Letting kitten go outside

mumoftwins

Hi all,

I have a 6 month old male kitten who was neutered on Friday. I know he will want to go outside soon but I am wary as I don't have a cat flap. I am starting work tomorrow (p/t) and am concerned that if I do let him out in the near future that he won't be home by the time I need to go out.

I have a porch area by my back door and had thought about making a cosy covered box for him to go in if needs be, but I would really prefer him to be in the house when I go out.

Has anyone had problems like this before, if so what did you do?

photome

I guess the obvious solution is get a cat flap. If you want an outdoor cat I dont see that you have another option if you will be going to work.

mumoftwins

photome wrote: »

I guess the obvious solution is get a cat flap. If you want an outdoor cat I dont see that you have another option if you will be going to work.

Unfortunately, I don't think that is an option as I don't own my home its privately rented from a very good landlord, but I don't think he'd agree to a cat flap in his upvc back door

TrickyNiki

Although I have a catflap, I dont like my cats out at night.
I found that my cats come running at the sound of the food bowl so when I want them indoors I stand at the back door and bang the food bowls and make the same nosies as I do when its dinner time. When they come in (usually very fast) I lock the cat flap and give them a small treat so as to reafirm that the bowls mean a treat/food!

viktory

I don't understand the problem - although maybe I just have a particularly easy going cat!

My (female) cat was neutered, chipped, injected etc and eventually the vet said that she was big enough to go out in the big bad world. To start with, we took her out in our secure back garden on a harness. Then we progressed to letting her out during the day when she was hungry. To call her back in, all we had to do was rattle her food bowl!

Now, we all work full time and most days are the same:

My husband gets up and lets the cat out at 5:15am. She is back in before my husband leaves for work and I leave for the gym. She goes out again in between my coming home from the gym and going to work. She then spends the whole day sleeping. The evening is spent with her going out and coming in several dozen times and she is always in the house overnight.

This routine is the same at the weekend. She is very content.

JANELUVI

Modern cat flaps tend to be quite neat compared to my ghastly dark grey 25+ year old one! Your landlord might not mind you having one fitted.

mumoftwins

Thanks for all your words of advice, I think I may be worrying too much, but the male cats I had before all managed to get 'stolen' or not return whilst they were a youngish age with the exception of one who lasted 5 years then disappeared. I just don't want that to happen with this one.

UKTigerlily

If your Cat is Microchipped (Which I hope he is!) hopefully if he does go awol he'll be returned. Try asking the landlord for the cat flap, none of my previous ones minded, we said we'd replace the door when we left but none ever wanted us to. If it's done by someone who knows what they're doing most won't have an issue, worth a try!

listerofsmeg_2

I did a clever thing once in a rented house. We had a small window, and I paid someone for a pane of glass to fit the window that also had a cat flap in it.

I put some steps up to it for the cat to reach and some more on the other side (made of stacking boxes and parcel tape).

Then when we moved out, we put the old window back in.

EmmaD13

When I was living in an unsuitable area to have my cats my mum kindly fostered them. My mum was able to get the bottom door panel replaced with one with a cat flap and then she just replaced it with the original one when we moved and were able to take them back. It might be worth asking your LL if you'd be ok to do that?

jha

My cats were trained to return to home when I click my fingers and / or shake my housekeys. I trained them from young kittens by giving them a small treat every time they responded to the click / jangle. I did this so I could call them back in an emergency or when there was Anti social behaviour going on outside. Saves calling 5 different cat names anyway:rotfl:The only problem is they all come racing in when sometimes I only want the one to give meds to. :rolleyes: I dont know if this might be something to consider - my cats are standard moggies.