Cats need places to climb at home. They love being up high, watching the world, feeling safe and do it for fun.

This is especially important as we all start living in spaces that are getting smaller and smaller.

I have a confession to make. I knew this.

But the climbing space we provided our kitties was pretty dire. We bought a multi layer cat tree when they were kittens and it was perfect then. And they loved it.

But over the last 2 years, it’s fallen into disrepair and started to resemble the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

And on top of that, our cats, Lumos & Noxie, have grown. They no longer fit on that top-level together. And it doesn’t even hold both their weight!

So we started investigating how to add more climbing spaces in our tiny 2 bedroom apartment. We wanted to transform our cats’ climbing spaces.

Criteria for our cats’ climbing space

When we choose our first cat tree, we guessed (and researched) what Lumos & Noxie would like. But this time around, we had lived with our kitties for 2 years, learnt about their personalities and knew what kind of climbing space we were happy to have in our apartment.

Creating this list really helped us decide what would work for us.

What the cat climbing space had to have:

• The highest spot or level had to have the option of holding 2 cats

• Ideally, there would be 2 of these levels so that Lumos and Noxie could both be at the top but still have their own personal space

• The highest levels needed to be high, but not so high that we wouldn’t be able to reach

• We needed to have a hammock, as Lumos & Noxie love hammocks

• Be aesthetically pleasing and match with the décor of our home (which is neutral themed with accents of blue)

• Have a small footprint, so that it would fit in our tiny 2 bedroom apartment

• Have an option for the kitties to use as a scratching pole

• Be economical

Assessing the options

Cat trees

The obvious solution is to get another cat tree. There are some awesome options on the market.

But the ones that had high platforms that would allow both Lumos & Noxie to sit right at the top were way too big. They wouldn’t fit anywhere in our apartment, or they would look so out of place and would take up half our living room.

Often they were made from cheap materials that made us think that they would result in another Leaning Tower of Pisa Scratching Post in 2 years’ time.

Cat walls

Lucky for us, we own the apartment we live in and are able to drill into our walls.

BUT despite being engineers by trade, we’re not very handy with electrical drills and this has held us off from creating a cat wall.

However, as we did more and more research it became clear that a cat wall is the easiest way to build a climbing space in an apartment.

You don’t need a footprint to place it, because it literally goes on your walls. We could even choose exactly what height to place all the levels.

Our biggest concern was finding one that would be easy to assemble. We didn’t want to drill holes into our walls only to find out we did it wrong. And we wanted it relatively fool-proof.

Sure, we could go to Ikea and get some shelves and put these up. But how do we make sure they are comfortable for Lumos and Noxie? How do we make sure our cats can get up safely?

After doing some research we came across the Catipilla cat walls.

What caught our eye about the Catipilla cat walls

The Catipilla cat wall has been created for cats, have “steps” for your cats to climb up and shelves and hammock and even scratching posts.

So straight away I knew that they ticked a few of our requirements. Has a clear way for our kitties to climb, tick. Has a hammock, tick. Has a scratching post, tick.

But we were still concerned about how easy they are to assemble. The great thing is that Catipilla have this assembly video and it showed us that they are.

This really looked like something we can actually set up.

The wall comes in modules and you can mix and match based on your cat, your wall and your preferences.

There are steps (which are called resting points), hammocks, high plates, scratchers.

The hammock and the high plate cushion even come in multiple colours so you can pick what matches your home. We also really liked that the wall was in neutral colours – no out there pink or purple.

Our Catipilla wall

After speaking to the Catipilla team they suggested that we go with the Starter Bundle, which has 2 steps/resting points and a high plate. We also added in a hammock and a scratcher.

Setting up the Catipilla wall

I’ll mention the obvious – yes the boxes that the Catipilla wall come in are big. So much so that several people at our post office offered to help me with them. But what surprised all of us was how light they were. I could carry our whole set to the car by myself.

All the gear come with clear instructions, and I recommend reading the instructions for all your parts before assembly. You would think that 2 engineers would do this, but we jumped right in and didn’t read the instructions – and we made a few mistakes!

The main climbing wall

This is what our main Catipilla wall looks like after it is all set up.

We decided this wall space as it is near our windows – so that the kitties can watch the world from their hammock or high plate.

We also choose a wall in our living/dining room as this is the one place where we spend the most time as a family. It also is where we entertain and the wall gives our cats a location to watch our guests while being up high.

Our wall space is limited, so we set the wall in between a feature of our university degrees and a canvas of a family photo. The other option was above our TV, but we were worried about the cats jumping/falling on the TV. Our couch is underneath the current climbing wall, which is safer than having the TV underneath it.

The scratcher

Initially, we planned to include the scratcher as a part of the main climbing wall.

But we quickly realised that we have another area in our house, where the cats are scratching up the carpet – in the bend on our stairs. This is where they normally first see us in the morning, and as a part of their good morning routine, they scratch the carpet.

So that’s exactly where we have placed the scratcher.

Yes it may look awkward to some, but it has been working really well.

Do our cats use the Catipilla cat wall?

YES

I was a little worried that our cats wouldn’t use the wall and had a plan to use a combination of clicker training and play to encourage them.

But within hours, Noxie was climbing to the high plate by herself.

At first Noxie, was a little hesitant to use the hammock. But once we started throwing toys into the hammock she rushed up there. This has now become a game we play every night.

Lumos is not as confident at climbing as Noxie, and it did take him a few days to understand the concept. He wanted to be up high but took a while to learn how to get there. Lucky for us he learns a bit by following Noxie, but we also used his Cat School target stick & clicker training to show him the basics.

And soon, he was up there like a pro.

For a while, the kitties would mainly play up on the wall, but now they will sleep up there too.

What about the Catipilla cat scratcher?

We focused a lot on training the kitties to use the cat wall, that it took a few weeks for them to use the cat scratcher.

We used wand toys to encourage them to climb the scratcher and they quickly realised what it was for.

And we’re glad because they’ve stopped scratching the carpet and now focus on the scratcher.

We’ve also created a new game where we place a toy on top of the scratcher and they climb up to grab the toy. They also use the scratcher as a part of their zoomies routine, it’s proven to be a good piece of cat furniture to climb and jump-off.

The verdict – do we recommend the Catipilla cat walls?

Yes!

Mainly because our cats actually use their cat wall. There was a part of me which wondered if they would. But seeing how much Lumos and Noxie love it, how happy they are to be on it, and how comfortable they are on it has really made us wonder why we didn’t set it up earlier!

It also really helped that the wall was easy to set up. Once we started reading and following the easy instructions, it made our life a lot easier.

The biggest lesson we learned recently is to remember to look up when we’re looking for our cats. We have spent a lot of time running around the house looking for Noxie, only to realise 15 minutes later that she’s sneakily watching us from the cat wall.

You can check out the Catipilla wall here: https://www.catipilla.com/products

We have:

• A Catipilla Starter Bundle

• A Catipilla Scratcher

• A Catipilla Hammock

Hasara Lay is the founder & CEO of Catexplorer. She is also Mummy to 2 rescue cats, Lumos & Noxie. She also co-hosts the Catexplorer Podcast. Hasara & her husband, Daniel, spend their weekend taking Lumos & Noxie hiking, to brunch and other types of catexploring.

Some of the items mentioned in this post were gifted. The opinions and experiences highlighted here are true.