What types of wall are good for mounting a cat shelf system?

Of all the kinds of walls we are asked about for mounting cat shelving, cat perches, floating shelves and the other types of wall mounted units for cats that we sell, I have yet to come across a type of wall that we cannot assist with. So far the most common kinds of wall are sheetrock, concrete, stone, brick, plaster walls and we have even assisted wit ha corrugated metal wall for mounting our cat furniture onto.

It makes a big difference though whether we send you hardware for a sheetrock wall compared to plaster or brick wall. Each has its own specific mounting hardware. But worse case scenario, if you tell us the wrong wall type, a quick trip to your local home depot or lowes will have you headed in the right direction with the correct type of mounting screws, bolts or anchors.

Typically the screws we send will hold 250lbs per screw, but our units are not tested for those kinds of loads. We usually test our units to hold anywhere from 80lbs to 150lbs depending upon the model you purchase. We want none of your cats to be in danger from using our cat furniture, so it is important we are over cautious with our products.

We have 5 new products we are launching this week if we can find the time to get on top of them due to work load. We have a brand new floating shelf and floating basic catwalk design we are so very close to releasing. You will not be able to see any type of bracket holding this style of shelf up, so we are excited to see the type of response we get from this product.

We have a brand new window perch design, far better than 99% of anything we see out there on the market. But ours is handcrafted and of excellent quality, we are just wrapping up the last minor fixes on this item which should be out later this week.
We are turning out bigcat (4 foot long cat shelf) and our tomcat (our 3 foot long cat shelf) into floor models, so you can place them close to a window sill and have your cats jump up and down as they wish.

Also in the works is a Yin-Yang Cat shelf that will wipe out the buddha cat shelf when it is completed, this will really be a design statement from catwalkforkitty.com when it is ready for showing which may be a few more weeks yet. We have been asked for litter box covers etc. which we will get to, but unless we are asked by the masses to jump on it, we are following the flow of inquires for now.

Be well cat lovers!

How to get your cats to play or to go onto a cat shelf

Are you new to the cat shelf or cat perch world? Have you thought about what type of cat furniture you should buy for your precious kitty, but you are sure they will not even play on such a thing?

We had the very same thoughts and considerations when we designed and built our very first cat wall, and over time with 3 very different types of cats we came to some different conclusions and concepts on how to get the most out of whatever you purchase to entertain your cats.

First off, all three of our cats are so different. One cat is a daredevil, capable of almost inhuman feats of agility and strength, which is easy when you think that Bugsy is not a human at all, but a loving cat. Felicity is an overweight and funny character, she is a bully around food and the only time you see her run like the wind is to:

1. get more food that is being poured out that day or

2. to receive more love and rubbies that you are obviously giving out to the other cats as she can tell by the tone of your voice.

But mostly, if she can do something without having to move, she will (which sounds like me as of late, which my current type 2 diabetes indicates) Rachel, is our youngest and smallest cat who I would say is about 10lb if that. So we have Felicity at 24lbs, Bugsy who is 16lbs and Rachel at about 10lbs. Rachel can be the most thoughtless and dare I say dumbest of the 3 most times as she seems to be most animalistic, but in saying that, she LOVES to have cuddle time with her mum, though if mum is not around, I will do just as well some times.

About our home we have rules, the cats are not allowed on the kitchen counter tops or dining room tables etc., though window sills are fine and we love for them to play, explore and play fetch with just about anything rolled up into a small ball. So when we installed the first set of cat shelving, we had to let them know it more than o.k. to play and climb all over the cat wall shelf units.

We initially did one of the three or all three following things to get our cats accustomed to climbing the wall.

1. we placed their food and water bowls on the shelving and left them for a while, This worked in almost every case, although Rachel was a little intimidated to try climbing the cat shelves at first.

2. Using the cat's favorite treats to tease the cats up also worked.

We also gave each cat lots of their favorite loving when they climbed up. For each of our cats this is very different. Bugsy likes scratches behind the ear, and he will show you just where to scratch by moving his head. You move your fingers, staying in one position, he will move his head where he best requires it. Felicity is a rough hard lover, so some heavy rough scratching, but not for long as she gets a bit too boisterous if you stay too long rubbing her back. and Rachel, likes gentle longer strokes and scratches behind the ears till she looks at you to say "ok, I have had enough."

3. If your cat will allow you to pick her up (2 of our cats will allow this, but not Felicity, no, no, no...) simply place them on top and be calm as you do this, show that all is just fine and that it is allowed. Shower with affection and place a favorite blanket or toy and play with them for a while, before you know it your cats will mostly follow by example from each other, so make it a fun place to be.

Catwalk for kitty is making a complete range of cat furniture for all of your needs, these are stylish and classy, craftsman made designs, made in the USA. We have another 5 products launching in the following week after the next batch of orders that have to be released. If you do not see what you need, simply contact us as we are able to create almost anything you require.

Thanks for reading and if you have any questions or comments, contact us.

What beautiful weather for making cat shelves.

Creating cat shelving has never been so nice as I sit here resting a little while to regain some energy for the rest of my day making our line if cat shelving to pass on to local pet shops and customers alike, I'm blown away just how lovely and warm it is out today. I can't help but be renewed by this gleaming energy from the sun that makes it such a pleasure having the bay door open today. Come on summer! And may there be many more days such as this I'm the near future.


