Cat netting

Netting is the cheap answer most people price first, and on cost per square metre it deserves to be. It is also the term on the way down: "cat netting" is searched about 5,400 times a month in Australia and falling, while "catio" is at 6,600 and has grown roughly 56 per cent over three years of keyword history. The vocabulary is moving faster than the products are, so this page is about the thing rather than the word: mesh fabric stretched over a frame or across an opening, what it costs, and the jobs it does badly.

Prices and specifications checked 12 September 2026

Netting is genuinely cheaper, and here is by how much

Costed per square metre of floor area, netting wins and it is not close. The netted products we could source have a median of $128.13 per square metre against $299.90 for the welded wire, steel panel and timber units. Every figure in that comparison uses a floor area we computed ourselves from each seller's published dimensions, because no Australian seller in this category publishes one.

The pattern inside that table matters as much as the headline. Netting rewards size: the cheapest per square metre is Catnets Quad 3.6m x 3.6m Portable Cat Enclosure at $86.42, the dearest is Catnets Premium Portable Cat Enclosure 1.2m at $318.75, and the difference between them is mostly floor area rather than quality. A big netted box is cheap per square metre because the poles and the net scale better than panels do. A small one is not cheap at all, and at the small end a welded wire unit is often the better buy.

Catnets also sells several sizes twice, as a Classic and a Premium at identical published dimensions. The difference is the net attachment: cable ties over the frame on the cheaper one, a net suspended inboard with a stitched webbing ground edge and Velcro tensioning straps on the dearer. That changes how taut the net stays and how it wears, and it is worth knowing that is what the extra money buys, because the size is not.

Netting it yourself

If the space already exists, a verandah, a pergola, a courtyard or a carport, you are buying mesh and a way to hold it rather than a structure. Bunnings publishes mesh rolls, which we have costed per square metre of mesh so they compare with everything else on the site:

At $7.38 per square metre of mesh the raw material sits an order of magnitude below any finished enclosure, which is the real argument for netting a space you already have. Three cautions the price does not show. The tightest roll is sold as aviary mesh for finches, budgerigars and canaries, not as cat mesh. Its own Bunnings page warns that new galvanised wire mesh used in aviaries and pet cages should be treated to remove excess zinc that could harm pets. And the largest roll publishes no price, so the cheapest way to buy area cannot be costed at all.

What none of it includes is the frame, the fixings, the door and the labour. That comparison, built as a costed timber and mesh build against kit prices, is in the DIY page, and what Bunnings actually stocks is in Bunnings cat enclosures. Bunnings has no affiliate program and pays us nothing, which is worth saying on a page that keeps sending you there.

Almost nobody publishes the two numbers that matter

Mesh aperture is the single most safety-relevant figure in this category, and wire gauge is what tells you whether the mesh will still be there in five years. Coverage across everything we could source:

• Mesh aperture: published by 29 of 68. Fewer than half. The sellers who do publish it are Catnets, Coops and Cages, Omlet, Somerzby and Whites. Publishing nothing at all: Anko (Kmart), Betta Pet Systems, Flyline, Kmart, My Chicken Coop, Samland and Snoozy Pet.
• Mesh gauge: published by 23 of 68, and that figure flatters the market. Only 5 of those records state an actual wire thickness in millimetres. The rest describe the mesh in words, for example "stainless steel reinforced within every mesh square" or "galvanised", with no diameter attached. For most of this market a buyer cannot tell a 0.9 millimetre wire from a 1.4 millimetre wire at the same aperture.

Among finished enclosures the published apertures run from 10 x 10 millimetres on Somerzby Condo Cat Enclosure, the tightest anywhere in our data, out to Omlet's catio panels, which publish two apertures on the one wall: lower half 25 x 75, upper half 50 x 75 millimetres. The chicken wire Bunnings sells by the roll is wider again at 50 millimetres. That is five times the opening inside one category, with nothing on most pages to help you choose between them. Netting sits in the middle: Catnets publishes 19 (square), in millimetres, and Somerzby's netted Manor Catio publishes 20 x 20.

The only real UV test in the category

Netting lives outdoors under Australian sun and the question is how long before it goes brittle. 13 of 68 records carry a UV field at all, and every one of them is the same brand publishing the same test:

That is the only quantified durability claim anywhere in our data, and it is narrower than it first reads: it measures strength retention of the net, not fade, not UV block for shade and not the frame, and an accelerated test indicates ageing rather than guaranteeing years on a roof in Townsville. It is still the only number in this category anyone has put a test behind.

