Leaving cats alone for 36 hours?

[grannysmiff]

Would you feel comfortable leaving cats alone in the house with lots of food and water around, leaving at say 10am one day and returning at tea time the next?

No. There'll be poo everywhere and your house could get trashed. They could spill the water within 5 minutes of you leaving them and eat all the food

you don't have a cat, do you?

We did this and it was absolutely fine.
I asked the vet before we left if the cat would be better at home or the cattery and the vet said that she rather would leave her own cats home alone for a couple of nights.
She advised us to: jam open all of the interior doors so that they don’t get stuck. Leave several water bowls and food bowls dotted throughout the house. Turn off your water at the mains, as apparently some cats can turn on the taps! Also get a second litter tray if you can.
Have a good trip!

Agree it should be fine. I've done it.

If there's a chance I could be delayed the next day I ask someone either to pop in or just have a look from outside to make sure the house is still standing and cat flap no broken or anything.

Prepare to be made to suffer on your return! Make sure you come back baring plenty of Dreamies!!

Oh, also -- a healthy, non-overweight cat can survive a WEEK without water or food with no ill effects, so "what if the water dish overturns" is very OTT for a 36 hour absence. Cats are natively a desert creature, made for going for long periods without water when necessary. Not to say it'd be great to leave them without (and it can even be dangerous with an older or obese cat), but a healthy cat would be angry but not in ill health from being left 36 hours with nothing to eat or drink.

Yes done this for 3 days with a cat feeder 2 large bowls of water and cat flap. They were fine and probably happier than being carted off to the cattery.

Yep we do a maximum of 2 nights (only 1 cat though) with an automated feeder, extra water bowls and extra litter trays. He's always been fine and is generally fast asleep when we get home! He's not allowed in the kitchen though...

(our cat sitter was once highly neglectful and left a cat in a closed room accidentally for 4 DAYS. We were shocked and dismayed when we arrived home and realized what had happened. She had been polite enough to do all her litter business on a single towel in the room, and was in fine condition. We took her to the vet in a panic, but that's where we learned that cats are actually very resilient about thirst -- the vet says he sees something like this relatively frequently, and it never has a negative impact unless it's more than a week or the cat had existing health issues.)

My psychotic rescue cat, hater of everyone and pretty much as dumb as a log? Yes certainly. He'd be relieved to get rid of us for a day or two. We've done this, though not left inside as Psycho prefers outdoors. It depends on the cat.

Depends what they are like...are they the type to have a party and trash the place?
But 36 hours should be ok with enough food and water.
I've done it a couple of times before and they were fine.

Yes I do this a lot - we often go away for the weekend. I have a timed cat feeder that dispenses food at the cat''s usual meal times and he has a cat flap so comes and goes as he pleases.

We generally feed him before we go and the feeder takes care of the next 4 meals. In the event of our being delayed I have a friend who will pop in and feed him if necessary

Messyjessy I have had cats, one was killed on the road and foxes had ripped him open before I found him, he was 3 and his brother, my last cat died suddenly aged 5 from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and I can't bear to have any more so sorry if I come across as paranoid.

of course. Being able to do this is the reason I have cats, not dogs. We leat our cats at home for almost 3 weeks this year with our neighbour popping in every day. We've got CCTV and it looked to me as if the cats enjoyed having the house to themselves and rarely moved off the beds!

Those who have left their cats for 2-3+ nights, do you confine them to one room or give them the run of the house? We are having to leave ours for 3 nights this Christmas and I feel they'd be safer just in the kitchen (they have a catflap there and like to spend a lot of their time outside anyway) but happier if we let them roam the house as it has all their favourite sleeping places!

Turn off your water at the mains, as apparently some cats can turn on the taps!
I hadn't thought about that one of our cats loves tap water so it's only a matter of time before he learns to do that!

Yes no problem. I have two indoor cats and have left them for up to 3 nights before. I leave plenty of bowls of dried food and loads and loads of water bowls. I make sure all internal doors are wedged open so they can't accidentally get stuck in a room and I put to lid down on the toilet and turn the oven off at the wall so they can't accidentally turn the knobs! I leave loads of blankets on the sofas, beds etc and they have the time of their lives sleeping undisturbed by us. When we come home one always comes to the door to greet us, I have to go looking for the other one and usually find her on a bed giving me daggers for waking her up.

Invest in an automatic feeder with a timer on it. Ensure they have enough food and water to see them through and clean litter. If you're scared of them being alone leave the tv, a radio and a light on for them x

We leave ours Fri night to Sun morning fairly often in summer when we camp. They are fine and dandy. Always leave a big extra water bowl out just in case.

Any more than 2 nights and we take them to the cattery - just coz the little one drives the old one a bit mental and she might kill him

Ps our cats a miserable sod and ignores us whether we're there or not. He didn't realise babies grew into toddlers 😂

I wouldn’t. I have 4 cats and I have a pet sitter who comes twice a day when ever we’re away.

Our cat managed to close a bedroom door on herself thankfully neighbour heard her and had the key so we just gave her access to kitchen and the hall

We do leave them when we go away for weekends. We also have a timed food dispencer. They don't like it though and one cries for a bit when we're back.

Our cats can go three nights unattended. We set up a webcam to make sure they're roaming and eating their food.

We always wedge the internal doors open or leave something so the door wouldn't close completely if they go crazy and knock a door shut.

Any longer and we get a cat sitter.

Yes. Wouldn't be an issue. Mine have cat flap so no worries.

If you're concerned about drinking water you can completely fill the kitchen sink and plug it. They're not so good at pulling plugs and that's liters of water.

Our cat was accidentally locked in a bedroom (with ensuite) for 5 days..she was fine when we got home; drank water out toilet;weed on bath mat and only 2 poos.bloody starving but 15 years later she's still fine!