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The litter tray

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

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Original poster

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?

OP posts:

catinthehat2 · 28/02/2011 18:27

"an adult cat could hold its own against a fox"

wow! they have good imaginations.

simpson · 28/02/2011 19:12

I don't have a cat flap either atm (although planning to get one put in when I get a new back door)

Mine come in just before I go to bed. I make sure they are super hungry

Once the cat flap is in, I want to get rid of the litter trays so will keep the cat flap open & let them come & go as they please

Choufleur · 28/02/2011 19:40

Really - you think they might die from the cold. Despite their warm furry coats? What do you suppose wild animals do to keep warm?

OldLadyKnowsNothing · 28/02/2011 19:54

We had temperatures as low as -20C just a couple of months ago, and I kept them both in for days. Sometimes wild animals, complete with furry coats, die from hypothermia too.

Choufleur · 28/02/2011 20:01

It was that cold where I am but still -10C at night. The cats just went in and out (probably spent more time in though) when they wanted.

OldLadyKnowsNothing · 28/02/2011 20:03

I'm sure my black cat would have gone out (she gets a little stir-crazy) but as her access to the great outdoors is via my bathroom window and I was unwilling to freeze half the house, she was stuck indoors!

QuietTiger · 05/03/2011 18:05

My (9) cats are pampered spoilt babies farmcats who come in and stay in at night. To the point that my farmer DH has been known to get up at 3am and go out calling them on occasion because one of the little sods darlings has stayed out all night.

It means I don't disturb DH worrying lie awake wondering what they are doing if they are all in. Plus it's much safer for them.

minieggfan · 05/03/2011 21:50

"an adult cat could hold its own against a fox"

wow! they have good imaginations."

I have seen our cat facing down a fox in the back garden. The fox just slunk away after a few minutes.

Slambang · 05/03/2011 22:05

I have grown up with cats and have always had a cat in adult life. We have always had a catflap(or cat accessible window in the pre catflap era). We have never attempted keeping them in at night - how on earth do you get your cat to agree to turn in for a curfew? We have lived in foxy rural areas and foxy urban areas. Our cats have variously died of old age, one got caught in a snare , kidney disease etc. Never once has a cat of ours been got at by a fox.

I am now seriosuly considering keeping our current mog in at night as she sits on the roof outside our bedroom window every morning at dawn and cries loudly to be let in (in spite of never having been allowed through that window in her whole life). She deserves the bloody foxes.

uggmum · 05/03/2011 22:11

I prefer my cat (Rupert) to be out at night and in during the day. At night he can be on the prowl and the roads are quieter and I feel he is safer. We have a front porch and he has a covered cat bed there if it's cold.

He goes out around 11pm he comes in at 7am, eats and sleeps all day and evening.

I originally had 2 cats but one of them was run over and killed during the day, which is why I now only let him out at night.

LaWeasel · 05/03/2011 22:15

Cat flap. He can come in/out whenever he wants.

I can see the problem if you don't have a catflap, but cat's aren't stupid they know to come in if it is too cold or to run away from big animals.

Ours beat a dog that jumped our fence back to the house. Dog hit the back door. Cat safely inside. And he still had a dodgy wonky hip at the time!

DontCallMeBaby · 06/03/2011 17:26

Ours come and go freely. When they first started going out we would set the catflap to 'in only' as it went dark, then locked it completely once we'd seen them both in. However they then got a bit bigger and stronger, and managed to break out of the flap while it was on 'in only', thus locking themselves OUT. So we stopped - in theory we could isolate them from the catflap by shutting the conservatory door, but they never seem to be in at the same time, at least not until we're all tucked up in bed.

HarrietSchulenberg · 06/03/2011 17:41

Mine is in at night. Complete myth that cats are nocturnal, they just get used to patterns that are set for them.
Most cats I know that go out at night are put out by their owners who seem to think that that's what you do with cats. They either yowl and fight each other till the small hours or sit huddled on their own doorsteps till they get let in in the morning.
Having said that my neighbour's cat hates being in at night - he's the ringleader of the feline fight club and loves it that way.

nobodyimportant · 06/03/2011 17:43

We used to shut them in but the little sods darlings got too good at hiding from us so gave it up. They have also yet to invent a catflap that ours can't break out of if it's shut. It takes drastic measures to keep them in when we need to. Still, they are 14 now so I guess they've learnt how to look after themselves!

