Are your cats Indoor, Outdoor, or Both?

[RabbitMage]

Quote:
So I guess I should lock the cats up... then the neighbors would only have to worry about the RATS from the grain elevator 1/4 mile down the road.

Instead your cats get to worry about other cats, dogs, coyotes and whatever other native predators you have. Parasites, cars, idiots with guns...

When I lived with my folks all our cats were inside/outside cats.. My brother's old cat never left the porch-but the feral kittens we took in got hit by cars, one by one. Finally my adult cat went missing for the better part of a week and came back with an abdominal hernia that required surgery. The $500 vet bill my mom had to pay finally convinced her the cats should stay inside.

 

[SilverPhoenix]

I have one cat who is primarily an indoor cat but sometimes goes outside for a few hours and then comes back in. I had another cat with the same set-up, mostly indoors but outdoors a little, but we just had to put her down a few days ago because of kidney failure (she was sixteen).

My other cat is a full-time outdoor cat. She will probably be my last outdoor cat--not only can the outdoors be dangerous for cats, cats kill and injure so many birds that I'd rather not have outdoor cats from now on. As a wildlife rehabber, I see so many birds that have been injured and killed by cats that I just feel it's the best decision for both the cat and the birds. But this cat is a rescue cat and she has lived outside her entire life, and she cannot seem to adapt to an indoor life. She meows frantically and panics if shut inside. On the up-side, she's very outdoors-savvy and does not seem to have any interest in hunting birds. She even ignores my quail, who are kept in a cage about ten feet from her food.

 

[Frosty]

It depends on individual situations... If I lived in an area with a lot of traffic, I wouldn't let my cats out. I have lived here for 17 years and had one cat hit by a car. One too many, I know, but the cats do rodent control. I had a rat problem last spring, the rats moved into the only building I have that the cats can't get into. I do head counts every night as I put food out for the cats. The majority hang out around the barn so they aren't hard to find. Some I had that tended to wander further died when they were 16 1/2 years old, one in recovery from removing a tumor and his littermate brother 3 months later had to be PTS, he had renal failure and gave up after his brother passed. The adult stray cat that adopted us was PTS 15 years after he showed up here and the vet thought he was older than 2 when I first took him in so don't know how old he was.

My barn cats stay out, some of the house cats are indoor only because they don't want to go out, one is held against his will or he gets bad sunburn, the rest come and go as they please.

 

[Riocotesei]

I have a cat and she stays inside. She likes being in, and used to be unfriendly (couldn't even touch her) when I got her at 8 mos. She has since warmed up to me and loves me dearly.
I would never let my cat out, and let her wander because I am not the only person with chickens around.
A couple of neighbors I have let their cats roam and I have lost several chickens to their cats. I am very angry because I lost special and sweet bird to them. I have a trap out there and I ever catch them they aren't going to be happy.
I think it is unthoughtful for people to let them roam. What if a cat comes onto your land and is carrying a disease or virus that could affect your other pets? It can become expensive in many ways to deal with other peoples cats that won't watch over them.
It shouldn't be the unsuspecting neighbors job to have to fence out other people's pets when it sufficiently keeps theirs in.
If you want your pets to roam, you must pay the consequences- buy fencing, replace any killed pets, pay for vet bills...ect.

 

[MomtoSyd&Emma]

We live in the city on an acre lot, our cat and kitten are indoor ONLY. We have seen too many lying dead on our road to even consider letting ours outside. I am a flower freak, and I couldnt touch our flower beds while pregnant, because of this ONE family on the end of the road, they get a kitten, keep it inside until the cuteness wears off, outside it goes to be hit by a car, attacked by a dog, or who knows what else, while they go and get another kitten for the cycle to continue.

We do have mice here (we have chickens and they kill the mice too) but I will not risk the life of one of my cats to keep them away from here, I will just keep buying mouse/rat traps and getting them myself lol

This all being said, IF we lived out on a HUGE farm in the middle of no where, I would certainly have a few outdoor cats around. As a child I used to love sitting on the front porch and having a huge tom cat come running up the steps to us for a few pats on the head.

But since we dont live out, ours will live in.

