Indoors or Outdoors Life for a Kitten

Avri

I have read a number of articles and threads on whether to leave a kitten outdoors and i'm still very confused about it. I have a 4 month old male kitten who is adamant about going outside, I work during the day and normally i leave a window open for him to go out the back garden which is decked and enclosed. There was no way he could climb the high walls to the neighbours garden until yesterday low and behold he found a way to climb it and i'm now in a bind.

Should i leave him go out and wander or should i keep him indoors and only allow him out when i'm at home? I live in a housing estate near a main road and there are 2 other adult cats in the neighbourhood. He has been microchipped and has a collar with my details on it but too young to get neutered. I have mixed feelings about leaving a cat indoors all day, i know that they can live 3 times longer than outdoors cats but as this is my first cat, I'm at a complete loss.

Any advice or suggestions would be very much welcome.

morganafay

It's really whatever you think is best. I think cats definitely are happier if they can go outside. But they can be happy inside too. If I lived where you live then I would probably keep him inside (even though I let my cats outside).

Some cats won't take well to being indoors and will be bored and hyper or trying to get out all the time. So maybe you could see if he is like that, and make your decision based on that. But some will be fine and not mind being inside at all. Especially if they have lots of toys and a cat tree would help.

boomerang

At four months old - no way, Jose He's much too young to be outdoors without supervision. I'd be waiting until he's at least six months or more. He runs the risk right now of being beaten up by the adult cats in the neighbourhood - I'm serious! Plus he has absolutely no savvy whatsover.

By the way, you don't have to wait to get him neutered - our vet neuters boys at 12 weeks! Once he's a good 2kg there's no reason to wait.

seamus

Rule Number 1 of owning a cat: Never assume, "Ah, he'll never get up there/in there/under there/over that/through there." They're slippery agile little feckers with insane climbing abilities. My wife's cat used to scale the side of their 2-storey house and get onto the roof when she was growing up - sheer wall with nothing but bricks to grip onto.

I'm not sure if any cat can be classed as an indoor or outdoor cat. Certainly if the cat is feral or has been used to being outdoors, then you'll have difficulty keeping him in, but as a kitten he's unlikely to detest being indoors, if that's what he's used to.

Even if you only let him out when you're around, the life expectancy issue is still an issue. Especially if he's unneutered, he could wander off for hours and you can't supervise him. He'll be up and over your garden wall before you can even react.

They do love going outside when the weather's nice (just like we do), so if you can set up a way for this to happen - some kind of run, then you get the best of both worlds. Not a cheap option though to cat-proof a run.

kylith

It is possible to cat-proof your garden. Perhaps that would be a good compromise; you could let him out into the garden, but not have to worry about him wandering off.

Ever2010

Id wait until he was neutered - our male was done at about 5 months (the vet told us it was when they were over 2kg), but he stayed in until about 6 months as our female is much lighter than him and we wanted to let them out together.

They love being outside now - they were always trying to escape outside when they were little! Plus it allows them to run off some of their energy!

MsFifers

I definitely wouldn't let a 4 month old kitten outside during the day when I'm not there - especially as you live near a main road.

I let my cats out for a run around the garden in the morning before I got to work and again in the evening when I come home. They usually come back in of their own accord after a couple of hours or so.

Cats sleep most of the day and are at their most active morning and evening - so don't worry at all about him being bored while you are at work. Make sure you leave plenty of toys/boxes/hidden food around the place and he'll be grand.

If you can affix some garden netting to the top of your back wall so they cat won't have a sturdy thing to grip on to, it might dissuade him from escaping.