Cats first time out next week.

rustyboy21

Hi all.

Our new member of the family has been with us now for the last 10 weeks. She has been kept in for this time, as suggested by the rescue centre, as she was a pregnant stray when she was brought into them.

I am also away for the next 5 days working and felt that I didn't want the dreaded phone call whilst away, saying the cat won't come in/gone missing, so we have kept her in longer than required.

Next week, we are going to let her out in the garden for the first time. I am anxious that she may just scarper, never to be seen again.

Someone told me about cat harnesses and leads to get them used to being outside. Does anyone have any experience with them?

The rescue centre said as she is a Neutered female, she won't really go out the garden, how true is this? I know she is going to be a mouser, she attacks everything in sight in the house. She played for 20 mins with a spider before eating it the other day ! So I am not getting a cat flap fitted as I want to monitor what she brings in !.

Any help you can give and any advice will be welcome. I am away until Wednesday, so will get back to any questions then.

Cheers

Mayflower10cat

We used a harness and lead very successfully on our most recent rescue cat. He'd been in for nearly four months (over the winter) and hadn't shown any desire to go out anyway! After the first few trips out, with us, he seemed quite happy to have the harness put on as he knew he was going for a little walkabout. We did harness and lead trips out for about four weeks, until he was making it very clear he wanted to be a Free Range Cat!
We've always done a 'supervised' first few times out for any new cat.
You can always put inward facing chicken wire on top of your garden fence so they can't get out of the garden.
Only let a new cat out for the first few times when they're hungry - it really helps! And if they come running when you rattle a box of treats/biscuits, it makes it even easier. It is nerve wracking the first few times, I know. Good luck!

dandelionclock30

When one of my cats was a kitten we used to take her outside and attach some string to her collar and we used to hold the ball while she played etc. Obviously you need to watch the cat all the time, but I thought it was a good way for her to get used to the garden without running off.
After a couple of weeks with this she began going out and was fine.
Both of mine are neutered females and they both like to go out, one all the time.

springer211

I was one of the people mentioning a harness... but it didn't work with my cat.
She got very distressed every time we put it on, so we gave up on that. We let her out gradually, fully supervised initially, and now she goes out and about.
Agree with the advice given above.

GlynD

I don't think you need worry about a harness. What I've had recommended to me and have always practiced every since when moving house or recently when we rescued a cat too was to let the animal out and stay outside with it for about 30 minutes constantly talking to it so that it knows where you are. It will come back inside the house of its own accord when it has your voice to guide it. Once it's come back once you can let it out without any fears because it knows how to get home.

Cats have fairly short memories when it comes to things like this so what it knew before will have gone from its mind. All it knows now is you and your home.

EDIT: Btw, most cats hate having a harness on them. If you tried putting one on any of our two you'd get the hands clawed off you.

bacardi66

I never used a harness on my cats - they went ballistic even if I tried to put a collar on them! I agree with what other people say - the first time you let her out make sure she is hungry and stay out with her.

It really is amazing how quickly cats know where their new home is - I moved with my cats after they had spent 14 years in the same house/garden. One of them managed to escape out of the front door of the new house after 2 weeks (much to my horror) and reappeared in the back garden 30 minutes later - I just couldn't believe how in a very densely populated street he knew exactly which was "his" new garden.

I did keep them in for another 4 weeks after that - mainly because it was around bonfire night.

You can (kind of) train them to come back - by rattling a box of dried food or with I used to tap on their food bowl with a fork. 90% of the time my cats would come back if I called and made one of those noises especially if they were hungry.

The other 10% of the time they chose to ignore me!

his_missus

My neutered female is 8 years old and we've had her a couple of years now. She never wanders far beyond the garden, just over the fence into the neighbours' yards and into the garages behind our house. She usually comes when called as she expects to be fed. For the first few weeks she went outside and just sniffed around and then would run in whenever she heard a noise.

Spending time playing with her inside may alleviate the urge to hunt and prevent her bringing home gifts for you but that hasn't always worked with mine.