Getting an indoor/outdoor kitten but need advice

[ShrekDawg]

Female cats tend to be the better hunters and love to hunt where as males (exspecially orange males hehe

I have one haha) love to be loved. My cat is a 7 yr old neutered male and is indoor/outdoor. his name is Mittens. he loves to be loved, patted, is a lover boy as in he loves attention and would rather be loved than hunt hehe, is so sweet, and is like the best cat ever, he's also kinda lazy and fattish he's a bit on the chubby side haha lol. Boy cats tend to want to be loved and chill and stuff more than hunt and girls tend to be the hunters of the pride. My cat does have buddies though, they have a little clan/pride. Some neighbors let their cats out and so they formed a pride. Shamu we know because my bro cat sat for them once so we know where he comes from but the other one or 2 we don't know. One is like white with orange spots/patches and one may be a calico so my mom says but he may be the same one and I have never seen so called calico so idk maybe there is only one other cat and it's a 3 cat pride but idk. Shamu is a HUGE (fat haha) black and white long haired cat. During the day Mitty usually stays fairly close like within the property and/or neighborhood and we occasionally see his buddies in our yard/property and then at night he goes off and hangs out with his buddies and hunts and stuff. And I think there may be a black cat too. So he does stay fairly close. Our property is like 3 acres including the circle of woods surrounding our yard (we were the only house they left when they built the condos and then Woodridge Road is behind us (that's houses) then Bay Farm is the condos so we are one of many woods patches left in condo area and pretty big patch at that so we have lots of wildwife. Anywho good luck with your cats. If it was me I would get two, one of each (I love animals). I think it really depends on the individual personality of the cat rather than gender but in general remember males tend to be lovers and females tend to be hunters. good luck

 

[BlazeJester]

I got my two male kittens at 8wks old from a friend who caught & released a feral queen. They have opposite personalities - if they were outdoors cats, one would always be on the hunt and the other would likely never leave the house.

These personalities were easy to spot even at 8 weeks, so spend some time with the kittens you're thinking about before taking them home. My lazy boy fell asleep in my arms while the feisty one wouldn't even look at me and still cannot stand to be held - I'm guessing a happy medium, one you can pick up easily that likes people but is also lively and independent, would be a good bet.

Edited to add: my two boys were neutered yesterday. I'm interested to see how, if at all, their personalities change!

 

[watchdogps]

Statistically speaking females stay closer to home, and this does not change even when neutered. I dont recall the exact numbers, but male cats tend to cover an area something like 10 times the area a female will. Of course there will be individual differences, but this is based on behavior studies done by I think Tufts or Purdue University. if you look, you might be able to find the actual info online.

 

[Kaitie09]

I'll add that it really depends on the cat. I have 5 indoor/outdoors and 3 outdoors. The 5 in/out are brothers and sisters that have been with us since they were 10 days old. All were neutered at 14 weeks. 2 of them stay inside unless it is nice out, and even then, they come in after about 2-3 hours (2 girls). 2 like to stay close to the house and sometimes choose to stay out at night (1 boy and 1 girl). The last boy stays close to the house 3/4 of the time, but will also go missing for a couple days.

Out of the three outside, two are neutered males and one is a spayed female. Again, they have been with us since they were 3 weeks old. The one male is sometimes seasonal, he will go live in the neighbors barn for the winter, but comes back in the spring. The other male hardly leaves the front porch unless to go help feed the chickens with me. The female will go missing for up to 1 1/2 weeks, and then show back up for 3-4 weeks. All of them were totally inside cats until they were 6 months old.

We also have another indoor/outdoor cat but she is a princess and only like to be outside if the temperature is between 75-80 degrees and if it is sunny all day.