Catnets cat enclosures reviewed

Catnets sells netting over frames rather than timber boxes, and that single difference is why it holds both ends of an argument: the Catnets Quad 3.6m x 3.6m Portable Cat Enclosure at $86.42 per square metre is the cheapest floor area of the 54 priced enclosures compared on this site, and Catnets is the only brand in the category that publishes a real UV test on the material holding the cat in.

Prices and published specifications checked 12 September 2026

The range

Four ranges: Premium, Classic, Lite and Trek, plus a modular tunnel and the Fortress, which is a separate story below. Floor area is computed by this project from the length and depth Catnets publishes, because no seller in this category publishes a floor area.

The Catnets Cat Tunnel at $189 is listed separately because a tunnel is not an enclosure and putting it in a price-per-square-metre table would flatter everything around it. It is 960 by 360 by 360 millimetres, connects to the freestanding frames or to further sections, and is the only Catnets item whose frame coating is published as powder-coated. Warranty is published on 0 of 13 Catnets records and freight on 0: the $10 priority dispatch upgrade Catnets sells is a handling upgrade, not a delivery charge.

The only real UV test in the category

That is the single quantified durability claim in a dataset of 68 products. 12 of the 58 structural units on this site carry any UV figure at all and every one is a Catnets; the only other UV mention anywhere is a roof described as having anti UV properties with no standard, no rating and no test behind it. Read it for what it is. It measures how much strength the netting keeps after accelerated weathering, which is the right question for a material that lives outdoors in Australia. It says nothing about how much sun the net blocks for the cat underneath, and Catnets does not claim it does.

There is still no wind rating, from Catnets or from anyone else. What Catnets gives instead is an instruction: ground pegs are included, and it warns that the Lite Tower 2.3m can tip and should be placed against a wall or pegged down on a hard surface. An instruction is not a rating, and a 2.3 metre tall netted tower in a coastal southerly is still an unrated structure.

Where the money goes

Not on size. The Catnets Classic Single 1.8m and the Premium Portable 1.8m publish the same dimensions and the same weight, and the Premium costs $120 more for a different net attachment: hung inboard of the frame with a stitched webbing ground edge and Velcro tensioning, rather than slid over the top and cable tied at the bottom. Whether that is worth $120 depends on whether you expect to retension it, and Catnets is at least explicit about what you are paying for.

The same logic makes the Premium Portable 1.2m at $459 the most expensive floor in the range at $318.75 per square metre, dearer than the physically larger Lite Portable 2.3m at $355. Frame and net system, not square metres. At the other end, the Catnets Quad 3.6m x 3.6m Portable Cat Enclosure is the cheapest square metre in the country precisely because it is one big net over one big frame: no timber, no roof panel, no nest box. The trade is obvious and worth stating plainly. A net is not a wall, there is nowhere dry inside it unless you add the cover or shade sail Catnets sells separately, and the cheapest enclosed floor in Australia is also the least sheltered.

The Trek Portable 1.78m at $260 is the entry point and the one exception to the steel and aluminium frames: it is UV stabilised PVC, and Catnets states in capitals that a hanging hammock is not suitable on it because of the PVC poles. Read that as a load limit the seller volunteered.

Two findings from Catnets' own listings

1. The Fortress is supported but not sold. The Fortress does not appear in catnets.com.au's own product catalogue: a search of the Catnets store for 'fortress' returns no product, and the enclosure ranges the site itself lists are Premium, Classic, Lite and Trek only. Catnets nonetheless still publishes a Fortress assembly instruction sheet in its help centre, and third-party pet retailers list the model, so it exists and is supported through another channel. Its price is recorded as not published because both retailer pages sat behind a security checkpoint when we tried to read them, and quoting a price we could not open would be inventing one. Its dimensions and its capacity claim come from retailer listing text surfaced in search results rather than from a page we read, and the computed 4.25 m2 inherits that uncertainty. A companion model, the Peak, is named in the same help article and is likewise absent from the catalogue.
2. Catnets' own weights contradict each other. Published weight approx 68kg in the description against a store shipping weight field of 12.1kg for the same item; the seller's two figures disagree. The same pattern appears on the Classic Triple 5.4m. Neither figure is obviously the wrong one, and the difference matters: a 68 kilogram carton and a 12 kilogram carton are not the same freight problem, and freight is the number Catnets does not publish. If you are ordering to a regional address, ask for the shipping weight in writing before you buy.

What netting does not do

Catnets is unusually direct about the limits of its own product, and those limits are the reason this is not automatically the right buy. Kittens of 6 months and under should not be left unattended in one, because of the 19 millimetre mesh squares. The netting is designed for cats only and is not covered for damage caused by dogs or other animals, inside the enclosure or outside it. And a net gives no shelter on its own: the waterproof cover and shade sail are separate purchases on every model.

No Catnets model publishes a warranty period, which is 0 of 13, and no model publishes a freight figure. Against that, the frames assemble without tools, the whole range is portable enough to move or take to a rental, and the netting is the one material in this category with a test result attached.

Who it suits

Someone with the ground for a large footprint who wants the most contained space per dollar, someone who rents and needs to take it with them, and anyone who has already worked out that a timber box with a nest at one end is mostly nest. Someone with a kitten, or who wants the cat to have somewhere dry to sit without buying accessories, should look at the framed and roofed units in the brand comparison instead.

Catnets has no affiliate program. We checked twice, including through its distributor Haverford on the theory that a parent company might run one, and Haverford is wholesale only. So this page earns nothing regardless of what you do next, and the Catnets Quad 3.6m x 3.6m Portable Cat Enclosure is still the cheapest square metre of cat enclosure in Australia.

Common questions

Which Catnets enclosure is the best value?

The Catnets Quad 3.6m x 3.6m Portable Cat Enclosure at $1,120. Its computed 12.96 m2 works out at $86.42 per square metre, which is the cheapest square metre among the 54 priced enclosures compared on this site. It is a large footprint, so it is only good value if you have the yard for a 3.6 metre square. The Trek Portable 1.78m at $260 is the cheapest way into the range.

What is the difference between the Catnets Premium and Classic ranges?

How the net attaches, not the size. The Catnets Classic Single 1.8m and the Premium Portable 1.8m publish identical dimensions and identical weights, and the Premium costs $120 more. On the Classic the one-piece net slides over the frame and is cable tied at the bottom. On the Premium it hangs inboard of the frame with a stitched webbing ground edge and Velcro straps so the tension can be adjusted. Both use the same 19 millimetre square netting.

How long does the netting last in Australian sun?

Catnets is the only seller in this category that answers that with a test rather than an adjective. It publishes a QUV accelerated weathering result: 98 per cent of strength maintained at 3 years equivalent exposure, 96 per cent at 5 years and 93 per cent at 10 years. That is a strength-retention figure for the netting, not a UPF or UV-block rating for shade, which is a different question nobody in this category answers at all. 12 of the 58 structural units on this site carry any UV figure, and every one of them is a Catnets.

Can you still buy the Catnets Fortress?

Not from Catnets directly. The Fortress does not appear in the Catnets catalogue and a search of its own store returns nothing, yet Catnets still publishes a Fortress assembly instruction sheet in its help centre and third-party pet retailers list the model. So it is supported but not sold direct, and its price is recorded here as not published because we would not quote a retailer price we could not open and read. Check a live retailer page in a browser before relying on any figure for it.