how often and for how long does

[OnlyHappyWhenEating]

your cat go out ? (if at all)
We recently got a rescue cat and he is lovely :-) we have just started to let him out and he seems to love it! He has a flap and eventually we hope to let him come and go as he pleases. But I am worried he will just stay out all the time!

It can be many hours especially on warm summer days and nights. It depends on the individual though.

Mine don't enjoy being out in the rain and snow but adore the sunshine and will stay out for 22/24 hours in the summer.
As long as your boy knows there is food at home, I can virtually guarantee he will come back.

In the winter my cat used to go out for about thirty seconds to poo/wee as close to the door as she could manage, then shot back inside! We don't have a catflap in this house as have a terrible Tom down the road who already manages to get in if I so much as leave the window ajar. When the weather's bad I don't bother putting her out as she just races straight round and yowls at the window to be let back in again!

In the summer she is often out all day. There's usually one of us here to let her in if she calls / gets into a scrap with bastard Tom but sometimes she is nowhere to be seen all day. My neighbour tells me she is often asleep in their flowerbed

Summer - gone all day and sometimes all night. There is a farm down the road so I suspect micey hunting.

Winter - glued to their beds if they can get away with it.

Thanks for all these replies. We let him out for the second time last night at 7pm and he came back with a juicy present for us (dead mouse!) he was so chuffed with himself, and I am ashamed to say, we were so proud! (we have a bit of a mouse infestation in the garage...) he seems to love it outside; he is staying out for nearly most of the day and night! I just miss him when he is gone... oh well, as long as he is happy. I have read so many opinions about whether to let cats out (at night or in day) and some folk think it is dangerous for them, esp at night.. but I don't want to wrap him in cotton wool!

We had this debate when we lived in town and kept our cat in at night. Since living further out we just let them come and go as they please and generally they seem happier.

Not all cats are outdoor adventure-seekers, one of mine does tend to stay within about 50 feet of the house but the other one is off down to the canal, to the farm, miles away I think sometimes. Its not fair to demand he stay in at night.

I keep ours in at night, apparently they are more likely to be run over in the dark.

I had to pick a rta victim off the road once very early morning and ring the council to collect it, it wasnt nice.

I dont see it as mollycoddling more protecting him.

Boy cat comes and goes but always comes home for night sleep. And he loves the snow.
Girl cat never leaves the garden, will happily stay out 24 hours if the weather is good. She takes any all bad weather as a personal insult and totally all my fault. So from Oct to March or so will only go about 8 steps out to pee/poo and then straight backin complaining loudly.

My cat is in from about 4pm in an evening, summer or winter, and I lock the cat flap, winter she doesn't like the weather, but in summer after popping in for tea she was going hunting across the really busy main road into the fields, and nearly getting hit when dashing back across (it's just before a 60 limit so even though it's actually 30, some cars can be doing 50 plus on that stretch), so she is in.
I let her out when we get up around 6am, although she seems to be happy to stay in bed until dinner at the weekends on DSS's bed.