I have a herd of cats (10) ranging from 6 lbs to 25 lbs and have used Amarkat’s 80” trees in two rooms for about 8 years now. Just about all of my feline family use them at some point throughout the day because they are in front of the stationary side of sliding glass doors giving them a large window to their forbidden, outside world.
The included instructions have pictures and are fairly easy to follow with all the main parts identified by letters. If I remember correctly, they took about 20 min. each to assemble. Hint: identify and separate all of the parts first and put them in piles/stacks of like parts with the reference letters showing on those that have them.
The lack of padding on the platforms has never been an issue but, as mine have worn, I have used my trusty staple gun to replace the faux fur with remnants of matching, high pile carpet. The worst wear is on the lower sisal posts which can resemble some sort of hairy beast after about a year of abuse by my herd. At first, I rewrapped the posts with new sisal rope which is a lot more labor intensive than you’d think. Then I discovered that Petco sells replacement posts with the same screw-on fittings and at 24”, they fit many of the lower spaces exactly.
The best prices for Amarkat products used to be at Rakuten.com (the old buy.com) but Woot!’s prices are the current lowest I could find other than a couple of questionable ones on eBay. The $400 ones from the pet store may initially be a little more substantial (heavy!) but they won’t appear new and unscathed any amount if time longer than these.
Note: I finally found and removed the neon sign on my roof that said “Dump your unwanted cats/kittens here”!
We have one of these from the last sale - it’s in great shape still, considering.
Ella, our little manx, has been able to tear off a small amount of the ‘covering’ (which is fluffy fleecy soft and not at all like traditional carpet, no staples). It hasn’t seem to have done her any harm. Though I’m not sure what it’s done to her, to deserve such treatment.
But I do say that’s a testament to her love of training - she’s such a natural de-header of the fluffy…ahem…I mean vicious evil killer rabbits that inhabit our surroundings. I really do think the cat tree is a stunning decoy - so lifelike! No wonder she battles it daily.
So, with that in mind, it’s really stood up rather well to her attacks!
Thank you! It almost sounds doable, assuming the letters are in the Roman and not the Cyrillic alphabet.
In exchange for your kind response, may I suggest you also look for and try to remove the invisible sign in cat-language that is on or near your doorstep. It reads “Sucker here”. (I am down to three cats.)
I bought the 68" one from woot a while back (a year? too lazy to go check). I was actually really surprised how easy it was to put together.
The box is really heavy and bulky – people who do not self-identify as “large” and “strong” may need a buddy to get it into the house and to the room you want to put the cat tree in. Once you get the box open it’s mostly smooth sailing.
You’ll definitely want to read the instructions and confirm that you’ve got the correct number of each kind of metal fastener/etc. Not that there were dozens of varieties of screws, but it might be worth it to save an egg carton or suchlike to sort them into before starting the assembly. Each piece of wood is pre-drilled w/ the correctly-sized hole(s), which makes everything pretty easy.
I don’t think I needed any tools that weren’t provided – most of the pieces went together by spinning the vertical legs onto the screw, rather than screwing it into the leg, if that makes sense. A few places used bolts that require an allen wrench, which I think came with the other hardware.
My cats (5 and 10lbs, so on the smaller side) LOVE their cat tree. I put a little pet bed that they never used inside the house (because the inside is not fuzzy, just bare “wood”), and it’s now the little cat’s favorite napping place in the house. They both love sleeping in the top perches, chasing each other up and down, scratching on the sisal and rubbing their faces all over every corner of the thing. Someday I’m going to get around to slicing open the faux fur coverings, sliding some soft foam inside and re-attaching the fur. But that day is not today.
Every so often I’ll notice the top perches wobbling a bit, and I’ll take 5 minutes to tighten all the connections (so keep the allen wrench handy – I taped it to the underside of a perch).
I have one from this company. It is a bit larger but construction is the same. The tools you’ll need are just an Allen wrench that’s included. This is a very simple item to assemble. You’ll do fine and your cat will love it.
We’ve had the bigger version for a couple years. Out two bengals and one savannah love this thing. We’re happy with the quality, and paid a lot more than woot’s price today. It goes together easily, but follow the directions as I remember I had to re-do part of the assembly because in true male tradition, I didn’t read them until I had a problem…LOL!
Woot’s been pretty bad with prices lately, but this seems like an exceptionally good deal…jump on it, so you Kittahs can! They’ll love you for it!
Not too hard until you come to a post that the threads are messed up. At that point YOU WILL NEVER get it put together because the company never sends you the replacement part !! I bought a 58" Cat Tree Condo in May of this year and I’m STILL waiting on replacement pole so I can put it together!
Very easy to put together. It has as many poles, box-houses, and platforms as are shown. Each pole has a bolt that goes with it: a flat one that connects it to a platform/box, or a 2-sided bolt that simply connects 2 pole segments. The box-house parts are fully assembled and finished well. It’s roughly as easy as duplo baby legos to put together. You don’t need any tools (they give you an alan wrench) for the big bolts. You can take off parts you don’t think your cat will use and make it even faster to assemble.
I assembled mine totally different (my kitties don’t like the boxes) and it’s just as sturdy and good looking.
Please don’t buy ANY cat trees of any brand from anyone, unless you are going to find a way to spring tension them to the ceiling. I had one years ago that fell over ON my cat and smashed his internal organs and blinded him. These are so so dangerous.
Also make sure to never go out in a storm, you might get hit by lightning. And don’t drive a car, it might be prone to mechanical failure…I feel for your cat but I can’t help but think there must have been some user error on your part… there is simply no way a cat is going to knock this beast over without help from his human friends (unless your cat is unusually massive 0.o ). Amarkat is a pretty well known (and liked) brand, and cat trees provide great entertainment and snoozing spaces for your kitty.
Honestly, I would use Task Rabbit or another web based site that lets you schedule someone handy for an hour or two. At the price, another 20.00 for assembly is worth the lack of stress! Then it is really easy!
We have 5 or 6 Armarkat trees like these (just snagged another large one) and our 14 or 15 cats (still not sure) love them all regularly. They are used off and on by large and small.