How can I transition my cat to be completely indoors?

[Waitbytheriver]

Does anyone have any advice or tips on how to keep my cat happily indoors? Has anyone done this successfully?

My cat is coming up to 3 years old and she currently goes outside. Last year she fell outside and tore her cruciate ligament in her back leg which resulted in an operation, lots of vet visits and 6 weeks cage rest, followed by room rest and then she could be in the house but not go out for a while. I said I wouldn’t let her outside again but she wore me down, relentlessly crying and scratching and yowling and sitting by the door and trying to find any possible escape through windows etc. We made amendments to the place where she fell from to make it safer and let her back out but still try to keep her in as much as possible.

A few weeks ago she came in limping on her front leg. Vets xray show nothing wrong but she still limping just as bad so looks like we are going to have to do strict cage rest once again to see if it heals. I can’t keep doing this. She is so accident prone. Always getting int mischief, always getting stuck somewhere or falling off something, and now we have another period of strict confinement on our hands which was so unbelievably stressful the first time.

I really cannot let her out again after this. We can’t keep going in circles. We do not have a back garden so there is nothing for me to cat proof. She has lots of toys, springs, mice, balls, wands etc but also lots of energy and I do have to work. I can’t sit with her 24 hours a day to play. I play with her in the morning and in the evening before dinner and just before bed. But she’s young and has lots of energy and gets bored easily. A lot of the time she isn’t even interested in her toys and just sits watching me trying to engage with her.

Please can anyone tell me if this is possible? I am trying to do right by her and be responsible but I’m so stressed out at how difficult this is going to be and whether it’s just going to break her spirit. Can anyone help?

I think it’s incredibly cruel to keep cats inside. Unless something unexpected and unavoidable happens to necessitate it. If you’re not in a position to let it out don’t have one. It’s like keeping a horse in a stable 24/7. Cats need to roam and hunt. Get a hamster or a fish.

Yeah I’d leave it up to the cat tbh

of course it’s getting in cat fights and roaming and climbing - this is what cats do!

it’s cruel to control it and stop it being free - you literally want to put it in a prison in your house

Better to have a shorter but fun life than a long unhappy one. Imagine if you were told you could never go out again. It’s a cats natural instinct to roam and no one will ever convince me that they should be kept indoors or in a catio and that’s having had one that got run over after only 4 years. I could have thought with the next one that I’d keep her in because it’s not safe but I’ve let her out as and when she wants to go. She has a cat flap which is never locked and luckily she’s been fine. It would break my heart to see her cooped up inside peering out at the great outdoors but not being able to enjoy it.
If it helps, our friends have a cat that was similar to yours, always up to no good outdoors but as shes got older she’s calmed down and never gets into any mischief any more.

Me too 😂

We built a catio. Well i say we when really DH did it.

The DCats we’re older than yours but were quite happy to go outside fkr a bit then come back in.

There are companies that will do it for you though like ProtectaPet.

Let the poor cat out. If she has known an outside life it’ll be miserable for her to but stuck inside. You just need to deal with the injuries if they happen. That’s part and parcel of owning a pet.

Distract her with a toy/playtime and dreamies maybe some other type of “enrichment” to make the inside more interesting than outside.

I have to go against the grain here. The cat has been used to going outside and it seems cruel to me to now confine it to the indoors. If you really can't risk accident/can't afford potential vet bills then maybe your home isn't right for your car - or your cat isn't right for your home - and you should re-home her to someone with a garden....

This is untrue and ignorant. I have 2 house cats! One is a couch potato and has zero interest in going outside, the second is a scaredy-cat and any time he has gone outside he hides and doesn’t move for days because he’s scared, so we made the decision to keep him in.
My two cats have a wonderful and very spoiled life.

I think it's really sad when cats never experience life outside the four walls they were raised in. I feel the same about birds who spend their lives in cages, or rabbits that live in hutches.

Cats are roamers - it's in their genes and in their DNA. Mine all go out (including the partially blind one) - sometimes they come back with injuries (or carrying some disgusting dead creature for me to deal with) but none have ever needed to see a vet for it.

People say their cats are happy indoors but if they've never known life outside then how do you know that they wouldn't be even happier if you let them out to fulfil their natural instincts?

FWIW I used to keep my cats inside and I used to be the person on these threads saying it was fine to have an indoor cat. I am totally the opposite now!

I believe cats should be able to go outside, if they want to, unless they live in a flat in an inner city.

I have a cat, who falls inside the house - for instance, she walks along the top of the bannisters round the landing….When she fell off, down the stair well, even her brother looked concerned. She’s fallen out the bedroom window into the front garden.. Nobody is allowed to open wide the big upstairs windows now….She’s climbed up the big bookcases and fallen off.. As it so happens, she doesn’t like going outside, unless the temperature is over 25 degrees C. She hasn’t been outside since September!!

I asked the vet about it - they assumed minimal brain damage as a feral kitten, and called her “special”!

IMO, cats can get into trouble anywhere and owners have to accept it!

Your first cat hasn’t known anything different. Once he’d tasted freedom I bet my house he’d choose to have the option to go outside.

Your second cat would come under “unavoidable”.

