Leaving them for two weeks

[svenwhen]

Weve 2 cats that are outdoor indoor cats, one mainly indoor. we lock them in at night as our neighbours cat is out at night and they don't get on at all! There's also another cat that has tried to come in our cat flap so we've had to barricade it at night. (We had it set to only let our cats in but their magnets kept getting stuck with bits of sharp metal or fell off on other occasions)
Is two weeks too long to keep them locked inside our house ,they'd have full run of the downstairs ?my neighbours will call in each day to feed them . They won't change the litter but if I left two large litter trays would that be enough?
I can't ask them to lock them in at night as sometimes one of the cats doesn't come in at night until very late.

Confining them to a house for 2 weeks - no problem at all. You need to do this when you move house, and our cats (who are very outdoorsy) go to a cattery when we are away which obviously gives them much less space.

Leaving the litter tray for 2 weeks sounds dubious though. Talk me through that bit. Would the neighbour pick out the poo? What sort of litter do you use? If the litter gets too dirty the cats will reject it and either wee or poo next to the tray, or find another spot. That would be a whole lot harder for your neighbour to deal with than emptying the tray.

2 weeks is too long with the litter trays not being changed.

You could use litter tray liners for a couple of weeks so your neighbour can just bag the litter and replace it. I'd clean a litter tray if I was feeding someone else's cat, but then I'm a cat owner.

As pps have said - inside for two weeks is fine. Same litter trays throughout is definitely not. You may have to pay someone to come in every couple of days to change them if your neighbour won't do it.

I would definitely buy the cat litter tray liners but these are not fool proof - our cats used to poo near the edge and then some of it would fall outside the tray 🤢! So I’d get some very cheap mats or those dog puddle mats to put underneath and neighbour could throw those too, along with the entire litter tray in the plastic liner every 3 days. So just get a bulk of liners and litter. I wouldn’t be upset at all about throwing the whole lot every few days, I’d much prefer this than picking out pieces of poo!!

In this warm weather, the stink of 2 weeks’ worth of unchanged cat litter will stink your entire house out, OP! Your neighbour would need a gas mask to go in for the final few days!
Why don’t you simply change your cat flap to one that works off your cats’ microchips? They don’t wear magnets or collars, the flap won’t allow strange cats in, and yours can go and pee outdoors. They’re quite cheap, you can get them from Pets at Home or online, and they take minutes to fit and program for your cats.

Keeping them in is great and much safer than allowing them outdoor access (through a catlflap or otherwise) while you're away - cats left on their own like this are much more likely to stray and go missing, and if they are always out when someone comes to check up on them, it's hard to know they're ok.

You can't leave litter trays unchanged for more than a couple of days though! Could you pay a catsitter to visit if your neighbour is not willing to scoop and top up the trays?

Litter trays will need changing 1/2 times a day. Also, anyone visiting them will need to ensure they don't let them out (not easy when they often hear footsteps) and you'll need ensure you've got a capflap they can't break - a determined cat can get through a locked one. If you've not in the UK, are your neighbours will to take them to a vet? It all needs to be thought about? We had fantastic neighbours who looked after ours and on one occasion they had to take our girl.

You absolutely can’t leave two weeks of litter.

Not unless you want to find poo and wee in dark corners for the next few months.

Mine won’t even use the litter tray if it has something in it. I keep it in the downstairs shower cubicle so if there are any accidents at least I can clean up effectively.

You need to clean the litter tray. The cats will stop using it if it is not clean.

As an aside,we used to be bothered with other cats using the cat flap. We locked it so it could only open outwards. The other cats gave up after a couple of attempts at not being able to knock it open as usual but our cat soon figured out how to be able to pull it open from the outside. Solved our problem.

Microchip operated cat flaps are brilliant. You can even programme some to let one cat out, but not the other. They will let both in though, so if one gets out through a door or window they can still get back in.

Thanks for all the replies, we've never left them for this length of time before. Definitely going to look into getting a cat flap microchip activated. At night I prefer them to stay in as in the past I've woken up to hear awful cat fights in the street between our cats and the neighborhood cat....they must be rival gangs in the street warfare! We have them a few years now and they still hate each other!
I never heard of the disposable litter trays. I'll ask them if they'd empty those. They sound much easier then picking out poop or emptying a large litter tray , cleaning it and refilling it.

Could you not just put them in a cattery so you know they are safe and they won’t have to suffer with a dirty litter tray?

It sounds as if your neighbour doesn’t want to deal with cat poop -fair enough, it stinks, but cats don’t like dirty trays so if there is any risk your neighbour won’t be emptying them a couple of times a day( even with disposable) then they will not be happy kitties and will be peeing & crapping all over.

The advice is one tray per cat and one extra so that is 3 trays that will need emptying a couple of times a day.

At £15 for a 3 pack a cattery would work out cheaper!

www.amazon.co.uk/KittyDoo-3-Pack-Odorless-Litter-Disposable/dp/B072TQVKT3/ref=sr_1_2?hvlocphy=9045255&hvnetw=g&keywords=disposable+litter+tray&hvadid=259044223679&qid=1556730770&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-87L0en64QIVAQbTCh3Q5Qn_EAAYASAAEgL8AfD_BwE&s=gateway&hydadcr=7170_1741712&hvpos=1t1&hvdev=t&hvqmt=e&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&hvtargid=kwd-300683985322&adgrpid=48677699690&hvrand=12535425343423962952&sr=8-2

Cheaper but plastic.

www.amazon.co.uk/Argee-Disposable-50-Pack-RG606-50/dp/B001KZH4YE?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Thanks for links , I'll look them up. I just thought they'd be happier at home.

I’d use a cattery or cat hotel. I don’t care if he’s happier at home I need peace of mind. I’m too worried about house fires or he’d be ill and no one would notice.

He’s always fine when I pick him up.