Indoor cats, how does it work

[onetoomany]

Just lost our second cat in the last five years on the road - not a main road, can be quiet for minutes at a time but mostly a car every thirty seconds or so. It's still raw but I can't keep going through this, my children are so upset.

I used to think keeping cats indoors was almost cruel but is it? Some breeds seem to be happy inside from what I read and we could get another pedigree cat if that helps. How does it work though? Is the cat trying to get out as soon as a door/window is open? Does one need a non-carpeted large room to mostly keep a cat in?

Just exploring options as I don't think we can be cat free with children wanting a pet so much.

@RandomMess yes. Mine are definitely 'a bit thick' gorgeous and sweet but, really not very clever. When I realised the late Maia was fishing specific things out of a bin to play with, I was absolutely astounded!

@Blastnamechangeagain ours were 2 when they moved in, I whistle trained them. Every time I fed them whistled, gave them treats after whistling etc. Even when outside they would come galloping in when I whistled them.

It works now even when they are asleep they some how strive to the kitchen semi comatose courtesy of their sub conscious. For years the got a treat of half a pouch of wet food to share at bed time and still got whistled for it.

Works like a dream and the noise travels further than shouting out names. They also come running when I arrive home in the car, they recognise the engine sound of whatever car we have.

We've always kept them in over night.

If you have a garden, can you not catproof it or build a catio? Personally I think a secure, contained outdoor space is the best possible option for all cats in cities at least. That said, I don't at all think having an indoor cat is cruel - most of the world considers it the norm, the UK is one of the few countries where cats are allowed to roam.

It is a bit more difficult when you live in a house with direct access to the outdoors. It's like trying to keep a cat out of a particular room in the house - they are curious, they want to see what's behind that door or window... So you will need to catproof your windows or only open them up to 2 inches if you have a secure restrictor/ventilation setting on them; otherwise something like Flat Cats screens.

Many of the things people are mentioning are just basic good cat care though and not at all specific to indoor cats. For example providing a clean litter trays, which all cats should have available. Not sure what you mean by having a non-carpeted room to keep the cat in? Of course you shouldn't restrict a cat within the home.

My two are indoor and they have never noticed. They look out of the window but don't have the slightest interest in actually going outside.

We've had them since they were kittens and were fully intending to let them out once neutered, but my girl cat had a reaction to the anaesthetic and ended up not spayed until much later. Hence, two house cats!

The only difference between them and my previous cats who went out is being a lot more on top of the litter boxes as they can't go pee in the garden. We've also got a ton of toys for extra stimuli, a good cat 'tree' for them and a litter tray per cat.

And people only say pedigrees should be kept indoors because of their financial value.

We have indoor cats and always have done - they're not hard work at all.

We have litter trays for them and vacuum every other day but we'd do that even if they went outside as we also have a dog that lies to sleep on the sofa and roll around on the carpets!

There's a real "thing" on here that cats need to hunt/go outside to be happy and that's really not the case. Plenty of cats all over the world live inside and manage just fine! Make sure you have some scratching posts and get some toys to play with them and you'll be fine!

Our kittens one in particular were desperate to get outside. I would have felt cruel keeping them in. We keep them in at night but they play in the garden and surrounding gardens in the day.

I don't have a cat flap so if I am out, mine is in, and he doesn't go out overnight
So really he can go out 6-7am and 5pm - dusk and most of the weekend. What he actually does is go out for 10 mins and come back in, unless it's sunny when he snores in the neighbours garden. He doesn't hunt and would rather cuddle with me than play with other cats he's a weirdo

I think it does depend on the cat a bit. I have two - my Siamese would be perfectly happy as an indoor, he pops out for maybe 10 minutes a day. My other cat ( who happens to be a Burmese) has always been obsessed with going outdoors - I think he would be really unhappy as an indoor only cat. He spends a lot of time outside and certainly lets me know if he has to stay in! Strangely he is actually the cuddly one.

My experience is female cats are less likely to want to range. Our girls have had no interest in going out the front door or going beyond the back gate, while our boys have been fond of the dart out the front door and jumping over the fence. Females have a smaller territory range, maybe?
We keep our cats indoors. They've been perfectly happy. We have a tall cat tree and lots of toys and each other to play with if we fail to respond to a cat toy being draped over our feet.
We have a small courtyard and were able to cat fence our yard with an Australian system called 'Oscillot'. We can let the cats out to play in the garden and eat grass and sleep in the sun with no stress for us or our boy.

Females have a smaller roaming range generally because they would usually have kittens to get back for whereas makes would wander far and wide looking for a female on heat.

Interestingly it was our Male that was not fussed about escaping but the female an absolute incredibly intelligent buggar and she was the one that had caused the grounding due to being in a RTA.

We'd had them rehomed with us 5 months before we surrendered and sure enough she doesn't go far and goes for quite some distance and will accompany us dog walks 🙈

I second the catio as a nice mix. We have 4 Bengals, the biggest one got us into trouble for playing with a neighbour's pet chickens!! He can still go outside whenever he likes but doesn't have the ability to nibble on other people's pets.
I would say however it's a pain when you want to open windows for fresh air. Our eldest (the chicken nibbler) still would go out if he could so we're extra vigilant, all the others avoid doors and on the odd time have stepped outside sob to come back in.
I'd love french doors but until the eldest has passed there's just no point as we'd never be able to open them!

Cation is a great idea.

Something to be aware of is if indoor cats escape they are often terrified and hunker down close by and hide refusing to come when called it is literally a physical fine search of the area.

I have an indoor cat we lead trained him and he has a harness when he sees it he sits like a dog and waits to have it put on to go for a walk 😊
He also has a catio which he sits at the back door and meows to go in it he then meows when he wants to come out and if you open the catio door he runs straight back in the house ( catio isn’t attached to the house ) he is a happy content little man but we do play with him lots and he also loves his dog brother