is it unkind to keep cats indoors when you have outside space?

[Ponders]

we are getting a couple of kittens soon. I am mindful of people complaining about other people's cats crapping in their gardens, & also I don't want to discourage birds from ours.

& we won't have a cat flap anyway.

so would it be kinder, or not, to keep them indoors?

I keep my two indoors as I live on a road that can get busy at peak times. The breeder also made it a condition of the sale that I keep them indoors as this breed are not at all streetwise!

They are very happy but my house is quite large and they can really run around. If they couldn't run around as much as they do they would become quite overweight so would probably need a special indoor cat food.

I do occasionally take them out on the harness/cat lead for a walk around the garden. One of them likes it and will sit in the trampoline enclosure to soak up some sun but the other one can't wait to get back indoors.

The downside is the litter tray which needs changing everyday.

thanks, Angels

these are not pedigree so goodness knows how wise they are, street- or in general...the road isn't particularly busy at the front, but if they did go out it would be in a small walled backyard - not that they couldn't shin over the gate if they wanted to, of course!

are yours one of those big strong breeds like Maine Coon? are ordinary cats likely to enjoy walking in a harness? (my DSs, both in late teens, would like to do that with them )

agree that the litter tray is the downside of keeping them indoors. DH isn't keen on getting cats at all, & he's generally the first one up, so if it's too toxic we may have to rethink on his account

Mine are Burmese , the problem with them is that they rink they are human!

They are quite dog like in that they will rush up to people ready to be petted and jump up at visitors and climb around their necks

They would go home with the first person who stopped to stroke them in the street and then get lost.

I think you have to get a cat used to the harness from a very early age ( I tried it on an older cat that I got from the cat protection league to get him familiar with our garden - it didn't go well!)

Our cat, she is 17 yrs old, (used to have 2, but only one left) is an indoor cat. Happy and healthy.

Our bengal goes out but not at peak times.

Some cats are not bothered about going out anyway so it's not a problem.

I have always kept my cat as an indoor cat, both my old girl and now the new kitten.

Life expectancy is hugely better for an indoor cat.

There is always plenty to do in here.

My cat is an indoor cat. We did let him out to begin with but he hid under bushes and was frightened of everything (including pigeons!) and basically couldn't wait to go back in the house. He seems happy enough as an indoor moggy, his favourite place is by the half-open window so he can see the pigeons but is in no danger of being too close to them

So yeah, some cats cope well with living indoors all the time.

Also, if you're worried about discouraging birds, an option could be to give your cat a collar with a bell on it.

Have you sellected the kittens or still in the thinking stage? Cats with FIV have to be indoor cats, so if you are looking for a couple of cats you might consider them.

If you do take them on Cats' Protection (only have experience of them) cover their medical bills for life because they can get ill quickly.

I have two rescue cats, got them at 8 weeks old, they are now nearly 5. They have never been outside (other than once when I attempted those cat leads, they did not like and I felt stupid!). I have a garden which opens onto a field with a playpark. We are surrounded by a road, but a residential one rather than a busy one.
I decided not to let them out because when I first got them there was a spate of people shooting cats with air rifles. I could not stand the thought.

Over the years I've often thought about attempting to change them into outdoor cats, as they are so settled I doubt they would go far. Especially now I'm pregnant, I wonder how hard it will be to keep them in when a child is coming and going. But the thought of anything happening to them because I let them out kills me, so it probably wont happen.

They have each other, toys, large scratching posts, essentially their own room (it's really hubbys study, but they disagree). They seem perfectly happy. Only furniture they have ever scratched is hubbys office chair which has been pretty much handed over to them so they don't scratch other places.

My cats originally had to be indoor cats as it was a condition of the rescue place, we kept that up for three years, but last year when I was doing the garden I forgot to shut the door and they joined me outdoors. I noticed they loved it, rolling around and laying in the sun, and didn't wander much, as spayed females I think they don't like to go far... and I decided to give it a trial and opened the catflap. They love it now.

However, for three years they were very happy as housecats and had plenty of space to play indoors. I didn't feel cruel keeping them in.

I think it's a judgement call about what, overall, offers your cat the best quality of life. And I say this after a friend lost his cat (with the same name as mine so there's a special attachment) during the week in a car accident.

