Posted on 07/09/2011 6:42:22 AM PDT by incredulous joe
I have two cats; one, Guinness, is a four year old female, the other, Finnegan, is a two year old male. They have always lived indoors.
We also have an outdoor cat, Thatcher, who lives in our barn and has a pretty good life. She walked onto our farm 3 years ago and seemed to have been dumped. She smelled of powders and domestication when she came onto the scene. We gave her some space in our barn and she seems to enjoy herself.
We have a small house. In my opinion, as the guy who cleans out the litter box, our indoor cats have become too big for our home. They are both pretty large; Guinness is overweight and Finnegan is simply a big "no-neck" pounder, who is also the biggest sissy the world has known. He thinks that he is a lap dog.
Guinness has made numerous attempts at escaping our house and even made good on her efforts on a few occasions ~ never traveling farther than a few feet. Finnegan does not seem to have an interest in living outside. We live in central Maryland and it gets pretty chilly in the winters, but we provide and care for our outdoor critters as may be needed when the weather is extreme.
I'd like to see how our cat will do outside, but once they go out and live out there, it is my opinion that they should stay.
Any FRiends with experience, positive or negative in turning an indoor cat into an outdoor.
Thanks for any feedback that you may have.
He is exactly right Joe. As my vet said to me “outdoor cats live short violent lives”.
Life expectancy for an outdoor cat is about four years. Don’t do it.
I’m a dog person.
But I’ve known several people with indoor/outdoor cats, and they seem to do fine.
But I think the key to that is that they have to start young. It wouldn’t be fair on an older cat who has always been in the house to shut them out. I doubt it would last very long, and it wouldn’t be very happy.
When I was growing up, I knew a few barn cats on farms, used to keep down the rodents. As long as they have a hayloft where they can cuddle up and stay warm, they should be OK. They won’t normally mess where they sleep, but it just needs to be changed once in a while.
But I don’t think you can expect a cat to change its ways at those ages. I’d see these ones through to the end, and maybe start the indoor/outdoor pattern with the next kitty.
ya, that’s a good philosophy:)
If you want to let your cats have a taste of the outdoors, why not build them a cat run? That way, you can put them out and know that they are relatively safe. You need to make sure they have shade out there.
I have made outdoor cats into indoor cats, never the other way around. I even managed to make a feral cat into an indoor cat, which was interesting, especially when it was time to take her to the vet.
Too many dangers outside. If you don’t want to lose your cats, keep them inside.
So, I guess you have an outhouse instead of an indoor toilet to keep the "live creatures" from crapping in your house?
The solution that worked for a friend who moved to a smaller house in Colorado was to build a cat room onto the house.. Well, truthfully, more a cat shed. They used a pet door with magnetic flap that leads into a shed room with screened upper walls.
First lesson they learned - Make sure you have plenty of cat towers. They didn’t - the cats decided the screens were the best toys ever. After replacing screens the third time, they finally got the clue and there’s enough towers + 1 for all the cats.
Second lesson - Only the upper walls of the room should be screened - A raccoon just tore through the lower screens when they had them and ate the cat food. The cats just sat up on their towers watching in horror as the intruder fed and then left. Screening material is also important - if the screen is big enough for wasps to get through, you’ve made the best nest site they’ve ever seen.
Third lesson - winter - they had planned to only use the cat room during the summer - it’s the time of year when they’re least at the house, and it gave the cats a measure of safety, and something to do, not to mention moving the cat boxes outside. The cats adjusted to it, and very much enjoyed it, and protested quite vigorously when they were brought in for the winter. They eventually used a heating pad in the rounds of each tower, and the cats were extremely happy, warm, and eventually the furniture was repaired inside.
