How To Clean a Cat Tree

Did you know cat scratch disease is a disease caused by bacteria? This is common in young cats. Thus, you need to perform proper cat tree cleaning to ensure the good health of your cat and your family members too.

Here’s a guide to help you learn how to clean a cat tree.

How To Clean A Cat Tree

Here is a list of different approaches to cleaning a cat tree.

Method 1: Traditional Cleaning Of The Cat Tree

About 35% of pet owners belonging to the millennials category spend a large part of their income on pet toys. One such pet toy that is hard to ignore is a cat tree. A cat tree serves as a favorite spot for every cat. A cat tree with a high rest and a tiny bed becomes a perfect hideout for your cat. 

However, you will spot scratch marks, strains, and excessive hair on the cat tree with regular playing. In such cases, it becomes vital to keep your cat tree clean. This prevents foul odors and excessive hair in your home. So, the good health of you and your cat must be your motivation to clean the cat tree. 

If you look at it this way, it becomes easier for you to approach cleaning the cat tree once every week. In this first method of cleaning the cat tree, you will grasp the traditional cleaning approach.

Things You Need

• Vacuum cleaner 
• Scrub brush (the one that you use for scrubbing the floor)
• Comb

Step #1: Brushing

In the first step, all you need to do is take the cat tree to an open space like a clean concrete, and start brushing it using a scrub brush.

However, the owners having a cat tree more than nine feet tall can make it lean on the wall. This will offer a more comfortable way to clean the cat’s hair. Don’t get worried about the wall getting damaged. The soft faux material used in the cat tree won’t let your wall get messed up.

Find every carpeted area in the cat tree and brush it precisely. Make sure you go over the scratching posts, sides, and the base of the cat tree with the brush.  Don’t forget to focus on the corners and the rest-on. These are the spots where most fur gets accumulated.

You want to be cleaning the tree with a smooth back and forth motion to get rid of the fur. When you find that the brush is full of hair, use the comb to remove the fur from the brush.

Step #2: Vacuum Cleaning

The second step involves the vacuum cleaner. Most of the households do have vacuum cleaners as an essential household material. If you don’t have one, you can also get a smaller carpet cleaner dedicated to cleaning after your cat. This will also work effectively to pull out the dirt.

Grab the vacuum, check for droppings and clean all the carpeted areas that you find. It includes the sides, the base, the rest-on, and the scratch post. Don’t forget about the top platforms as well. Go inside the cat condos to pull out all the dirt and fur.

One of the inevitable reasons to use a vacuum cleaner is; it reaches every corner of the cat tree, including the condos as well. 

This video will help you learn the right technique of operating the vacuum cleaner when cleaning a cat tree.

Method 2: Deep Cleaning

If your cat tree hasn’t been cleaned since you bought it, you will need to deep clean it. Fur will likely cover all of the carpeted areas of the cat tree in this duration.

In such cases, vacuum cleaning just won’t do enough to clean the tree. As you are cleaning after a long time, you will find some hair getting stuck to the faux fur material. 

However, the deep cleaning method is the perfect way to eliminate the extreme dirt from the surface of the cat tree. 

Things You Need

• A shedding brush 

How To Do It

All you need in this method is a shedding brush. There are no tedious steps required in this method. You just need a shedding brush to get a fur-free cat tree. This shedding brush is actually a shedding blade. It works more like grooming products.

However, this shading blade will reach deep into the faux fur materials and remove the cat hair. You need to use it carefully on the carpet. Make sure you are not rubbing them over the tears in the carpet. This can further damage the tree.

Use it with your hands to reach all the areas and cleanse the carpet precisely. The metal blades in the shedding brush will deeply clean the rest-on, beds, sides, and the base area of the cat tree.

Use it in the forward motion only. Also, cleaning with the shedding brush takes only a couple of minutes to clean a moderately-sized cat tree.

Method 3: Complete Germs And Bacteria–Killing

If you have a cat tree, removing the hair and stains is not enough. You need to make it germ-free. There are several instances when your cat might pee accidentally on the tree. This can lead to bacterial growth in the cat tree fur material.

It is not only hazardous for your cat but can also affect your health. In such cases, if you don’t want to end up getting affected by the disease, you need to ensure proper germs and bacteria-killing. Moreover, this method will highlight the germs-killing steps to get the best outcome.

Things You Need

• 3% hydrogen peroxide 
• Scraping sponges 
• Paper towel
• Cleaning dish soap
• Odor remover

How To Do It

Step #1: Use Hydrogen Peroxide and Odor Remover

Initially, you will need a paper towel and an odor remover. Take the hydrogen peroxide on the paper towel, and rub it over the surface of the cat tree. Don’t leave any carpeted areas. Nevertheless, there is nothing too complicated in using these components. Moreover, the hydrogen peroxide on your cat tree does a fabulous job of killing bacteria.

Then you can spray the odor remover on the cat tree. Don’t forget to use the hydrogen peroxide and the odor remover at every corner of the cat tree. It includes the cat condos as well. After spraying the odor remover, leave the cat tree for five minutes to eliminate all the odors.

After spraying the odor remover, you can again use the paper towel on the cat tree surface. It will soak the icky stuff. Then you can wipe the surface and clean it off. Further, brush the paper towel on all portions of the cat tree and precisely remove all the stain, dirt, and fur.

Step #2: Use a Scraping Sponge

After completing the first step, put some dish soap inside a whole bowl of hot water. Then take your scraping sponge and moist it in hot water. Once the sponge gets soaked with the liquid, scrape it on the surface of the cat tree. This step does an excellent job of taking away all the hair.

Step #3: Do A Final Pass With The Hydrogen Peroxide

In this step, you need to spray the hydrogen peroxide for the final time. Moreover, this will kill the germs and eliminate all the foul smells as well. This method may take a longer time, but it is one of the best methods to clean your cat tree. It ensures the good health of you and your cat. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Will A Messy Cat Tree Affect The Health Of The Cat?

Yes! The cat trees that remain unclean will attract germs and bacteria. Moreover, this could make your cat ill.

What Is The Best Approach To Clean The Cat Tree?

All the above discussed are the best methods to clean cat trees. However, if you want deep germs and bacteria-killing, you can go for method 3.

Will Using A Vacuum Cleaner Offer Precise Cleaning?

Vacuum usually reaches the areas that your hand and brush sometimes cannot. It includes cats’ condos as well, so, yes, you need a Vacuum cleaner.

Conclusion

Keeping it brief, these are the most effective approaches to clean your cat tree. However, it would be prejudice to say that these are the only methods to clean.

There are so many methods that can help you clean your cat tree. You can go for the one that is more appropriate for you. Regardless of which method you use, you must clean the cat tree once a week if you don’t want to risk the cat falling ill.