Would we be suitable cat owners?

[HelloJackieYouLookNice]

We are a family of 4, two dds aged 6 and 10. We live in a suburb, on a road that gets busy during rush hour but with a speed limit of 30. The house is about 2 car lengths from the road, and we have a large garden to the rear of the house. No other pets apart from a lazy hamster enjoying his later years.

We have approached the RSPCA and Cat’s Protection and both said we are only suitable for an indoors cat and neither have any suitable. There is an independent rescue nearby who I can also look into. I had cats growing up, we lived on a small farm on a country road and lost several cats over the years to the road and would hate to have that happen but I worry about the practicalities of having a cat permanently shut in.

Wise cat owners, in my situation would you get a cat or stick to hamsters? And if we did get one would you let it out during the day when someone is at home (I work part time and only once a week for the full day), let it come and go as it pleases or keep it in completely?

I would prefer a young cat to a kitten but happy to follow advice if a kitten would be easier to keep as an inside cat from the start.

Thank you for reading

Hmmmm that does seem odd, you can have a secondary contact on the paperwork tell them you would prefer that they are secondary contact.

@rosydreams that is why i feed them purizon it is kne of the best and the price is pretty fabulous at zooplus. Over christmas my delivery took a bit long so i had to nip out to get a small bag from pet shop the price for a 2kg bag was in excess to what I pay for a 6.5kg with zooplus, I nearly died.

RE the chipping. One of my rescue dogs was chipped to the rescue and us, so both would get a call if she were lost. It's a bit stupid to have it just to the rescue - what if she were injured in a car accident and the vet needed to contact you urgently to authorise a medical procedure that may be expensive - if they had to wait for a rescue to open and then pass on your details the cat could be suffering for longer than necessary.

Well we spoke to the vets, who advised us to add both addresses. The chipping company website I looked at is clear that once she’s living at our address the chip should be matched to that. I don’t want to cause a fuss with the rescue though because obviously they have her best interests at heart

She’s been spayed and is feeling very sorry for herself today apparently. We can pick her up on Sunday. We are all so excited, she is very spoilt already, I have spent a fortune!

Very exciting! Do be aware she might hide for a couple of days, but she'll get brave.

With being recently spayed and being in a new home I’m expecting her to need some space, and some peace

7 months is very young to declare her an indoor cat. She’s still a kitten.

I don’t want to put a dampener on things but I have had lots of cats (three currently) and never yet had a moggy which wasn’t desperate to get out in the end. The only cat I’ve had which was happy to be indoors was a rescue Ragdoll. The others were constantly clawing at the doors. My three now are shut in at night but use the cat flap during the day.

Really a cat advertised as an “indoor cat” should be at least a year old and have been found to definitely show no desire to go out. It’s not a lifestyle that suits every cat by any means.

Thanks for all your opinions so far

I have a feeding question - how much should she have at this age? All the guidance I can find is for just wet or dry food but we want to give her a mix. I have bought some Felix pouches as the shelter use Felix and Whiskas but I intend to gradually change this over to a better quality food if I can (I was shocked to discover this morning that the Felix is only 4% meat ) and I have Iams kitten dry food. My plan was one pouch morning and evening but then how much dry? The packet says 75g but I guess that means if it’s the only food she’s having?

My local vets are Goddards. They do something called Proactive Pets. You pay a monthly fee but it costs less than the necessary flea and worming treatments if you bought them directly from the vets and you get a free check up. Worth looking into if you have one near you.

@MikeUniformMike what reason did the rescue give for refusing you?

My vets do similar - it’s around £10 a month so looks worth it

Trouble with these monthly worming/flea packages is that you treat pets more often than they need and also worms and fleas become more resistant and products stop being effective, like frontline did. Most pets don't need worming every month. It used to be the same with horses, whereas nowadays people use worm count kits and only worm if worms are shown in the results.

I'm not too worried about the worming but I the fleas. Mine get fleas if they are not treated monthly.

Just caught up with this thread. She's beautiful and looks do similar to our now departed old girl. I do have a soft spot for tuxedo cats.

Hi op, what a beauty she is! I have a 7 month old kitten too. Ours is a big cat (long/ tall and lean) and eats 3 pouches a day and can help himself to dry food throughout the day. He has Felix- that's what he had at the rescue so I just carried it over. Tried supermarket own brand premium stuff and he wouldn't eat it, picky little lord that he is. Dry food is iams.

He is less hungry than he was when we got him at 4 months and I can imagine we'll soon be able to drop the lunchtime pouch.

This is an extract from our conversation:
"On occasions for various reasons a home might not be safe enough for a cat due to what the cat might encounter when going outside. I.e. no fence onto neighbours, on a busy roundabout, a railway onto back garden, an uncovered drain in garden, a large hole or gap in floor board or within ceiling, and more..."

I didn't have the home visit because of where I live. I have had a cat, the people who lived before me had a cat, my neighbour has a cat...

Is there anything to stop you from getting a cat from a rescue and keeping it as an indoor cat? A cat would be ok indoors for 8 hours alone - they sleep an awful lot.

Can you get a chip replaced?

Honey how often do you do yours?

Mike that’s what we are doing. This rescue doesn’t do home visits, but CP and the RSPCA said that we can only keep indoors cats

MrsBrill thanks, I’m hoping she takes to the Iams I have bought 2 boxes of

We live on a main road and have two indoor cats - a friend of my OH was rehoming them after his divorce and they'd never been outside, so we were comfortable keeping them in here. Generally, unless there's a reason, I don't think you should get a cat unless it can go outside - but we'll be moving soon (we rent, so easier for us) and one of the requirements of the house will be that it's somewhere they can go outside.

BUT in my experience of owning indoor cats, if you did re-home a cat that needed to be inside for whatever reason (poorly, older, etc) then we've found lots of toys and other stimulus (bird feeders outside window for them to watch) keeps them happy as Larry and although both of them bolted once or twice when we first got them, they're not at all fussed about going out now, so they can be happy!

Oh I should have RTFT - she's gorgeous!

Socks is lovely!
Stick to the food the rescue centre give her to start with. Don't buy lots because if you do, she'll probably refuse to eat it very soon afterwards.
You don't need to spend on cat beds and things, a nicely folded new cashmere jumper on the bed will be ideal.
Other things you might want to buy is a lint roller.

2 boxes is ok. Just don't buy 10.
If you leave a window slightly open, the cat will probably sneak out.
A friend's cat could unpick a locked catflap.

Re. the road issue: it is a risk, but there's only so much you can do. I've lived on a 30mph road with outdoor cats, for about ten years altogether. So far, the cats have survived, despite going out every day. We only put a cat flap in the back door, but the cats easily found the way round to the front, and are often there when we come home. And it's not just cars, but foxes. Where I live, there are many outdoor cats. Only once so far have I found my cat on the wrong side of the road!

I expect that in some ways, a busier road is safer, because a cat is less likely to try to cross it. Cats which are black all over might be more vulnerable, because they're harder to see in the dark.

Don’t be too worried about the microchip - it’s quite common to have the details of the rescue in addition to your own. Sadly lots of people don’t keep their chip details up to date when they change address or contact number. The rescue just leave their details on incase this happens, so they can take responsibility for the cats instead of them being passed from pillar to post.

As long as you keep her chip details up to date it will be a complete non- issue.

She’s made herself at home already! She was nervous at first but she’s getting more confident. She hasn’t eaten anything or used her tray yet.

She also really likes doors opening, and looks really nervous when a door opens and someone comes in, although once she can see it’s one of us she is happy to come over for a fuss. Is this normal settling in or a sign that she’s been mistreated?

• Really DISlikes that should say