All in all, it’s worked out nicely for them. The room is 4’ high wood panels around the bottom, the top 4’ uses metal screen. They built a door into one of the panels to access the litter boxes for easy cleaning with a lock on it. The floor is vinyl tile, wood covered with exterior paint, and the roof is the same tar shingle as the house with gutters. The heating pads are attached to GFL sockets and are usually replaced mid winter and kept on low setting. A metal panel slides into the inside frame of the pet door and also includes a lock for when they leave the house.
Latest acquisition they’ve added this spring was a small planter box with ‘cat grass’ in it, watered by a timer and micro emitters, and a ‘wind spinner’ which seems to absolutely fascinate the cats (and has finally cut down the number of birds who bounce off the screens.)
They went through the city permit process to build it, though calling it a ‘cat room’ was a huge downfall for the process. Renaming it a ‘screened porch’ made things a heck of a lot easier.
We have a main coon, I didn’t know what it was but my wife thought it a good ideal to get my daughter a cat one day. My daughter is now in college and I still have the main coon. A main coon has enough hair to weave a full length coat with. Hair is everywhere. We have to clean the house all the time from hair and fur balls. We took the cats claws off front and back so the cat can never go outside, and it don’t really seem to want to. I did let it outside one time and all it did was roll on the grass and concrete. Miles is his name and I am thinking he has a long time to live, he is 11 years old.
There is an alternative: teach the cats to use the toilet. It’s not hard, although it does take several weeks. I’ve seen the procedure in several books and did it with our cat because I hated cleaning the catbox. The cat uses the toilet most of the time; when he doesn’t, I use the flyswatter to remind him.
Basically, you put the cat box in the bathroom (uncovered). Slowly raise it by putting more books under it every three days or so. Raise it 6 inches or so and put it on the toilet WITH A COUPLE BRICKS INSIDE TO KEEP IT FROM DUMPING. Get a kid’s toilet seat (the flat kind) and build a kitty box with duct tape and cardboard. Put in less and less kitty litter, then none. Cut a small hole, enlarge the hole over time until the kiddy seat remains, then remove the seat. With your cats’ size, you might want to leave them a step up to the toilet seat. Works best with padded toilet seats.
It’s time consuming and not perfect. Sometimes, the cat S*** really stinks. On the plus side, no more kitty litter costs and everyone thinks its a really fantastic trick.
Outdoors-only cats typically have a drastically shorter life spans because of disease, pests and predators. One that doesn't know anything but an indoors life will be hopeless and easy prey. Especially a lap cat.
I can't believe you're considering this just because you're tired of litter boxes. It doesn't sound like you're the only one in the family. Surely duty can be shared or made more efficient!
The cats you described of would be better off in a new home than outdoors. That's the decision the "coyote food" family ultimately came to for their replacement cats.
Once your cat becomes fixated on being outdoors, they become subject to attacks by other cats — particularly male cats. They also get blamed for stuff they may, or may not, do at your neighbors’ houses.
If you have a cat door, raccoons and other cats can come in. Your cat can also be stolen. I realize that sounds crazy, but it has happened. I lost a cat twice that way. Another one of my cats was stolen by a crazy neighbor and sent to the pound to be put to sleep.
One of my friends had her cat microchipped. Her cat was stolen twice by well-meaning people who found him on the public bike path where he like to go to hunt. The second time the cat was found in a town 20 miles away. My friend just let the people keep the cat.
All of the reasons above is why I don’t keep cats any more.
People who worry about cats dying outdoors are not on the same page with me.
First off, I adore and admire cats. They are cool creatures. One day 25 years ago, a little black/white female wandered into our backyard, looked up, meowed, and we fed her. We went away for a month, and found 6 kittens. We fixed the mommy and the 5 females and let them stay. Outdoors. The male, we did not fix. He didn’t last. I know he caroused, looking for pussy and fights, and got his ass kicked nightly. But he lost his life when the Humane Society director, who lives up the street, ran over him. His name was “Cowboy”, age 3.
