A boarding cattery or cat boarding is a place where cats are housed temporarily for a fee. Although many people worry about the stress placed on the animal by being put in an unfamiliar environment, most boarding catteries work to reduce stress. Boarding catteries typically have familiar objects, cat trees, climbing frames, scratching posts, and places for the cats to sleep during the day, and blankets and toys from home, are also permitted at many catteries. Some catteries offer onsite grooming and nail trimming.
Communal catteries This is often just a room or series of rooms where the cats all mingle together, are fed together and sleep in whatever space they can find. These catteries have the highest number of fights, and can be overcrowded, especially at peak times. Carers cannot monitor cats' eating, and communal toileting, eating and drinking can lead to outbreaks of illness if unchecked, which can be hard to contain. Cats in communal catteries benefit from the much greater space available for roaming and
playing. These are usually the cheapest form of boarding cattery.
Semi-communal catteries With individual cages and large play areas, semi-communal catteries are the middle ground between communal and celled catteries. In responsibly managed semi-communal catteries, the cats are fed in cages and separated at night from non-family members. Specific diets can be catered for, medications can be given, and the cats' toileting can be monitored. The play areas of semi-communal catteries can have meshed open-air areas which along with separate animal feeding helps to greatly reduce the transmission of illness, although some are just large internal rooms with little ventilation which can negate some of the benefits.
Celled catteries The often purpose-built celled catteries house cats in individual cells. Similar to an aviary, they are meshed rooms within a much large facility, usually with one face open to the air.
Ventilation is ample, and the transmission of illness is greatly reduced. As with the semi-communal cattery, celled catteries can monitor toileting, feed specialized diets and provide medication when required. There is no chance of cats not familiar with each other intermingling, and the chance of overcrowding is greatly reduced too. These catteries are at the high end of the pricing spectrum. ==Breeding catteries==