Cats and cat-flaps

coogy

We've had our cat since last May and he's about a year old now.
For the last 4 months or so he's been sleeping in the garden shed. I cleared the shed out, put carpet down on the floor so it's nice and clean and he's got his bed in there too. We also put a cat-flap on the door of the shed and up until last week, we had been locking the cat-flap at night time when we out him to bed but now i've started leaving it open as I felt that locking it at night was the wrong thing to do.
Any thoughts?

morgana

My two cats come & go as they please through a cat flap in the kitchen door. Provided they are in a safe location where free outdoor access does not put them in danger, one reason I can see to keep them inside at night is to prevent them hunting at dawn and cut down on losses in the bird population. Although my lot usually don't bother going outside early in winter or inclement weather ... they've found that sleeping indoors has many advabntages
May I ask why the cat is put out at night to sleep in the shed? I am genuinely interested as you seem to care and even put a cat flap into the shed door, is there any reason why you don't want him to sleep inisde the house?

coogy

well, the main reason we put him out in the shed was because of the mess and smell from keeping his litter tray in the house.
he seems quite happy sleeping in the shed but as a relatively inexperienced cat owner, i was just intersted to know if there was a recommended way of approaching this........

FlutterinBantam

Won't do him a bit of harm to sleep in the shed.....

Saruman

If my shed was not so full of old carpet etc i would probably do the same...

Jules

I have to agree with FB here, does absolutely no harm for them to sleep in a shed, as long as there is bedding and water/food they will be fine. Anyway he chose to sleep in there in the first place, he prolly preferes it.

As for the cat flap, its a toughie, some would say yes leave it open, so he can come in if he wants to. Others would say lock it as it might invite stray cats in to your house and well that might cause more harm.

Is he out all day while you are at work, is the cat flap open then? If so then leave it open at night. Its totally up to you. As long as he has somewhere nice and warm to go from the rain or whatever, with nice bedding and as i said food/water you can have it locked or unlocked.