SmartCat Multi-Level Cat Climber

What I great idea! I thought. A multi-level cat tree that does not take up half of the living room. And the picture of the kitties on it is so cute. Well, hold on before you click on the Buy button. The company needs to tweak this design. The darn thing refuses to lay flat against the door; it bows outward and the unit will actually sway when a cat jumps on it. The spring on the adjustable bracket is noisy and not sturdy enough to do the job. Combine swaying with noise, and guess what? Yeah, the cats act like the tree is a product from Cat He**. We're talking non-stop fluffed tails, ears pinned back and finally, avoidance of the tree at all costs. If you want to take your chances with this, go ahead. But it is really pricey to return, due to its weight. I'd wait until the 1.0 model is available, and pass up the beta that the manufacturer obviously has released.

The unit is easy to assemble. The design flaw most likely occurred in order to make it more compact for shipping and stocking. Rather than a single board center support, the sisal wrapped center is 5 segments. Once assembled, the climber bows, which wouldn't occur if the core was one board rather than segments. Once hung on a door, the slight bow means that the climber isn't flush. Each time a cat jumps onto it, it bumps against the door. I was able to tighten the tension spring on the door mount to minimize this, but then damaged my door trying to get the unit back over it. Hanging would be easier with two people.

Secondly, the platforms are not that large. I have two adult cats weighing 9 and 14 pounds. Both cats looked rather oversized for it. As titled, it is a great concept, but nothing that neither me nor my cats cared for.

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This climber is great if you live in an apartment and want to give your cats a dual scratching-post/climber without sacrificing space. I have two small kittens (11 weeks old) that took to it in no time. We will come home from work and find both of them on the top platform looking down at us. Note: If you have small kittens, you might want to initially help them figure out how to get down from the lower perches before leaving them alone with it it is a little easier to get up than down.

The review critiquing the construction is correct. The unit would benefit from a solid back (after I move, I will be looking into a way to create my own backing for the climber), and the platforms, while large enough for two small kittens to sit on with each other, may be too small for large cats. The climber does sway a bit when the kittens initially jump on it this is not for skittish cats. If you have a cat that would have no issue climbing a tree branch, then they'll have no problem with the climber. Unless you have a very well oiled door, the climber works just as well with an open door as with a closed one.

The actual material (sisal rope) is great for the cats to scratch, although they will not be able to stretch out to their full length to scratch when they get bigger. I would highly recommend the Smart Cat Ultimate Scratching post for that.

Declawed cats may have issues getting up and coming down from the climber, and due to their more precarious situation (missing the last joint of their paws think of it as loosing your finger from the last joint up), may feel more nervous about the non-rigid nature of the climber.

We got it on super-clearance ($65) from a PetSmart, but, if you are concerned about space issues or appearances (it looks great!), the climber would be worth the Amazon price. If you live in a larger home or have larger or older cats, you might want to look into getting a similar priced cat tree instead.

As it is, I couldn't imagine leaving our kittens at home without this climber to help entertain them. We'll keep using the climber for the rest of our cats hopefully very long lives.

We also have the Smart Cat 3835 Bootsie's Bunk Bed and PlayRoom, and can say that Smart Cat makes very nice looking and (generally) sturdy cat furniture.

Update 2/1/10: My cats are larger (about 1 year old and 11 pounds) and they still love to use the climber. Acclimating cats when they are young might be the trick to this thing. Again, if you don't have a lot of space or are planning on moving a bunch (as we did), it is worth the $85 and better than a larger floor climber. If you hold on to the box, it is a cinch to pack up and move, and sturdy enough to toss all your other belongings on top of.

I never did end up putting a backing on the climber. Some cloth wedged behind it prevented most of the noise issues while allowing the climber to easily be packed and moved. Another issue you might have, however, is if the door itself does not tightly close. If this is the case, then when the cats jump on the climber it can make a racket. Again, some cloth padding to create a soft seal on the door took care of that for us, but again, we don't have to open the door often.

Surprisingly the cats are still using it as a scratching post despite my earlier assumption that it would be too short. While their legs hang off of the climber when they are lounging on the steps, it doesn't bother them. One of our cats has taken to leaping straight up to the third platform.

In summary, if you live in a small place and space is important to you, then this climber is definitely worth 4 stars and $85. If, however, your cat is older, declawed, or overweight then buy something else.

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I know there are a few complaints about this product not being sturdy enough for cats jumping on it so I wanted to post this short video of my foster kitty climbing it. She and her sister play fetch and we throw the toy up on the climber, then they scale it like this or climb it from the front like a ladder. We have 8 cats here and all but 2 use it regularly. Granted most of our cats are well under 10 lbs but a couple of them are 12-14 lbs and still climb it.

Ours turned out to be incredibly sturdy. After reading the reviews I took extra time when putting it together each time I attached a new section I went back and tightened the previous sections, then at the end I tightened them all, then had my roommate tighten them after me! Also as another reviewer recommended I kept one of the long pieces of cardboard from the packaging and wedged it between the backing and the door. I'm not sure if that was necessary but I did it anyway. This thing doesn't budge when they climb it, and they will even stay put when we open the door to get something out of the closet. There are no additional bolts or anything securing it to the door.

The ONLY complaint I have is the material each of the landings are covered in. They were torn up within a day or two. I guess that's my fault for putting cat nip on it! It is very cheep material, but the sisal on the backing is good quality and sustaining their scratching. I'll still give it 5 stars because for the price it can't really be beat in terms of the amount of use it gets and the entertainment it provides us watching the cats on it! We've had it for a couple months now and even if it broke tomorrow I'd buy another one.

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Ok so I think we can all agree this is a great idea, however the execution does need a little help. I bought this having already read the bad reviews.. so I was expecting to have to make a few adjustments.

1st there was a broken piece where a connecting corner of a sisal section had broken off/in-half. With some gorilla wood glue and a clamp overnight (atleast 3 hours) it was find.

Next the directions say to hang it with the spring end facing the ceiling... I didn't see that until I'd already hung it with the solid side up. I tried it both ways and having the solid end on the top of the door worked best for my fat kittys.

A lot of other reviewers mentioned the whole thing bowing in the middle quite a bit. I saw this problem immediately upon hanging the climber up. I took it down and retightened all the wing-nuts until I thought they were gonna snap. I also made sure that the metal washer bar was lined up correctly. This helped ALOT but there was still a little bowing when I put it back up. I used some thick ribbon to tie each section around the whole door. This fixed it with out leaving any holes in my door!

After 2 weeks the carpet on the ends of the platforms was starting to fray. I used the same ribbon as before and a hot glue gun to hide/protect the edges of each shelf. It actually looks really nice, and it matches my color scheme :)

Now that I've had my climber up for a few months the cats still love it. I've got an adult female tabby and a young male bengal who are up and down that thing constantly. I would suggest choosing the door you put it on wisely. It does move around a bit and can make some noise doing so. I've got it on a seldom-used closet door and it works perfectly. If you're willing to do a little work it is worth it.

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