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Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

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Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

The litter tray

Does everyone keep their cats in at night?

58 replies

Youllskimmer · 27/02/2011 19:42

Hi.

I'm in a quandary, my two cats are nearly one and I let them out during the day but keep them in at night.

They seemed ok with this but one is finding more ingenious ways of getting out at night.

The traffic here is very quiet, but I was advised by a long time cat owner to keep them in at night as that is when hers have gone missing.

What do people think?

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Choufleur · 27/02/2011 19:43

No. One of them would try to eat/claw his way out. If fact did once eat through some ply wood covering the cat flap not long after we had moved.

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sharbie · 27/02/2011 19:44

1 indoor all the time
other 2 do what they want

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OldLadyKnowsNothing · 27/02/2011 19:44

I keep one of mine in full time (he's too stupid to find his way home) and the other comes in at teatime and stays in till morning. This is just the way things have panned out; the access route for the "outdoor" cat is my bathroom window, and I'm not leaving that open all night at this time of year!

In the summer I sometimes leave the wimdow open (though that can lead to midges round the bathroom lightbulb) and the outdoor cat suits herself. We live on a farm.

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BertieBotts · 27/02/2011 19:46

Don't have a cat flap, so if the cat is out when I go to bed, he stays out. I used to worry and call him but then I forgot one day and it was fine so I don't worry too much any more.

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Youllskimmer · 27/02/2011 19:53

Thanks everyone.

I'm a bit of a worrier. One has moved a chair and a piece of plywood that was blocking the cat flap to get out.

I think I'll have to let him get on with it. The other one is at the top of the stairs so I think he'll stay in.

I suppose they'll be ok. I did a google search and one website said keep them in as gangs kidnap them for their fur.

OP posts:

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Choufleur · 27/02/2011 22:29

I think it's highly unlikely that it would be kidnapped for its fur.

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oopslateagain · 27/02/2011 22:34

I try to keep mine in at night - I go out and call them an hour before I go to bed, they usually do come in then. If any are still out I call again just before bed.

I'll happily leave my bruiser of a boy out all night, but I do like to get my 'old boy' in when it's cold out as he has arthritis. If they don't come in when I'm going to bed, I'll latch the catflap so they can come in but not go out again.

We have a kitten 9 months old, and at the mo I'm not confident enough for her to be out at night so I do make sure she's in. I ended up outside in the pouring rain on Friday night, looking for her as she hadn't come in since teatime. I finally found her at 2.15am, dh had locked her in the shed!

Yes I am slightly insane overprotective.

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Jojay · 27/02/2011 22:37

Mine can go out whenever he likes, 24 hrs a day.

But he spends most nights on my bed

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catinthehat2 · 27/02/2011 22:49

I think most foxes would thoroughly approve of leaving cats out all night.
Om nom nom.
Also anyone fed up with having a pet can more easily get shot at night because drivers find them harder to avoid in the dark. At least according to the grass verges round here in the mornings. Nothing like seeing a tabby corpse with a collar on on the trip to work.
So go right ahead I say.

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threefeethighandrising · 27/02/2011 22:58

I've always let my cats out at night. They're nocturnal creatures, why wouldn't you?!

Two of them died of old age.

Two of them died by being hit by cars, in the daytime.

I think it's a bit odd and really quite mean not to let cats out at night tbh (unless you have particular circumstances such as they're very old).

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GetOrfMoiLand · 27/02/2011 23:01

I let my cats out at night. Mind you I live in a cul de sac, bordering on a cemetary, so don't have to worry about busy roads.

They have access to a cat flap.

I would not consider making them stay inside tbh.

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mamatomany · 27/02/2011 23:05

The boy goes out, he pooh's on purpose if he stays in for more than a few hours, little git.

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LoisSanger · 27/02/2011 23:07

Our cat stays in but we haven't got a cat flap and she is quite old and lazy

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emptyshell · 28/02/2011 07:53

Mine's disabled so was rehomed to us on condition that she was indoor only.

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DerangedSibyl · 28/02/2011 07:58

Cats aren't dogs, they barely even qualify as pets - I'd put mine out if she would EVER go out.

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bamboobutton · 28/02/2011 07:58

i let mine out, if i didn't we would be kept awake all night by the yowling, desperate scratching and them flinging themselves at the door trying to get out.

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exoticfruits · 28/02/2011 08:15

The idea that you keep them in seems weird to me. Mine would be very unhappy, he comes and goes as he pleases which mainly means he goes at night and sleeps in the day.

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GretchenWiener · 28/02/2011 08:20

No. Why?

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BendyBob · 28/02/2011 08:20

No we keep ours in at night and they seem to expect to come in now although it's harder to get them in during warmer months.

In the winter I think they could well die of cold outside all night. Apart from that I worry about foxes.

They like to come in and out all through the day. We don't have a cat flap and once we're in bed they'd be out for hours until morning and I know they'd hate it and kick up a right row to be let in.

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ethelina · 28/02/2011 08:22

Mine have full access via catflap, I've noticed they seem to stay in most of the night and disappear off early morning. We live in a very quiet rural area surrounded by farmland.

When we lived in a town with just 1 cat I always kept him in as we lived near a busy road.

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MarionCole · 28/02/2011 08:22

Our would go mad(der) if we kept it in, it sleeps all day and goes out hunting at night

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eden263 · 28/02/2011 08:23

Catinthehat - unnecessarily harsh

I have a cat flap and mine do their own thing, day or night. I have 7 cats and only one doesn't go out at all because she's scared of her own shadow. I've had 2 cats in the past who lived outside with no problem, and have had another 10 on top of that over the years and only 1 has ever gone missing.

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Fluffycloudland77 · 28/02/2011 08:41

Mine knows it's time to come in about 9 or 9.30. He then puts himself to bed and stays there till we get up. We have foxes around here, plus he won't wear his collar so I can't put a light reflective collar on him. And people drive like lunatics in the country.

We have to put an empty calor gas bottle over the cat flap though.

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HenriettaFarthingay · 28/02/2011 14:18

I prefer my boy to be in at night, but if he doesn't come in before we go to bed, then I just leave him. He does have a couple of places he can go if he's cold or wants a snooze, but mostly he'll perch up on the bedroom windowsill miaowing to get back in again around 4 am, hence why I would prefer he came in before we go to bed.

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LifeInTheSlowLane · 28/02/2011 17:55

We've had our two rescue cats for six weeks now and they've just started to go out. We don't have a cat flap so once they've come in at tea time I wouldn't let them out again, but I suppose if they didn't come in they'd have to stay out IYSWIM. I remember in the olden days when I was young people always used to put their cats out at night, my parents certainly did. I asked the rescue people about foxes because there are lots round here, and they said an adult cat could hold its own against a fox.

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