off on holiday

[Italiangreyhound]

We are off on holiday for a few days. We have never put our cat in a cattery and don;t feel we would like to. We will give him the run of the house and a cat flap to get in and out.

In the past we had people coming in morning and night to feed him. This time it is the same except over the weekend our cat sitter will be away so another lady has kindly offered but she cannot come twice a day only once.

Can you recommend what I could do to make my lovely cat happy during this time. He generally does not over eat, often leaves food.

So just to ensure he has all he needs I thought maybe two litter trays, two water bowls and two dinner bowls so that he will be well catered for. He is not using the litter tray much now.

I am wondering how much food to leave out, we generally just give him a bowl of dry and half sachet of wet food twice daily and I do end up throwing a small amount away daily.

The dry food we use says something like 50g per day, but that seems a very small amount and I don't want him to go hungry while we are away. If we are here he can come and meow for more! He is also catching the odd mouse which the vet seemed to think would not do him any harm!

He has a cat tree for scratching and I will let him sleep on my bed while we are away.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

[Italiangreyhound]

He is a year old ginger tom, neutered and weighs about average I think as vet was not concerned about weight at his last appointment. He can get in and out of cat flap well!

[MedusaIsHavingaBadHairday]

It sounds fine.. are you going for long? Just a few days, as long as there is enouhg food and water he will be ok, if a bit lonely.. can the feeder spend a bit of time giving him some attention?

We are away for 4 days and our neighbour is going to feed Portia.. pop in once or twice a day.. Portia is always ok with it and doesn't seem unduly worried.. in fact I suspect she sleeps 20/24 hours while we are away anyway. She is always pleased to see us when we get back, but she is ok!

[Italiangreyhound]

Thanks Medusa, 5 nights, it is the weekend when he will only get one visit a day! The people going in are all 'cat people' so will be nice to him. He does usually miss us!

[cozietoesie]

He should be fine - although be warned that being allowed to sleep on your bed may set a precedent which he'll take full advantage of in the future!

[Italiangreyhound]

He is allowed on it during the day just not at night due to alarm but we won't use alarm when on holiday as cat sitters find it too difficult to use! Luckily we have little worth stealing!