Letting kittens out for the first time - WWYD?

[mustbetimeforacreamtea]

They've had a few trips round the garden on their leads. One of the girls keen to be out the other not impressed. How would you go about letting them out on their own? Think the keen one might take quite a while to get back in.....

[cozietoesie]

I usually start building up fires in the house/put the heating on, array some tasty nosh and wait for bad weather outside. (And then go outside with them so that they associate me with the back of the house in their mind's eye.)

In the end, though, you'll have to cut the reins at some point if they're to be outside-going cats. Just let them take it at their own pace.

(I take it they're vaccinated, neutered and chipped? How old are they?)

[Fluffycloudland77]

I let ours on a Sunday morning before breakfast.

It's nerve wracking stuff. He was a happier cat for it though.

[katiegee]

We took our two for wee walks around the back garden a few times, then opened the back door and then them get on with it. Our garden is fairly enclosed and it took them ages to make it over the fence to the neighbours garden. We left the back door open the first few times we let them out so they could come and go as they pleased. Then we started to close the door so they learnt to meow when they wanted back in. It's nerve racking letting them out at the start, they seem too tiny! Shaking a bag of treats always got their attention to lure them back inside again!

[DulcetMoans]

You do just have to do it, as scary as that is. I let mine go out hungry to make sure they come back. Give them half their normal breakfast or similar.

Spent the first hour in the garden with them and then leave all the back doors open. She loved it, ran in and out of the house miaowing - but took about two weeks to leave the garden.

[RubbishMantra]

I'm lucky, insofar as I have an enclosed courtyard garden, so was able to let him out as soon as I brought him home. (He'd had his vaccinations.) He was too little to make the big jump onto the wall.

He 's 6 months now, and still hasn't attempted the leap over the wall, and refuses to open the cat-flap, so I have to blu-tak it open.

Both my cats have Loc8ors on their collars, so that takes the worry out of the whole business a bit.

[mustbetimeforacreamtea]

6mths old and spayed, chipped, vaccinated. Very agile, were jumping on top of wardrobes and doors by 4 mths.

Did anybody butter their cat's paws?

[RubbishMantra]

No buttering of paws here. It's an old wives tale. Cats are lactose intolerant anyway.

[Fluffycloudland77]

I think my cat would be very wtf? If I buttered any part of him.

[givemushypeasachance]

Just a tip for catflap learning - my boys had the idea about going through the flap but didn't quite get that they had to push quite hard to get past the initial magnet-pull keeping it closed. If you hold the flap open fully with tape or a rubber band then they'll never learn about the need to push - so instead try propping it open with something like a clothes peg. Just push the flap ajar and then stick a peg quite near the top of the flap on one or both sides, then they still have to push a bit to get through. Gradually move the peg further down the flap so it's only slightly ajar and they have to push more. That gets them the idea about having to use some force and not just having a cat-sized hole to saunter through. Best used under supervision because obviously you can only prop the flap partially open one way at a time!

[RubbishMantra]

Ooh, thanks for that mushy, sounds like a plan!

At the moment he just sort of rattles it with his paw, and now adult cat has decided he's forgotten to use it, and stands there staring wistfully at me...

[Greenrememberedhills]

Cats learn direction by smell. I just opened the back door and let them take themselves. They usually don't go further than their smell memory, unless there are disturbances around.

It also worked on the two times we moved- they start by the back door, go a little further each time, logging bit by bit the smell of the route home.

[cozietoesie]

One of the more difficult things to try and cater for is 'other cats' - the kits may not have seen another cat since their Mom and may make mistakes in their interactions having not been brought up with them or learned cat manners in a multi-cat situation.

At the end of the day, you'll have to leave them to work out their own destiny on this - but do you know if you have - say - any mean toms hanging around?

[mustbetimeforacreamtea]

Lots of cats around but they've not been coming into the garden since spotting the kittens in the window.

Did posters find that their cats automatically started toileting outside in preference to the litter tray or did they need encouragement?

[givemushypeasachance]

Mine came back in to use their trays the first few days, but I'd put some woodchip at the end of the garden (the rest is law/gravel/decking so not a lot of flower bed type nice digging area!) and I started putting soiled litter out on the woodchip area then they seemed to get the idea pretty quickly. Now they do their business outside except when they're shut indoors overnight.

[clayspaniel]

Put them out before a meal, so being hungry will encourage them to go back. We waited until ours was about 9 month old before going out. Like Katiegee said, shaking a packet of treats works, once they come to associate the shaking sounds with treats. We got our cat used to the sound of a bell which we ring when her food is ready. As she so associates that sound with food, we can also ring it at other times if we want her to come in.