Deaddei · 06/03/2011 17:45

Mine has a cat flap set so she can go out but has to be let back in, so I don't have dead mice etc waiting for me.
She sits outside our bedroom window and miaows to be let in.....
We back on to a cricket green and there are hoards of foxes here.

IngridBergmann · 06/03/2011 17:56

We have a flap and never try to keep her in. She's 12 now. Once she did go missing for a day, actually twice, first when she came to our old house for the first time, and she came back within 24 hours to great cries of welcome and relief. Second time, the same thing again, exploring the boundaries when we moved here. Gone for best part of a day and night, then joyful homecoming

She is mainly sleeping on my bed at night but does go out and come back with mice/birds/pizza.

pinkhebe · 06/03/2011 20:49

ours comes in about 10.30-11pm and sleeps on my feet until about 5.30-6 am

BaroqueAroundTheClock · 06/03/2011 20:54

well my lovely rescue cat escaped (back door hadn't been shut properly it turned out) at 3am on Saturday morning - he' not been out yet as we'd only had him a month. He scampered back in at 11.30 (much to the DS's relief).

I let him out at lunchtime today - and whe I called him for his dinner at 7.30 he came back in and he's staying in until the morning again.

Last night he scrached and yowled at the back door on and off for about an hour, but then realised that he wasn't going out and didn't bother again all night.

seeker · 06/03/2011 20:54

IMHO it's cruel to keep cats in at all - unless, as one poster said they are disabled in some way.

Cats have cat business to attend to - they need to be able to come and go at will. If you share your life with cats you have to accept that they may come to grief before their time - but that's part of the deal. Keeping them in is for their owner's benefit, not the cat's. Selfish, I think.

BaroqueAroundTheClock · 06/03/2011 20:59

I seem to recall that one of the things I had to agree to with the rescue centre was to keep him in at night.

One cat on their website at the moment that needs homing is actually down as either needing to be adopted to someone living in the countryside - or as indoor cat - because it has absolutley zero road sense whatsoever

SecretNutellaFix · 06/03/2011 21:01

Mine are totally house cats except for supervised access in summer to the back yard.

I would rather have my cats healthy and happy than missing, injured or killed and I think that by calling servants of housecats cruel, is not on at all.

Mine sit on the window sill have access to fresh water all the time, have toys spread throughout the house, sleep wherever they want, have food daily, a clean litter tray and don't have to worry about being attacked by other cats or getting hit by the arsewipes who screech around the estate in wallycars.

They are much loved and I resent being called cruel by someone who does not live my life.

BaroqueAroundTheClock · 06/03/2011 21:06

also night time seems to be the favoured time for little (or probably "big" as well) shits to shoot cats with air guns round here. Thankfully haven't heard any reports recently - but every so often we seem to get a spate of cats being shot at night by the fuckers.

SecretNutellaFix · 06/03/2011 21:09

Same here- the house over the road from my kitchen window had their kitten shot twice in the shoulder last year. He is now gone from being confident and happy to roughhouse to just tolerant of being stroked quietly and he starts at any sudden noise.

seeker · 07/03/2011 13:54

You can resent it all you like, secretnutellafix, but it doesn't make me wrong!

BaroqueAroundTheClock · 07/03/2011 15:00

well if it's all right with you seeker - I'll be sticking to the agreement I made with the CPL when I got my rescue cat - that I'd keep him in at night (barring the other night when he escaped out of the back door which hadn't been closed properly).

He's out right now, and when I call him in for dinner he'll stay in. The stats say that more cats are killed at night in traffic accidents, get into my more fights, and round here at least are more likely to be shot at with an air gun are enough to keep him in.

He was in last night, meowed at the window and door for about 20 minutes and then went and curled up and went to sleep.

Between September and 3 nights ago he'd been indoors the whole time - from September to end of January at the fosterers, waiting to be rehomed. At that point he'd shown a "vague interest" in going outside. And it was only in the last week here that he started to show any interest in beyond the doors and windows, And had been quite happy in. Of course he's even happier now he's out during the day.

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