House cats escaping out front door - tips?

GingerLs

How do you prevent house cats from slipping past you at the front door? 

We are moving from a house with a porch to a house without. They often linger and greet us near the door as we walk in, so I'm a little anxious they may escape as we will not have the secondary door as a precaution. I can imagine coming in and out the house and answering the door to someone is going to be a nightmare 😣

Adding a porch is not an option, I'm thinking more along the lines of encouraging them to stay away from the door. 

Any advice/tips? 
TIA

KxMx

I doubt much will deter them if they are curious. 

With no porch you'll need to shut them in another room making sure they have food/water/toys/bed & litter tray in there before you leave home.

Answering the door will be a bit more tricky. 

Trina90

My cats never try to (unless the door is left open for a long time - like if we're bringing in shopping) but I had trouble with one peeing by the door. To stop him doing this I got a ssscat can (motion censored air can). It puffs air when the cats go over to the door.

Drawingaline

We are moving from a property with a porch to one without. It has a decent length hallway so I think we are going to have to put an internal door in to create a porch. 

I suppose it will be a case of being extra vigilant and hoping they don't get out! One of ours is a devil and I am dreading it tbh.

geminilady

make sure your cats are sprayed/.neutered in case they do escape

KxMx

Microchipped too  

Aranyani

Do you live somewhere where you can't let them out?

Mnoee

Aranyani said:

Do you live somewhere where you can't let them out?

Many people choose to keep their cats indoors. They can be pretty devastating to the local bird population, can annoy neighbours, get stolen or end up under a car. They live longer when kept inside, and can still have an enjoyable life if you're willing to add enough enrichment to their surroundings. 

It's a hugely debated topic with pros and cons to either side, but whether the OP chooses to have indoor cats or lives on a main road or similar, the problem remains the same.

(Sorry, no practical advice from me, we have a porch!) 

The_Librarian

I have no porch and a housecat. I have an aggressive sounding doorbell which I ring whenever I put the key in the door to come in which normally makes him run away from the hall and gives me time to get in the house. If I need to unload shopping, I do the above, leaving the shopping in the car, go in and close the door to whatever room he is currently in, trapping him and giving me time to unload at my leisure safe in the knowledge he is unable to slip past me. This means he still has free rein of the house while I am out, and as many different sleeping spots as he wants

Aranyani

Mnoee said:

Aranyani said:

Do you live somewhere where you can't let them out?

Many people choose to keep their cats indoors. They can be pretty devastating to the local bird population, can annoy neighbours, get stolen or end up under a car. They live longer when kept inside, and can still have an enjoyable life if you're willing to add enough enrichment to their surroundings. 

It's a hugely debated topic with pros and cons to either side, but whether the OP chooses to have indoor cats or lives on a main road or similar, the problem remains the same.

(Sorry, no practical advice from me, we have a porch!) 

There must be some safe way to let them have some access to outside, they clearly want it, you would never keep a dog confined to the indoors all it’s life, even ones smaller than a cat.

Mnoee

Aranyani said:

Mnoee said:

Aranyani said:

Do you live somewhere where you can't let them out?

Many people choose to keep their cats indoors. They can be pretty devastating to the local bird population, can annoy neighbours, get stolen or end up under a car. They live longer when kept inside, and can still have an enjoyable life if you're willing to add enough enrichment to their surroundings. 

It's a hugely debated topic with pros and cons to either side, but whether the OP chooses to have indoor cats or lives on a main road or similar, the problem remains the same.

(Sorry, no practical advice from me, we have a porch!) 

There must be some safe way to let them have some access to outside, they clearly want it, you would never keep a dog confined to the indoors all it’s life, even ones smaller than a cat.

Yep - it's called a catio which is an enclosed outside pen that's usually accessed with a cat flap. No good attached to a front door!