep my babies health is to keep them away from any and all other cats.

I still think that the netting is the best way forward and I've had a look at purrfectfence.co.uk but they're out of stock until April. I like the idea of being able to retro-fit the fence rather than installing a completely new system, plus the advantage of the retro-fit system being cheaper. It looks like I'll have to place an order with them now and hope for the best with delivery dates. Anyway, with the weather being a mouldy as it is today, I can't see either them or us wanting to spend any time in the garden without wearing thermals.

lubie76

For anyone who may be interested I just emailed http://www.purrfectfence.co.uk site who said that if you give details of what you are looking for they can give you a quote and can ship an order from their UK warehouse to Ireland. Contact details on their website.

audreyp

Hi All,

I'm considering this for my cats. I like the solution where the netting is put on top of the wooden fence. We have a wooden fence but they can get up that. Has anyone done this?

If so did you get someone in to do it? We are totally clueless when it comes to DIY. Painting is about all I can manage! Can someone point me in the right direction for people who can do this and costs associated?

Most of the sites in google are coming up with UK and US sites.

Thanks in advance.

MaryK666

Hi Audrey,
I was the original poster as I was looking for a solution to allow my furbies to share the garden with us.

Almost two and a half years later I can report that the fence we got ( from www.purrfectfence.co.uk ) back then is still going strong and still containing the furbies.

We still have our original two cats and got two rescue kittens back in October of last year who are maturing into beautiful, lovable cats and all four of them now enjoy the run of the garden.
Despite initial attempts (and failure) to scale the fence, all four have figured out that it's a pointless exercise and don't bother even trying anymore.
And it keeps the neighbouthood cats out of our garden.

We got the package of spring-loaded arms that you attach to your existing fence and the netting to go with it. It was relatively simple to put up and took about 2-3 hours between myself and OH. We decided to fence in the entire garden which worked out easier as it just fixed to the walls and fence panels all the way round.
The spring-loaded arms just screw onto wooden fence panels but you will need to drill holes and get special rawl plugs if you need to fit them onto brick or concrete. Still - even for a DIY beginner, it's really not a difficult job.
We used a wooden baton screwed into the stone wall at the end of the garden to fix the end of the netting and stapled it to the fence panels on both sides and I can confirm that it really is escape-proof.
It wasn't exactly cheap but you get what you pay for and it does exactly what it says on the tin.

It means that we can have peace of mind when we let the furbies out to play in the garden and I can see us getting another 10-15 plus years out of it before the netting might need to be replaced, and only then because it may deteriorate due to the weather.

audreyp

We have a wooden fence so should be fine. Sounds do-able. This is probably a silly question but I had a look at the site and i'm not sure what I need to buy? Did you get the product with the netting attached to bars on the top of the wooden fence? Can you buy online or was it done over the phone? I can't see how to buy it. Did you just measure the perimeter of your garden and order just enough. Does everything you need to install come with it?

Thanks so much for your reply!

MaryK666

It's easy to order off their website Audrey but if you have any questions, send them off a mail.
I found them to be very helpful when I contacted them. I ordered the standard extension kit that's attached to my original fence but I need a few extra 'arms' as I had to go around the roof of the shed too (meaning more corners) so I sent them off a mail to ask if this was possible.
They got back to me almost straight away and I got exactly what I needed without having to buy two kits.

The kit just comes with the arms, the netting and the cable ties - from what I remember - so you'd have to get the fixings yourself from a hardware store. Just remember that you'll need something like decking screws that are not going to rust and fall apart after a year. Best to take one of the arms with you to make sure that you have the right size screws.

If you just want the standard kit, you can just add it to your basket from the description page and then pay with your credit card. I think I had to wait a few weeks for mine as they were waiting on stock to arrive in the UK warehouse but I can honestly say that it's been the best investment I've made both for the furbies and for ourselves as we now get to all hang out together in the garden on the one fine day we get every year

And despite initial attempts, my lot have given up trying to escape as they know it's not going to happen so I can let them out without worrying about them.

audreyp

Thanks very much, I emailed them and they were very helpful. You have just reminded me about the shed, would have completely forgot that.

