Moving house...can indoor cats learn to be outdoor and indoor cats?

[tigana]

Currently have 2 cats, both have always been indoor cats due to busy roads (and owner-anxiety after previous loss.

Hopefully we will be moving in a few weeks to a place with a very enclosed garden and no busy roads nearby. I would like the cats to be able to pootle about outside.

Can they change? How can I help?
Particularly interested, from a fragrance point of view, in training them to crap outside instead of using litter tray in the house .

Cats will adapt. They're such independent animals.

Re the litter tray - try putting it outside whichever door they use to go outside - and you'll probably find eventually they won't use it. Also feed them in the morning or atleast let them have their normal meal by midday and encourage them to go outside during the afternoon - that way they will empty their bowels whilst outside and shouldn't need a tray during the night.

Should I put the litter tray on the inside of the door first...to sort of slowly move them towards outside? If I just pop the tray outside, one of them is liable to just crap on the floor somewhere (she is the one I am concerned about as she is...um...not the brightest feline in the world, and "outside" may well phase her completely).

Well when you move house regardless of whether they go outside or not you should keep them in for atleast a week - they need to adjust to their new surroundings. Then gradually move the litter tray towards the inside of the door they are most likely to use whilst at the same time letting them go out. They need to suss out their own doorstep/smells/surroundings etc. Then after a few days of them going in and out I'd put the tray outside and if needs be let them use the tray just outside the door - not ideal but you're not completely expecting them to use the garden straight away. I would strongly suggest you get them micro chipped or atleast wear a collar, especially if they've not gone outside very much because you probably find the slightest noise will spook them for a while before they are fully adjusted to the 'big outside world' !!! Good luck. x

My parents had 2 cats that lived in a flat for the first 6 and 9 years of their lives and they moved very successfully to a house with access to the outside. Admittedly the older noe still used the litter tray but only if it was raining.

How about moving an outdoor cat to a house where he will need to be kept in? Moving to house with busy road. Will he go mad being kept inside?