Cat enclosure materials and weather register

Every cat enclosure sold in Australia is sold as an outdoor product, and 0 of 68 publish a wind rating. Not a low number. Zero. This register sets out what the sellers do publish about frame, coating, mesh, roof and UV, and is as specific about what they leave out.

Materials and specifications checked 12 September 2026

Why a missing wind rating matters here

AS/NZS 1170.2 is the Australian and New Zealand standard for wind actions on structures, and it divides the country into wind regions. Region A covers most of the southern and inland continent, including Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. Region B covers a coastal strip further north. Regions C and D cover the cyclone-prone north: Cairns, Townsville and Darwin sit in cyclonic country, and the most severe region runs along the north west coast of Western Australia. Those regions are why a carport in Brisbane and a carport in Port Hedland are engineered differently and priced differently.

A cat enclosure is a 1.8m to 2.4m tall panel structure with a large sail area, standing in a back garden, usually unanchored or held by pegs. The same flat-pack is sold on one national product page to a buyer in suburban Melbourne and a buyer in Cairns, with nothing on the page distinguishing the two. That is the gap. It is not that the enclosures are known to fail. It is that no seller has published anything that would let a buyer, an installer or a council officer form a view either way.

The closest anything comes is instruction rather than rating. One seller tells buyers to secure the unit to the ground in windy areas. Another ships ground pegs and warns that its tall, narrow model can tip, so it should be placed against a wall or pegged down on hard surfaces. Both are useful. Neither is a rating, and neither tells you what wind speed the structure is good for.

Mesh aperture is the number that holds a cat

Of everything in this register, mesh aperture is the one a buyer should read first, and only 29 of 68 records publish it, about 43 per cent. Where it is published, the spread is enormous: from 10 x 10 mm at the tightest to 50 mm at the widest, roughly 5 times the gap.

Reproduced exactly as each seller writes it, including the one that publishes a different aperture for the lower and upper halves of the same panel. Sorted by the smallest dimension in the published figure.

Two sellers publish a warning tied to their own aperture, which is more than the rest of the market does. Omlet's FAQ says that because of the mesh size, kittens or very small cats may need extra mesh or covers added to the upper half. Catnets states that kittens of six months and under should not be left unattended in the enclosure for prolonged periods because of the netting square size. A third seller warns that its netting may have imperfections and that hole size may vary slightly. We are not issuing an aperture rule of our own, because nothing in the published data supports one. What the data supports is this: if a seller does not publish an aperture, you cannot tell which of those two extremes you are buying.

Wire gauge, published by fewer still

Wire thickness is published on 23 of 68 records, about 34 per cent, and several of those state only that the netting is reinforced without giving a diameter. At the same aperture a thicker wire is harder to bend and harder to chew through, so for most of the market a buyer cannot distinguish a light wire from a heavy one. Note also that gauge is worth much less than aperture: the heaviest wire found anywhere in this dataset sits on a mesh roll with a 50 mm hole, which is a strong wire around a gap a kitten walks through.

Frame material, and the coating that often is not stated

Frame material is the best-published field here at 67 of 68, though 3 of those records say only that the materials are weather resistant or that the material is not specified, which is a filled field carrying no information. The category divides cleanly into timber, steel and netting over a light frame, and the choice drives both price and what the structure does in weather.

Coating is a different story: only 33 of 68 records publish one, about 49 per cent. One seller states only a colour without naming the process. And exactly one seller in the dataset makes the coating a priced choice, quoting galvanised and powder coated side by side on the same unit.

That is $105 to $205 for the finish, published openly, which is more than any other seller in the category discloses about coatings at all. What nobody publishes anywhere is a corrosion test, a coating thickness or a salt-spray result, so the honest position on galvanised against powder coated is that the published data does not settle it.

Roof, and what is actually included

A roof type of some kind is published on 54 of 68 records. The word covers very different things: a solid asphalt or timber roof over a house section, a pitched roof over a nesting box with an open mesh run beside it, open weld mesh with no cover at all, and netting that forms the roof as part of one continuous net. On 17 records the seller states that a waterproof cover or shade sail is sold separately, so the product as pictured is not the product as priced. Read that line before assuming a unit keeps rain off.

UV: one brand, one test, and it is not the test you might assume

A UV figure appears on 13 of 68 records and every one belongs to Catnets. It is the only quantified durability claim in the dataset.

Two things about that figure, both of which matter. It is a real accelerated weathering test with numbers attached, which puts it alone in this category. And it measures strength retention in the netting after simulated exposure, not how much ultraviolet the netting blocks, so it says nothing about shade for the cat underneath. Nobody in the dataset publishes a UPF or UV-block figure. The only other UV mention anywhere is a roof described as having anti UV treatment, with no standard, no rating and no test named.

The register

All 68 records, including mesh rolls and accessories, each reproduced as the seller publishes it. The last column is the point of the page.

68 records, 59 of them enclosures rather than accessories or mesh sold by the metre. Every cell is the seller's own published wording or "not published". Nothing here is inferred from a product photograph.

What to do with a register full of blanks

Three practical things follow from it. Ask the seller for the mesh aperture in writing before buying if the page does not state it, because it is the number that decides whether the enclosure holds your cat and it is missing from most listings. Assume the structure needs anchoring, because no seller has published a basis for assuming otherwise, and treat the two sellers who at least say to peg the thing down as giving you the most information available rather than admitting a weakness. And if you live north of the tropic, understand that nothing you are being sold has been rated for the conditions you are buying it for.

The cost side of the same set of products is in the price per square metre register, and the space claims, which contradict each other more sharply than anything on this page, are in size and space per cat. If a missing wind rating is what worries you, a built enclosure at least lets you specify the fixings yourself.

Common questions

Are cat enclosures rated for wind or cyclones in Australia?

No. Not one of the 68 products in this dataset publishes a wind rating of any kind: no reference to AS/NZS 1170.2, no wind region, no wind speed, from any seller. AS/NZS 1170.2 divides Australia into wind regions, and the cyclonic regions cover the northern coast, so a flat-pack sold on one page to a buyer in Melbourne and a buyer in Cairns carries no published basis for either. The closest statement found anywhere was one seller telling buyers to secure a unit to the ground in windy areas, which is an instruction rather than a rating.

What mesh size stops a cat getting out?

Sellers do not agree, and most do not say. Only 29 of 68 records publish a mesh aperture at all. Where it is published the range runs from 10 x 10 mm to 50 mm, a factor of about 5. 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 a very small cat, and Catnets says kittens of six months and under should not be left unattended in the enclosure because of the netting square size.

Which cat enclosure brands publish a UV rating?

Catnets only, on 13 of 68 records. The figure published is a QUV accelerated weathering result for netting strength retention, not a UPF or UV-block rating for shade, and those are different questions. The only other UV mention anywhere in the dataset is a roof described as having anti UV treatment, with no standard, no rating and no test behind it.

Is galvanised or powder coated steel better for an outdoor cat enclosure?

The dataset cannot answer that, because only 33 of 68 records publish a coating at all and no seller publishes a corrosion test. What can be reported is the price of the choice: one seller quotes both finishes on the same unit across 6 models, with the powder coated version costing between $105 and $205 more than galvanised.