Thanks for your advice!

audreyp

We are actually getting around to doing this now. We have looked into www.purrfectfence.co.uk and we will go with them if we have to but when googling we found: http://www.katzecure.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=33&Itemid=41 Has anyone used Katzecure. Looks like such a neat solution. We are worried about neighbours complaining if we install the purrfect fence so if we can avoid that style of solution I will.

Thanks in advance!

MaryK666

Hi Audrey,

The katzecure double-pole system looks great and I'm sure it'd work a treat without being too obvious. I guess it'd depend on the size of your garden as to how expensive it would be but it looks relatively easy to do a DIY install.

The purrfectfence system is a lot more obvious but your neighbours should have no reason to complain as it's on your side of the fence and in your own garden. If you put it slightly below the top of the fence, it shouldn't be visible over the top on the other side. We put ours at the very top of our fence as my OH is very tall and there was a danger of him losing an eye on the supports if they were lower down but they're still not in my neighbours eyeline.

Whatever you eventually decide, it'd be great to see the pics when you're finished and I hope you get it sorted out so your cats can get out and enjoy the garden.

Animals

Hi there,
Does anyone know if these net fences trap birds? or cause problems for them?
many thanks

MaryK666

Hi Animals,

Our purrfect fence has been up just over three years now and we've never had an issue with it trapping birds.
The netting is relatively heavy and dark and easily visible and we haven't had any birds fly into it despite there being lots of birds in the area. There's a large amount of open space in the garden but we don't have many bird-friendly plants or anything to encourage them. We occasionally get some birds fly in after heavy rain to pick up what I assume to be worms from the grass but have never had an incident of a birds either flying into or getting trapped in the fence. If I thought it was a danger, it wouldn't still be there and we'd have found a generally safer alternative.
We do have a bird feeder for the wild birds but we keep it in the tree in the front garden so our (now five in total) monsters dont mistake the hungry birdies for dinner.

I have found, however, that the netting makes a lovely home for spiders who's webs catch hundreds of midges and greenfly and keep our roses happy.
Still delighted though, with the cat fence, after so long as it still looks great and is still doing it's job.

Animals

Thanks that is good news.
I have a fence that is 5ft tall do you know does it need to be higher?
Many thanks

The Sweeper

Hey Animals - I would say it likely would need to be higher, but you may be able to achieve extra height with the netting rather than having to put a topper around the fence. (Virtually all cats can run up a five foot fence. The extra foot can separate the more determined cats from those who were just chancing their paws, and a six foot fence plus a topping system can keep in all but the most determined cats.)

I moved house since this thread started, and have tried a variety of fence toppers for my cats. I ended up using a combination of spinning paddles and loose bird wire (like chicken wire only finer mesh) strung along the top of a bunch of shelf brackets (bought very cheaply). It's not attractive, but this is a rental and I'm surrounded by dogs and front onto a pretty busy road. It works, which is all I was really worried about.

MaryK666

I'm with The Sweeper on this. Our fence panels are just shy of 6ft high and we have the metal arms attached almost to the top of the fence panels. Including the arms and netting, the total height is about 7ft in total.

We have a couple of crazy climbers who can climb a concrete wall up to the netting and still hang onto the wall without falling off but they haven't managed to make it any further than the netting.

Most cats can make 5ft easily from a standing jump so I'd add another foot, minimum, to be on the safe side and the overhang of the netting should do the rest of the work containing them.

If you leave it with me for a day, I'll get a pic of our fence set-up and post it on here for you to have a look and see what you think.

carol11

Just reading all your comments there ....I have a predicament with my two cats, my neighbour who likes to cause trouble for us has a phobia of cats , so for last year I have cats indoors on a evening and out in a pen through day, trouble is they are fed up! they want to be out we live in the country and they would have a great time out but I know they will also attempt to go in his garden given the chance and like to sneak into windows of houses ! My last neighbour thought it was hilarious and didn't mind at all! ANYONE got any advice as I really don't want to get rid of cats as I have had them 5 years- the house we are n a year now , its getting to me keeping them in!

Shannonb

If you want other cats out of your yard, then put pipes on the outside too, You can paint them to look nice and you have secured both, yours and other cats. The fencing works fine, but I have no experience with the pipes