Cat Wheel part 3

Finished base for the cat wheel

When the wheel was completed we moved on to the base. This turned out to be a bit more tricky than anticipated. We had planned to use the big wheels we purchased, on the package it said that they had bearings but this turned out to not be true. The wheels were only rubber wheels with a metal cylinder going through them, meaning they didn't run smoothly at all. We had to head out specially and buy some 9 cm diameter inline wheels to use in the brackets.

We made a base out of plywood to attach the wheels on and then just used some scrap pieces of wood to secure the wheel brackets. We drew a center line and then placed the brackets 25cm apart from it on each side. How far apart you place the wheels depend on how high you need the wheel to be. With hindsight I think we could have placed them a bit further apart possibly.

From the start we didn't space the wheels properly and the wheel would scrape the brackets slightly and

Wheel on base with fixed inner rings

the wheel would "glide" around in a horizontal direction, in the end it even derailed. To get around this we fixed the two inner rings with the stapling gun at 10cm from each side, leaving a inner part of 10cm where the middle wheel is placed at the center line. It took quite a bit of fiddling to get this part right and depending on your brackets and wheels used, I'm sure it will be some "trial and error" to get the wheel stable. The wheel between the two inner rings will make sure that the movement in the horizontal direction is controlled and limited.
All that was left now was the box!

Wheel in action!

We had to sand down the joints

The Cat's Trapeze - review

Skadi in The Cat's Trapeze

So the trapeze have now been hanging in our apartment for some time and I feel we can now write an honest review about it.

The kittens did not immediately take to it and it did require a few play sessions to get them interested and up all the way to the top. I have read that some cats to not like the fact that the Cat's Trapeze swings and I was a bit worried it would disturb the kittens, but it have not at all. They do not seem to mind one bit that it moves around, maybe it is because they are kittens or maybe we were just lucky.
So did the play sessions work? Yep. The kittens likes to sleep in the Cat's Trapeze when we are away, play in it and climb it. It seem to become the standard cat tree replacement I hoped it to be (since I do not particularly like standard ones).

Da Bird madness - review

Pristine Da Bird!

So we noticed this toy called "Da Bird" whilst watching some "My Cat from Hell", a great show that sometimes rather deserves the name "My humans from hell". The toy is frequently used on the show to activate cats together with Neko Flies different products.
This meant that I poped one down into my online shopping card one day. The toy mimics a bird very accurately when you wave around the very long wand. They cats are supposed to run, jump, catch and ju
st go in to full predator mode when Da Bird fly around in the room. It is indeed very easy to use and does not really require much effort to make it behave like an actual live bird and get your cat going. To get the most out of it you need some space, the wand is pretty long, but the payoff is great and it is surprisingly easy to control.
So what is this Bengalist's verdict of the toy, is it worth the hype?

Well, it lasted... not even a week. 

The Cat's Trapeze finally installed!

The Cat's Trapeze finally installed in
our livingroom!

So today it happened! We finally bolted the Cat's Trapeze bracket to the wall and hung it up!
So far the kittens have been too busy settling in to pay too much attention to it.
It has been a bit of a faff to find a bracket big and sturdy enough to hold it because, this thing is pretty darn heavy actually. We managed to find a bracket on sale that looks nice and works. It sticks out 35cm from the wall and lets the Cat's Trapeze hang completely free. I am not sure if we will stabilize it a bit so it doesn't swing that much since I've heard it can put some cats off using it.
Will get back with a review once it's been hanging for some time! I must say I do like the look of it (especially more than a fun-fur cat tree!!) even though I understand it is not to everyones taste. ;)

Cat Wheel part 2

So with the design ironed out and after many sessions about how to actually go about it, we set out to produce our cat wheel!
If you do not wish to read it all, here is the final result (sort of, my phone died before we bolted the box together completely).

Almost finished kitty wheel!.