-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Hamburg Turnpike,Bloomingdale,United States

A New Fun Cat Shelf /Perch Model called Baby TomCat

The Baby TomCat was born from the needs of a patient customer of ours Judith S. of L.A. Calinfornia. She had told us the TomCat cat shelf was a little on the big size and she required some about 12" smaller. So we took a look at our TomCat and asked ourselves how could we make this unit smaller and maybe a little more cute.

The regular cat shelf / perch was 36" long and the cut out was large for all cats. So after some playing about, we found a size which we feel is very functional and darn cute too! What is so cool about this unit, is that with rubber feet it is not only a wall mounting unit for cat to play on, it is also the perfect little free standing floor unit cat perch, cat shelf and cat house in one.

 

Measuring 24" long and 12" tall and 12" deep, I can't wait to make more of these for our cats to play on and get your some awesome new footage for youtube.

Thank you Judith!

We entered "Get on the Shelf" contest with Walmart, Help us win!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rQuztLAUAw4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Question about a cat that jumps up on counter top while cook

Help controlling a cat in the kitchen

Question:

Does anyone have any cat training tips? My big boy Franky has just recently started jumping on the stove while I'm trying to cook. We have no doors in the kitchen to shut him out with, and obviously, I'm terrified he's going to burn himself, or me, as I just barely avoided a skillet full of hamburger and grease he sent flying tonight. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated! Thank you!

1 possible Answer:

We firmly say no, click our fingers at the same time, so they associate the click with something they should not do. A water pistol may be good to have at the ready. 2 or 3 times and they will not do it again. If you use a water pistol or squirt bottle, be sure to do it as an immediate response to their action. Do not squirt them 10, 20 seconds later as it has to be clear that they did this, and they get wet as a result. the faster the action and your response is, the better they will associate.Please also make sure everyone is on the same page with this. If you are being good with the training, but other in your family are not, then your efforts could be quickly undone.

Good luck!

Catwalkforkitty.com

Email your other cat related questions here: topcat@catwalkforkitty.com

Cat Perch Creation Moving forward

The cat perch and cat shelf business

is one that has been giving us one heck of a ride this past month. Since we launched the new store at the beginning of March, our ranking with google has slipped as all of the shop items are now on another domain. Everything looks the same more or less on our current site, but the shop pages are actually pointing to a shop hosting service for now. It might be the way to go long term as the shop is just so darn cool, although it has some troublesome limits.

We are trying to get our cat shelf products into amazon and already have them linked to google products to help with search results. We have a steady flow of videos being uploaded to youtube and we have even tried some email blasts to let people know about our cool products. It's easy to pay a dollar for a click for someone to come visit our site, but it's not worth the money right now, so for now we have to settle for good ole hard work.

Because the business is still so young, to balance the creation of the cat perches with the updating of the website, with the sitting down and talking about marketing with Dee, to having the ability to have any kind of personal life is something of a nightmare at this stage. But I believe in Catwalk for kitty and know I have to keep on keeping on.

Pricing of the cat perches is our next big hurdle. We have found that although we can make the cat perches and cat shelves at a lower price, we are unable to sustain the initial growth of the business if we continue to keep the pricing as it currently stands. After looking around at quality products and especially the handcrafted market, we feel we have a perfect price point, then coupled with free shipping, we should make most happy with the new changes coming into affect April 7th.

After some months creating cat perches and cat shelving and seeing exactly all that is involved with the "extra costs" we have a new price which will be higher than our current prices that reflect more sensibly our time, effort, materials and other overheads. We plan to reward heavily next year our best customers as they certainly seem to keep coming back for more.

New products

We are literally chomping at the bit to get a start on some of our news designs we have drawn up. Some of our new cat house designs are plays on very popular designs not yet available in the USA, though our cat perches and shelving, trees and cat furniture in general will be 100% made in the USA with FREE shipping.

We have a modular cat box wall unit available soon in many configurations. We are currently working on a quote for this style for a cat shelter in C.A. I am actually buying the wood tomorrow to create our first full system which the photos will be here shortly.

We have a whole line of "Floating Wall Shelves" in creation, whereby the usually cat stepping shelf units we make and sell will also be made in the floating shelf style.

And a cool new product I can't wait to make is the "Cat Exercise Wheel" where your cat can safely jump up into the wheel and be able to run after a toy or light etc. to help them get their exercise each day. As a designer and inventor I have version of this that will be available this year which will be an exercise wheel for my heaviest cat Felicity who is 24lbs. When she sits she looks like a hovercraft as her skin and fur overlaps her body all around her permitter. I am thinking that we will have a version that will have her run for a timed period each time she wants to eat her food. Nothing like torture, but something just to help her spend some more calories each day. (maybe I should make one for myself as I too have been seeing my own shape becoming more and more unfit!) :)

ALSO, if you own a website and would love to exchange links with a small line of text or so, please contact me so we ca help each other.

Customer Shelving Units Prior to Shipping

Here are some of the latest works of art to leave our workshop, we hope you like. We would love to hear some feedback should you have any. Thank you so much.

A Big thank you to John Carroll for being a great customer, here is his shelving units we created just for his cats.



Another Cat Perch 48" wide with Cat windows and Light cream carpet for a customer.



A beautiful Bird window cat perch 48" long, 12" tall and 12" deep.




3 cat perches together on steps.