 

[patandchickens]

I don't think there is one universal correct answer, it depends on the circumstances. Most of the time I think that cats AND bird populations are better off with cats being indoors or mostly so, but, there are exceptions.

To answer the thread-title question, my four cats are indoor cats but they have an outdoor run/bridge complex where they like to hang out a fair bit of the time. At least when it is not too hot. Or too cold. Or too mosquitoey. Or Raining. Or snowing, much. Or just boring. Or when you need to be sleeping on a bed and the bed is indoors not outdoors. Or some of the rest of the time

Pat

 

[babyblue]

I think that the answer should depend directly on your and the cats housing situation. I live in the middle of 100 acres. Cars and road kill issues are not a problem. Neighbors are not a problem. Preds are not a problem. My one outdoor cat is fixed, vetted, deformed, fed and pampered. She uses the manure pile as her litter box, she is a worthless mouser so is fed twice a day. She has a safe hayloft and horse stall to go to if she feels threatened. And trust me no pred is getting past my old QH alive and the horse loves the cat.

My single barn cat was previously a house cat. However when I had my newborn son she decided that she was a much better mother for him then me. I couldn’t eat sleep cook clean sit down or nurse the baby without having to throw the cat off of me and him 50+ times. Locking her in other rooms didn’t work she would either hide and follow or scream for the entire night and keep the baby awake. Any time I would try and nurse the baby it was either throwing the cat off him 50 times or having her scream in other rooms so loud it disturbed the baby and he wouldn’t eat.

So I think in certain situations an outdoor cat is safe and healthy, in other situations not. If we lived in a neighbor hood we would have found a new indoor home for our cat rather then let her outside. Though when our babies are grown she gets to become an indoor cat again.

 

[Morgan7782]

I live in an urban city. There are cars. Both my cats are outside and oh lord they are both ALIVE! And thriving! No vet bills, no dead cats on the road. I don't know what luck everybody else has but I have never had a cat get hit by a car in all the 24 years I have owned cats. I guess here people slow down for cats or something. If I kept my older cat inside I would be paying to replace the door he clawed his way through to get back out LOL

 

[bock]

I have 1 indoor cat and one cat that stays in 80% of the time, and only goes out on the rare occasions when she sits by the door waiting for us to let her out. I had three indoor/outdoor cats in the past, and they all ended badly. We had Scamp in the city, when he was a year old he was shot with a bb gun, the vet was unable to remove the bullet.After he recovered, he was constantly at a house one block away from us. She fed him at first, and then got mad when he started scratching her screen and pooping in her garden. So her solution was to drop him off 10 miles away from us. We put up signs, and a few days later an elderly couple called and said they had our cat. They really liked him, and had just lost their only cat to old age, so we let them keep him. When we moved to the country we had Oliver and Sam. After 7 months a Coyote got Sam. Oliver was eaten by a coyote when he was 4 years old. I think having an indoor/outdoor cat can be a good thing if you live in the right area. Unfortunately it is not safe for cats where I live.

 

[EweSheep]

100% indoors. She likes to look outside but one time she got out and could not cope with the newness of the green grass and sounds and open air. I think it all depends on the cat and what they want. However you as a responsible owner can figure out whats best for your cat and see what his needs are and go within your means including care, vets and the worst one, the city laws. It is ILLEGIAL for us to have cats that does not have any vaccinations or rabies tags on the cats to roam at loose. We have feral cats that are so bad, their health is pitiful...FeLV or the herpes kind is really running rampant right now and there is no solution except for expensive treatments.

If I was to live out in the county, I have that choice, cats can come and go LOL! However fleas and distemper can be a real problem between housecats and barncats. Let alone rabies which we have never had so far. So we draw the line with my own cat which she prefers to stay in while her buddy likes to come and go and he has to have the full range of shots.

I would say its the responsible owner's choice whether the cat can stay or go outside. Some cats can not cope with outdoor living nor can hunt very well. It is like dumping a housedog out in the country and expect him to survive. Cats are happy wherever they go and stay. Sometimes what cats do want, they will not get it because of their owners looking after them to avoid dangers, ie. city living.