I would say that as a very general principle cats should have access to the outside. However, there are loads of exceptions to this which aren't just about human convenience but about what's best for the cat - I have another friend whose cat is totally deaf, so he lives indoors as to let him out would be very cruel. He also lives on a busy road.

Cats Protection, if I recall, won't let you take an outdoor cat if you need it to be indoor (or indeed vice versa) - again, because either change of circumstance could be very stressful for a cat.

We didn't have a cat flap for a while because of the expense and I feel much happier about the cat going out now I know she can always get herself back in.

I assume if they've never been they won't miss it
are they female? female cat have less of an urge to roam in any case. if you do keep them indoors you'll need to make sure they have lots of entertainment, and allow for the daily craziness (ours does a 5 minute circuit of the garden doing ninja moves) to happen indoors

What Tribpot said.
Our cats manage to go out plenty despite no cat flap.
I think when you see how much some cats love being outdoors, it feels wrong to not let them.

I have two 99% house cats.

They are allowed into the garden with supervision, but the reasons are many and varied. Suffice it to say when we got them our area was being used as a racecourse for boy racers, there were poisonings and air-rifle shootings and there were also a few unleashed dogs roaming.

Make the decision that is going to best suit you.

I have 2 "outdoor" cats - with a cat-flap and total freedom to come & go.

I like that they can have a life and a territory outside: the churchyard is nearby and provides excellent toilet facilities as well as an apparently endless supply of small mice.

One cat always loved going out in the day and had a massive fan club/social life - chiefly revolving around the local population of elderly gentlemen - but got spooked by the Jubilee beacon-lighting about 6 weeks ago and has barely been outside since. It is nicer for me for him to be around all the time but I do worry that his horizons have been curtailed.

The other cat only ever goes out at night, but he also has his routine.

If there was no imperative reason why my cats should be kept indoors, I would always prefer them to be outdoor cats. I think they have a better quality of life. The risks of the road are always there, but I would rather they were happy and have the fullest life experience available to them.

I didn't realise this thread was still going, sorry!

we are collecting 2 kittens this week, 9 weeks old; they will be safe in our back yard on sunny days, & I'm guessing wouldn't be able to climb out for a while yet. they are female & will be spayed at 6 months.

is it a good idea to put their litter tray outside when they're out?

there is a back alley behind us which opens on to a residential street, but it connects 2 busier roads (20mph on the one that fronts our house, 30mph on the other). There is a school on it too, so lots of traffic at school times, but otherwise it's quite quiet.

I suppose I'll have to see what their natures are once they're here & growing before making a definite decision

thank you all for your advice & ideas

Don't be too confident about not escaping- we thought that when ours were 4 months old. Girlcat tried scaling the corner of the wall and nearly made it to the flat roof on her one attempt.

ah - there is a tree in one corner

maybe I'll have it booby-trapped in some way

I've got 2 rescue tabby girls, who are nearly 3 now. They were actually feral kittens and were rescued by a couple who ran a sanctuary. They advised me to keep them as house cats and at the time I lived in a flat so it suited me (not the neighbours when they were scampering around the living room at 3am :) )

I have since moved to a house with a small garden but they are still house cats. I do have harnesses for them. When the sun shines (!) they like to go out and will sit by the back door, but if it rains they aren't bothered and seem to forget that the outside world exists!! I feel happier with them being indoor cats, particularly as one of my neighbours told he when I moved in that another neighbour in the street hates cats and had admitted leaving poison out :-/ makes he really angry. So I'm not risking letting them out on their own. Even though they are moggies, one of them is so inquisitive that I fear she wouldn't be streetwise at all and would wonder off with anyone who spoke to her.

Also don't count on the kittens not bring able to scale the fence, my two loved being up high when they were little and I once found one of them sitting on the curtain rail in the living room, so she'd obviously climbed the curtains. Even now when they are having a mad 5 minutes they'll occasionally swing on the curtains :)

We have an indoor cat. Our garden is fairly enclosed but he could get out if he wanted to. When he was a kitten we got him used to going in the garden on a lead, so he knew the boundaries and didn't try and jump the fences! Now he doesn't even seem to think about going over the fence, he just trots around happily with us when we are in the garden- no lead.
Litter tray can be annoying though! :)