The only other UV mention anywhere in the category is a single PVC roof described as carrying an anti UV treatment, with no standard, no rating and no test behind the phrase, which is why it is not recorded as a UV rating here. Nobody publishes a UPF or a UV block figure for shade, which is a different question again and one that matters if the enclosure is the cat's only outdoor space in summer.

Catnets pays us nothing. It has no affiliate program, which we checked twice and then checked again through its distributor on the theory that a parent company might run one. It does not. We are saying this because it is the best published evidence in the category, not because there is a commission behind it.

Three things netting will not do

1. It will not tell you what it survives in wind. 0 of 68 products publish a wind rating of any kind: no AS/NZS 1170.2, no wind region, no wind speed. Netted enclosures are the lightest things in the category, which makes the gap worse rather than better. The closest to a caveat anywhere is Somerzby telling you to secure the Manor Catio to the ground in windy areas, and Catnets shipping ground pegs and warning that its tallest model can tip.
2. It will not give you a checkable weight. On three Catnets models the weight published in the description and the weight in the store's own shipping field disagree, in one case by roughly eight times. Both figures come from the same seller on the same page. We report it rather than picking the one we prefer.
3. It will not net your fence line at a published price. Not one of the 68 products we sourced is a yard or fence-line netting kit with a published price per metre, span or fixing method. For that you are getting an installer's quote, and the comparable mechanism sold as a product is a fence topper or roller, covered in cat-proof fencing. Some councils will not accept fencing as compliant containment, so check your council's rule first.

When to net and when to buy the framed thing

Net it when the space already exists and is roughly the right shape: a verandah, a courtyard, a carport or a covered pergola encloses for a fraction of a framed run, because the roof and three sides are built and you are buying mesh. Net it when you want area over durability, at around $86.42 per square metre at the large end, which nothing rigid comes near. Net it when it may have to come down again.

Buy the framed enclosure when the unit is small, because the cost advantage disappears below about two square metres. Buy it when you need a tight aperture for a kitten, since the tightest mesh published in our data is welded wire rather than net. Buy it when the thing has to stand in the open with no wall to lean on, when a dog or a fox could reach the outside of it, or when it has to survive a decade rather than a few summers.

If the structure is going to attach to the house so the cat can let itself out, you are building a catio rather than netting a space, and the approval question changes with it: that is set out in catios. For a balcony, where the constraint is drilling and strata approval rather than price, start at balcony cat enclosures. And every unit on the market, netted and framed together, is costed side by side in price per square metre.

Common questions

Is cat netting cheaper than a framed enclosure?

Clearly, and by more than most buyers expect. The netted products we could source have a median cost of $128.13 per square metre of computed floor area, against $299.90 for the welded wire and timber units. The cheapest thing on the whole site per square metre is netted: Catnets Quad 3.6m x 3.6m Portable Cat Enclosure at $86.42 per square metre. Netting is cheap because it is fabric over poles rather than panels you could stand on, which is also the reason it will not last as long.

What size mesh stops a cat getting out?

The published range is wider than the question assumes. Only 29 of 68 products we sourced publish an aperture at all, and among those that do the tightest finished enclosure publishes 10 x 10 millimetres and the widest publishes it in two parts, lower half 25 x 75, upper half 50 x 75, while the chicken wire Bunnings sells by the roll is 50 millimetres. That is roughly five times the opening inside one category. Two sellers publish explicit kitten warnings tied to their own aperture: Omlet says extra mesh or covers may be needed on the upper half for a kitten or very small cat, and Catnets says kittens of six months and under should not be left unattended in its netted enclosures. For an adult cat almost anything on the published list contains it. For a kitten, ask for the number before buying.

How long does cat netting last in the Australian sun?

Only one brand publishes anything you can check. Catnets publishes a QUV accelerated weathering result for its netting: 3 years equivalent outdoor exposure 98% strength maintained (2% loss), 5 years 96% (3.3% loss), 10 years 93% (6.6% loss). This is a netting strength-retention test, not a UPF/UV-block rating. That is a strength-retention figure, not a UV block or UPF rating, and it is the only quantified durability claim in the 68 records we collected. The only other UV mention anywhere is one PVC roof described as "anti UV" with no standard and no test behind it. Catnets does not pay us anything, so this is a finding rather than a recommendation.

Can you net a fence line or a whole back yard?

You can, but nothing published in Australia lets you price it. Not one of the 68 products we could source is a fence-line or yard netting kit with a published price per metre, a published span or a published fixing method. Yard and fence-line netting is sold here as an installed job quoted per site, so the figure you get is a quote rather than a specification. Fence toppers and rollers are a different mechanism for the same problem and some councils will not accept them as compliant containment, which is worth checking before you spend anything.