When to keep your cat in?

[ClareWilsonNS]

Hi, I'm a relatively new cat owner. We have a 2-3-year-old rescue cat who has settled in very nicely, and goes out a fair bit in the day. We are keeping her inside at night, as I read this is safer for cats, as they are less likely to get run over. So far I have been doing this by locking the cat flap at about 8.00 or 9.00pm. My question is, should I be doing this earlier? If it's unsafe to let cats roam around at night - presumably because of cars - then shouldn't I be locking her in at about 5.00pm when it goes dark? But she would hate that as she's such an outdoors lover. She already tries to get out at 9.00pm, and broke the catflap by battering it once. What do others do? Thanks.

Can't help but think it'd be safer to keep her in during the commuting hours if you live somewhere with traffic.

We don't have a litter tray so we tend to do 10-5 in the summer months and 9.30-6 in the dark winter months. My cat is very happy with this and sort of got themselves into this rhythm before we committed to locking it at this time. On bonfire night etc we lock it earlier

Haribo is in by 4pm. He's only out later if we are in work and then he has a bed in the greenhouse but he would be in the house at 6.30pm at the latest for the rest of the night.

When I let him out in the morning I put the outside light on for him.

I think as soon as it gets dark. You need plenty of toys for them to stop boredom.

When I let him out in the morning I put the outside light on for him.

That is really lovely, but don't cats have really good eyesight to see at night?

I thought it were supposed to keep cats in at night so they weren't attacked by foxes, rather than cars - maybe that's just because there are lots of foxes around here. Having said that I do let my cats out at night, but they mostly chose to only go at at dawn and dusk, so once it's dark I think you could keep them.

I was told by the cat rescue charity, which seemed fairly experienced and knowledgeable, that cats and foxes rarely attack each other - they just avoid each other. Foxes only scavenge on cats that have already been killed by a car.

In this forum it seems axiomatic that cats should be kept in at night. Why is that?

We lost a cat to the road a few years ago and it was at night, he went out at 9pm and never came home. We found his body a few days later but suspect it happened on that night,, we don’t live near busy roads so very unlucky I guess, he was a small all black cat. So now I keep Leo in from 5-6pm in winter, sometimes earlier until 8/9am He has a littertray but rarely use it. He protests a lot but I just put up with it as want to keep him safe

We have four cats and they come and go as they please. In the winter they like to be in most of the time and in the summer they like to be out most of the time! We live rurally, although we do have a quiet road near the front of the house. Do you have an outside building, such as a shed, that your cat could use if she wants to stay out?

Our daft cat chased a fox first thing in the morning last week!
It is safer to keep then in at night due to road accidents, nutters such as the cat killer who appears to strike at night. I feel more relaxed knowing he's in and safe (dread to think what I'll be like when DD is older).
Anyway, currently ours is in from dark. He does tend to be very active in the morning and in and out (more in when it's cold). He usually looks out the back window when we go to bed then comes to bed after midnight.

My cats are nearly 7 and we’ve had them since 8 weeks, they’ve always come in at night (save a few times each when they just don’t appear and we have to go to bed, one is more a roamer than the other) we don’t have a cat flap they have to wait for a door, but they don’t come in till sort of our bedtime, 10-11 maybe later. Neither goes far from the house and they tend to sit in the front or back gardens or walk just around our horseshoe bit of road. I don’t think they’re likely to get in fights with foxes and neither has ever been injured in a fight that I’m aware of, we just prefer them in when we’re asleep because they’re our babies! They just come in and go to bed.

Mine are kept in from around 9.30/10pm. They're usually in and out through the evening. We used to keep the cat flap open all the time, but my girl cat got hit by a car overnight over the summer and needed extensive surgery - she's recovered now but will never be out all night again. I want to go to sleep knowing they're both in and safe.

We don't insist on keeping our cats in at night, but they usually do stay in (particularly in winter).

Basil particularly does like a run out at about 11ish but he's usually back in 20 minutes or so.

Once our rescue boy comes in after about 9pm we shut the kitchen door so no access to the catflap as he used to batter it like yours. He was FURIOUS at this method for about a week and is now not fussed at all. Kitchen door opens when we come down in the morning around 7:30 when he comes up and wakes us demanding to be let out .

LynetteScavo he's only 18 months old but I think Haribo does have a problem with his sight as he only recognises me if I talk to him. He looked petrified when he saw me when he was out the other day until I said "it's Mammy". He can see Dreamies thrown across the kitchen floor in the dark though.

It seems everyone has different strategies. Thanks for all the opinions.

Mine sleeps all day, goes out mice hunting at night.

@TroysMammy one of my cats is terrified of us if he sees us outside, then he comes in and is all affectionate. He'd run like the wind if we approached him in the front garden, but then he's terrified of everything outside.

I block the cat flap about 9pm and Lee her out in the morning