Does anyone have any experience with buying anything like these:
We have some at the shelter.
They look very nice and the cats love the little house on the bottom.
But the small branches come out pretty easily and the cats like to chew the leaves off. They also kind of started to droop after a while and the leaves are a pain to clean when they get dusty. The trees are in a room with 90-100 cats running loose, though, so it may be different in a home with just one or two. A billion litterboxes make everything dusty and cats who like to jump down on top of them from above contribute to the droopage and a million other things to do mean there’s just not time to fuss with the stupid cat trees all the time.
But they do look very nice. Much prettier than the beige carpeted ones. If they didn’t cost over a thousand dollars, I’d like to have one in my home. I’d hot-glue the branches in, though, if it were mine.
Thanks, I asked cause my sister wanted my opinion on buying one for her two cats. The cost threw me off, but if they look realistic and nice, and if cats like them, I’ll tell her so. Thanks again.
All right, I’ll ask. Anybody out there have indoor artificial cats? And remember, they don’t grow on trees. 
Why does something like that cost over $1000? Can’t you just make one yourself by buying the standard towers from a pet store and adding some fake plants or real twigs?
$1,299? :eek:
For under $50 you can buy fake indoor trees and someone who is handy with crafts or carpentry could add the little carpeted shelves and what-not pretty inexpensively.
Mind you if I had the money and space to justify one of those, I’d go for it. A tree inside the house might confuse the largest boy dog, though…
Well, the picture sure looks pretty.
But remember… the First Law of Cat Toys states: the more you like it, the less your cat will use it. 
(and that price is just plain nutso----Re-read chiroptera’s post before you spend that kind of money.)
Yeah, it’s just absolutely insane. Maybe they meant to have it on sale for $12.99 and missed a period?
Edit: I just realized it was on Etsy. That explains it. The Chinese could make it for $20, a US carpenter for $60, but put it on Etsy and suddenly it’s not a fake plastic cat tree, it’s a work of art. =/
it’s a real tree.
Love this part.
flees screaming
Just for comparison’s sake, Walmart sells a slightly uglier version for $170 or its deluxe cousin for $280 (with cat swings and cat hammocks!). You could buy both, buy some deluxe real oak branches, a few months of pet food, a new cat, and still come out ahead.
A real tree has real leaves, not synthetic and silk leaves. A real tree typically requires soil and water and appropriate climate and doesn’t usually like animals clawing away at its cambium.
The thing uses real wood – i.e., fallen twigs – with glued-on plastic leaves. Read the description more carefully. The part where it says “real tree” is just a marketing lie.
Thanks I appreciate all your replies, as does my fake sisters fake cat in search of a fake tree. I’ll check out the Wal-mart trees, tho they don’t appear sturdy. I’m thinking maybe buying one and putting cardboard boxes in the branches. Cheap way to find out if the cats like the idea.
The problem is, they won’t let you pay for the fake tree with fake money. 
Check craigslist. People buy these things and their cat doesn’t take to it and you can scoop them up for a steal!
If your cat is going to take to it, she doesn’t need the leaves. That’s just a gimmick.
I think you have the best idea, money-wise and cat-wise. Just hope that the second-hand tree doesn’t come with its own little lion.
Update. The people across the street had a yard sale yesterday and sure enough they had a tree for sale. Got it for 15 bucks (I didn’t haggle), gave it a good cleaning, looks like new. The cats have already claimed it as their own, but the platform I jerry-rigged out of cardboard and baling wire, and the fact that the tree is top heavy, sent one of the cats flying and the tree topped over. I doubt they’ll ever try to climb a tree again, but they are still sleeping under it.
The cats I grew up with always appreciated that, every year when it started getting too cold to go outside, we’d always put a nice climbing tree in the corner of the living room. Even better, we covered it with all sorts of interesting dangly things for them to play with. I don’t think they understood why we always took it down in mid-January, though, before the weather got nice again.
These gals do the same every year, that’s why I placed it where the Christmas tree normally goes. I’ve run out of workable ideas on how to make a platform in the tree for the cats, however.