Since then, we have always had only fixed females; and we name them after baseball players (”Kirby”, “Felix Jose”, “Grace”, “Griffey”, “Luise”, “Alex”, “Jeter”, “Brandelion”, “JJ”, “Tatoo”, etc). The original 6 lived an average of 10 years. The mama and one of her calico daughters lived 17 and 16 years, respectively. Their job was to keep the property free of rodents, snakes and even grasshoppers. They did it well.
In our severe winters, they hunkered down in a shed, or under a porch.
In a few cases, we have taken kittens off other people’s hands, or gone to the humane society, in order to keep our numbers about right. But lately, we have taken kittens from a guy who has a female barn cat who regularly gives birth. These are pretty hard to tame, but they have great outdoor skills bred right in.
With cats like ours, it pays to take the “easy come, easy go” posture. And enjoy them while you have them. I love the loyalty ours show. It is fun to drive home and have them greet us. They recognize the sounds of our vehicles, and always seem to be waiting when we arrive.
Indoor cats are amusing, but they own you. Outdoor fixed female cats do a job, and can fend for themselves. If you want to go away, just leave them a bucket of water and a bucket of dry food. They may act pissed at you when you return, but that is just to maintain their petulant image.
It depends entirely on the cat. If he was raised indoors, then you can’t turn him into an outdoor cat. He just can’t cope. I found my cat in the woods when he was just a tiny black kitten, and if I had left him there he’d be gator food for sure. Now he’s about 8 years old and huge. He refuses to be an indoor cat. He stalks the neighborhood like a miniature black panther, beats up yappy little fou-fou doggies, and hustles the neighbors. He only comes indoors when he’s hungry, and an hour later he’s begging to go back out. And he’s such a good hustler that several people think he’s their cat. I guess that’s how he got so big and fat.
We have always had indoor/outdoor. I suggest you move to that first as a compromise. When cats stay out all night a vet told me their chance of getting killed by traffic or a predator goes up 75%. We never let ours out at night. Traffic is not the issue but predators are. Our currect cat is 10, she is a good hunter, slowing down a bit and is always the same weight at her checkup, about 7 lbs. Cats can get grossly overweight when they never go out. If your cats are declawed that will make it harder for them to survive as totally outdoor cats. they will not be able to climb a tree to escape a predator or hunt very well. So my advice would be to let them out and still continue to feed them inside and let them in if they want to come in. Let them adjust slowly to being outside and your house will be cleaner and you will get a break from them and less litter box cleanup. You just might be happy with that as a solution. If they have never been out, to keep them out all the time all at once would be pretty traumatic and might not turn out well. Good luck!
We have always had indoor/outdoor. I suggest you move to that first as a compromise. When cats stay out all night a vet told me their chance of getting killed by traffic or a predator goes up 75%. We never let ours out at night. Traffic is not the issue but predators are. Our currect cat is 10, she is a good hunter, slowing down a bit and is always the same weight at her checkup, about 7 lbs. Cats can get grossly overweight when they never go out. If your cats are declawed that will make it harder for them to survive as totally outdoor cats. they will not be able to climb a tree to escape a predator or hunt very well. So my advice would be to let them out and still continue to feed them inside and let them in if they want to come in. Let them adjust slowly to being outside and your house will be cleaner and you will get a break from them and less litter box cleanup. You just might be happy with that as a solution. If they have never been out, to keep them out all the time all at once would be pretty traumatic and might not turn out well. Good luck!
My sister has a cat like that. She went to a neighbor's house one day and asked why the neighbor had a picture of her cat on the refrigerator.
"Your cat? I thought that was my cat!"
LOL!
The two cats who live outside are strays who came to us and adopted us. They are but two in a series that have come to us. The others have either disappeared or met sad ends. They keep the barn free of rats and mice. Tom, a big, black panther-like beauty is a great ratter who regularly leaves us 'gifts' of rats and mice on the back patio.
We would NEVER put our house cats outside. If you love your cats, don't do it.
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