When did you let your kitten outside?

[Allispretty]

My kittens is 18 weeks old and booked in for castration next weekend. He's been in the garden supervised and is now desperate to get out at every opportunity and I feel so rotten but absolutely not letting him out until after op.

I've now been thinking will he still be too young once he's been done? He's so tiny and I worry he won't come back, he climes the trellis at the first opportunity and I know he will absolutely not stay in the garden. Will we be best to wait until warmer months?

Colin is 6 and half months and he is still only allowed out supervised

He does try and make a run for it but he gets brought in, I too think he's too little to go off on his own

I realise he will escape the garden at some point

Mine is 7 months and she won't be going out until Easter time.

Thanks for this. I guess it's supervised garden for now. How do you stop them clambering the fence to escape 🤦🏽‍♀️

Not until 6 months, although they were desperate to get out from day 1. There are lots of cats in our neighbourhood and I was worried they would be too small to defend themselves (and rightly so, as it turned out).

We took ours for daily walks on harnesses in the garden, it got them used to the outside world under supervision. Eventually took them to areas just outside the house so they would get familiar with the terrain and know how to get back. They would meow excitedly every time we got the harnesses out 😂 Eventually one day we just let them go out on their own, we still keep them in at night though and always will.

18 weeks is too young op. They are still tiny and curious they no nothing Of the world. We let out boy out at 9 months just before meal time so he was hungry and wouldn't go far.

Way too young. Ours was let out post 6 months. Before that was very rarely and with very close monitoring for short periods of time so she couldn’t go far. She asked to go out but we didn’t let her out until that 6 month point. It’s hard but best for them in the long run!

I think you need to put him on a leash, he can get over the fence faster than you'll be able to catch him & 18 weeks is way too young to be out and about on his own.

He’s still snack sized.

Thanks everyone really appreciate it, I'll make sure we wait until at least 6 months

I was advised to keep them in for six months if possible, and then they are likely to roam less far from home. It is much easier to keep them in in winter, much harder in summer when you want windows open.
It's also useful to let them out before feeding, so they are more likely to come swiftly hme with the shake of a food bowl or tap of can.

My girl was about 5-6 months and went out the day she had her stitches out after her neutering. She doesn’t go too far from our house though and we are very rural.

Ours lived outside until he was about 10 weeks old. He has been back with us in the UK for three weeks. He is about six months old now and has been going out unrestricted for a week. We tried to lock the cat flap at night but he destroyed it trying to get it open.

I got my boy at 19 weeks, he was neutered the day after I got him, and went out about ten days later - largely because my older boy took umbrage at the cat flap being locked and started weeing all over the house.

He was (and still is) small, but he looks after himself fine.

Oh, and it was mid-December when he first went out.

@WonderfulWinde

Mine is 7 months and she won't be going out until Easter time.

Wish you'd have a word with my neighbour, they got a kitten which was let out straight away, they didn't bother to get her neutered so she had her first litter around 6 months old.

Pretty sure she's still not neutered and they also kept one of the kittens so that will probably result in the same thing 🙈

I had two and had them in harnesses tied to one another to explore the garden together from 6 months old (whilst I was gardening so able to see what they were up to). They weren't allowed out completely on their own until they were a year old.

The first time my boy got out of the garden, he was spooked by the child next door and ran off absolutely terrified. Thankfully, I was able to see where he ran and ended up trying to entice him off an 8ft fence about 200m from home.

I'd keep him in a bit longer.

@userxx so irresponsible. Mine was fixed at 5 months. She is a smart little thing and I full expect her to escape before Easter but I'll do everything I can.

The rescue centre advised me to wait till my kittens were 1 year old. Said it was to do with other cats in the neighborhood being bigger and attacking them, and them being young and inexperienced. They were absolutely desperate to get out. In the end I started letting them out around 8-9 months, which seemed about right.