Just keep her in, she will get used to it. Some cat nip, toys, pet remedy.maybe get her a little friend? I had an outdoor semi feral cat for years. Was moving house, the only option was to bring her in. So shes now fully in door. Took a few days for her to figure out litter tray but she is one of the best behaved cats i have.

Cats shouldn't be kept indoors. It's cruel. I know people with indoor cats and those cats are not normal. It's bad for their mental health.

There are a myriad of reasons why cats need to be kept indoors- mine is blind, for example. Should I let him out into the world to be immediately hit by a car, for his 'mental health'?

It is also commonplace to keep your cats indoors in the US, and widely considered crueller to let them outside. Are you suggesting every cat in the US is mentally impacted?

Blind cat inside seems sensible. Am I suggesting the American way is bad for cats? Heck yes. I used to live there and that was my first experience with 'apartment cats' and they were not like outdoor cats at all. Neurotic I'd say. In general we can't take American attitudes to cat rearing as a model. Declawing cats is still legal in almost every state (it's illegal here in the UK) and around 1/4 indoor cats there still gets declawed. It's monstrous.

You're using this as an example? There is a reason both RSPCA and Cats Protection oppose them - cats are fairly solitary and don't like to be in such crowded spaces. Why do they seem happy? In Japan it's been known for them to use drugs. In other places it's generally selection - the ones who rebel get sent away. The remaining ones seem docile and content mostly because they 'escape' the stress by sleeping even more than regular cats, and they seem friendly because they are trained to respond for treats and food. Don't be fooled by the consumer experience, cat cafes are not as fun as you might think for a cat.

I second watching some “catification” Jackson Galaxy stuff. High shelves and places they can climb indoors will help. You could also consider harness training and then could take the cat out for walks (if you don’t mind the odd strange look!).

My boy got hit by a car and had 4 months as an indoor cat while he recovered, I used a lot of Bird TV to keep him occupied, the fake aquariums you can get are good too.

I let him back out again in the end as he was really suffering inside and his quality of life was awful. For him I thought a shorter life outside would be better than a longer life inside, but we live in the countryside and he roams for miles. It really depends on the cat.

I can see circumstances where a blind cat could be kept inside if its quality of life can be ensured. Buy yes, I am prepared to say that most indoor cats do have sub optimal quality of life/mental health.

Thanks for all of the responses. Just to be clear though, my stance is that some cats do okay indoors and some don’t. Some cats that I know much prefer to stay indoors, even though they can go out. And others have always been inside and don’t know the difference. My cats have always gone out, and I believe that if a cat is very stressed at staying indoors and it’s detrimental to their mental health, you should let them out and accept that the risks are part of owning a cat. I am just asking for experience from anyone who has made the switch with their cat successfully, and how. Because, given my cats track record, it would be unlikely that she will never come home injured again (although, maybe she won’t, I can’t see into the future so who knows). For this reason, I just want to try and see what happens. I can’t in good conscience keep opening the door for my cat knowing full well that she is clumsy, accident prone, already has two dodgy legs, and may very well come off worse next time. She’s been lucky so far to only have leg injuries (the first one, we weren’t sure if they would need to amputate). I don’t ever want to be in a position where I’m scraping my cat off the road hating myself for having not at least tried to keep her safe knowing damn well that I kept letting her re-injure herself. If I try, and it fails.. well at least I know that there’s no other way and that she won’t accept indoor life. If that is the case, I will let her out. I tend to agree that a shorter, happier, fulfilled life is better than a long miserable depressed one. But what if there’s an option for a long, safe, healthy, happy life indoors and I don’t even try it? It won’t be forever anyway because once we move house, we will be prioritising a lovely big garden that we can cat proof

Would your cat watch tv? Mine enjoys Cat TV with mice, birds etc.

Some cats aren't that bothered about going out but some are.
Our cat was initially an indoor cat, ds1 moved into a flat with him but because he was always trying to get out he got out a 4 inch gap at the top of a window and ended up falling 4 stories from a balcony.
He now has a metal hip and would have needed an amputation if we had not had good insurance.
When ds moved home we decided he would be happier being an outdoor cat even if this incurred some risk.
You need nerves of steel for an outdoor cat but ultimately I think a shorter fulfilled life is better than a long dull one.
Re N American cats I lived in Canada and a friend had a beautiful Bengal who was always desperate to get out. I just remember feeling sad for it that it was always howling at windows, no life imo.

We had a cat who had previously been a stray outdoor cat. When we got DCat from the shelter we knew DCat had FIV and would need to be kept inside (DCat was a bit of a scrapper and would have continued to infect other cats once let outside). DCat did not care about being kept inside at all, as it turned out to everyone's surprise. DCat was happy with various different rooms and options for where to sleep. Baking in the sunshine by a window in summer or in front of the fire in winter. Played with toys, had toy tunnels/tents etc. Was not a climber so did not need anything high up. Lots of cats have to transition from outdoor access to indoor only due to FIV and although the reasons for the humans imposing this are different, the cats don't know that and most cats are fine with it.

Our cat ( now recently deceased , 12 years old ) never showed any desire to go out.
You could keep the back door open and she would sit there but never took the plunge of going out .
But yours sounds like they want to be out so whilst not impossible , probably not very achievable.

You may find they try to escape through open windows or doors when you are coming / going .
Good luck if you try .

Do you think she might get used to a harness? Perhaps you could walk her on a lead, like a dog?