How to introduce my kitten to the great outdoors.

[Jof752]

Hello

I'm new here and I have a boy kitten who is just over five months old. I have started taking him out into the garden (which he loves!) But how long should I keep doing that before I leave him to go it alone? We don't have a cat flap as we have glass doors (and I understand it can be expensive to have cat flaps fitted in them) but as I am a sahm I am around quite a bit to let him in and out.

I think it is probably a case of me not being brave enough to leave him to it but are there any tricks to helping him come back to the right home!

Thanks in advance.

Has he been neutered yet? I probably wouldn't let a male cat out until he's neutered for fear he's go wondering for a mate.
If and when you do let him out I found doing it while he has an empty stomach makes sure he comes back relatively quickly at first

If he's looked out of the windows he probably has a good idea of the local layout so I wouldn't worry too much about him coming home.

First things first though.

Neutering, microchipping, full course of vaccinations & a flea jab if you can stretch to it & he's good to go out.

When he has his first scrap don't run out shouting "don't worry cats name mummy's coming" because your dh will never let you forget it.

Thanks for your replies. Yep he's vaccinated, chipped, neutered, wormed and de-flead!

SpandexBallet - he loves his food so I will definitely send him out when he's hungry. Thanks for the tip.

Fluffycloudland - you sound like you speak from experience?! :-D

Oh Jof that first time is such a leap of faith for a cat owner.

My first cat. We let her out and she legged it doen the garden, jumped the fence and disappeared.
I was distraught. I actually sarkily said to DH ' I didn't want a cat anyway' then blubbed. A lot.
Which was silly really as ten minutes later she was yowing at the front door to come in.

So far he has been happy to wander around sniffing leaves etc (with me following closely behind). It's that thought of letting him out and closing the door behind him.

I will be brave and do it, no really I will!

I could never imagine letting Sparkling cat out and going out myself. Somehow I must have done it and it was fine.

Thanks for the reassurance. I know/hope he will be fine really I just need to get that first time out of the way.