New rescue cat is going crazy at being kept inside

[IHopeYouStepOnALegoPiece]

We were advised to keep her in for 4w until she becomes familiar with the house etc...it's currently 3 weeks and she's going loopy!

Any ideas on thing to entertain her outside the norm!

And wtf do we do when we let her out if she can't find her way back?!

(We lost our lovely boy a month ago to anti freeze poisoning so are feeling extra cautious !)

We say three weeks is enough. Do you have a cat flap?

Would she tolerate a harness and lead? I did this with my rescue so she could get into the garden with me. She wouldn't walk though, I had to carry her :o. But it got her used to being outside the house. I had to wait til she had come into season so we knew she wasn't pregnant so she could be neutered. It was a nightmare, she was yowling and throwing herself at the Windows at 3am, desperate to get out.

When you let her out, do it first thing in the morning and don't feed her first. That way when she's hungry she will come back.

No, no cat flap...our old cat used to howl to go out then literally knock to come back in :o

Good idea about not feeding her!

We're genuinely considering a camera for her collar!

butterfly WTAF?? Whose advice was that about the waiting for her to come into season thing? That's just ridiculous and very, very irresponsible. She could have been neutered straight away. If she's not very obviously pregnant then it makes no difference. If that was a vet's advice that's worrying. If that was the rescue's decision then I think someone needs to have a word with them.

Don't put a collar on her, just make sure she's chipped. If she gets caught in a branch it could kill her.

We have a cat flap. My boy knocks on it so we can open the door for him, entitled little sod!!

It's much easier with a cat flap. You just let them work it out for themselves how to use it, and so don't leave the house until they've found their way through the flap, and then they know how to get back in. Can you fit one?

We found her in the street, very thin, missing fur, riddled with fleas and very engorged nipples. She was less than a year old, poor baby. Vet didn't know if she had just had kittens or was pregnant. So it was suggested we keep her in and wait. We had to build up her weight anyway, get her flea issue sorted and then got her chipped and neutered together.

28 years ago when our cats were kittens we had to wait till a season had passed with the adult female but not the young kitten, we had her Dh so they were done together before they got any ideas.

That was fun

I'd fit a flap, it's much easier.

OMG you need a different vet. It's very easy to tell if a cat is feeding kittens, and relatively easy to tell if it's pregnant. It's impossible to confuse the two if you know anything at all about cats! If she were feeding kittens then of course you need to find the kittens. And neutering slightly pregnant cats is of course not a problem and no one should make you think it is.

Fair enough about the weight thing, but all in all that vet sounds completely incompetent.

Db, not Dh.

None of our cats were married.

Baby rat was spayed very young and very small for her age, it is essential to do it young imo.

Bump :)

When I got my rescue boys I just let them out for fifteen or twenty minutes at a time first - so they could have a sniff around the garden then I encouraged them back inside. That seemed like the best way to make sure they knew the garden was their space and connected to their territory indoors; after a couple of days of doing that in the morning and evening they took themselves off over the fence and unilaterally insisted on having a longer explore further afield! I'd put a bit of used litter at the bottom of the garden too, mostly because I wanted that to be their outside toilet area but I figure the familiar scent in the garden was a bonus.

I tried to get them both used to being called as well - calling them at mealtimes and to give them treats, so when they were outside they'd be keen to come back when I called and it was cat curfew time. Doesn't work when they're out of earshot but it's useful when they're still pottering around nearby after evening cat curfew.

Does she like dreamies? I trained my younger cat to come back when we shake the dreamies packet.

I would def be letting her out now, 3 weeks is long enough.

Sorry to hear about your last cat

4 weeks, crikey, the most i've ever lasted with mine is nine days :) I find a small dog crate invaluable for getting my lot used to the outside after a move and when settling a new rescue cat.

Argos do a reasonably priced one (the small one is plenty big enough)

Cat can safely take in the noises and smells of the new area while i potter around them in the garden before safely moving crate & occupant back indoors.

Rinse and repeat for a few days & mine have been fine with coming back home once allowed out on their own then.

I may even have taken the crate back to Argos afterwards making it a cost effective exercise as well.....ahem....