Do you keep your outdoor cats in at night?

[ChatterMonkey]

Introduced the kittens (5.5 months old, fully vacced, neutered, flead and wormed) to the outdoors last week, and other than anxiety from me about trusting they will be ok, theyve taken to it perfectly.

They arent too fond of the rain, when the weather isnt nice they know they have it good in the house curled up on the sofa, and they come in when they want food. We have a microchip cat flap so leave it open through the day and lock in when it starts to get dark. They seem to be learning that night time is time to be in as when we lock the catflap the dont try to get out any more when its dark.

Will do this for another few days at least, but wonder if other people let their cats roam through the night? Ideally we want to minimise litter tray use and have them going to the toilet outside, so i suppose if they were doing this they would need access to outside through the night as well?

Yes. It's better for the local wildlife as they will hunt dawn and dusk and it is safer for them with the local foxes.

Yes I keep my two in overnight. They have biscuits last thing at night and then they have use of our lounge and kitchen, we have litter trays, water, plenty of places to sleep. They are very much in routine now and accept it. You do need a litter tray though, my girl cat will use it overnight whereas boy cat will hold it and run out of the door to toilet in the garden when we get up at 6am!

l have recently rehomed two black kittens, similar age to yours, and yes l am keeping them in at night. They can come and go throughout the day and early evening. They are both solid black in colour, l will be putting break away illuminous collars on, I worry re road outside, previous cats have been ok coming and going throughout the night, but definately for now these two are staying in at night.

I tried. But at dusk he would sit at the door and yowl and yowl and not stop.

If he is out when we go to bed and won't come in then yes we leave him , but there is a hole in the garage door that he fits through so he can actually get in if he wants to . If we can get him in we put him in the dining room and shut the door .

Yes, I keep mine in at night, mostly for the sake of the local wildlife. I have a programmable cat flap so can set the times they can go in and out.

No, mine go out whenever they like. Although one came in with a bird at midnight last night and I got up for a wee and found her eating it on the stairs, so those talking about the effect on the local wildlife have a very good point!

Yes, our flap locks down at 9pm and reopens at 6:30am. They get cat-crack at 9 to ‘encourage’ them back in and are well used to the routine, they always go out after tea but are home and begging for their fix at 9pm.
When it’s very hot I do let them out overnight to give them some respite and outside time when it’s comfortable, and it only takes a couple of days to readjust them to the normal regime once the temperature drops.

We keep ours in. Which means they need a litter tray overnight which is annoying.
Previous cats have come and gone as they please but these cats are pure black, the roads are busier, there are more foxes around. It just feels safer.

Ours comes and goes as he pleases. If I try and keep him in he cries. If I try and keep him out (he has a thing for toes 😑) he goes outside to sit on the fence and scream at my window 🙄
He is in charge 💯

I keep one in and the other can go out as she pleases. The one who is kept in never uses her litter tray.

I should have added, we have litter trays, and they are used overnight

No, mine come and go as they please. Although they tend to choose to be inside at night time.

No I don't. Mine sleeps under my bed all night and goes out for a potter at dawn

I keep mine in - they are both black and hunters. If I don't keep them in, the chances of them being hit by a car or me finding dead mice on the floor are quite high.

No. I have a microchip cat flap and the cat can go in or out as she wants. We moved the litter tray outside to start with, and then got rid of it altogether.

Keep them in. But as others have said, it is a fight against their natural body clock.

I keep mine in but only because we have a lot of foxes in the area and they killed a neighbours cat

I've had cats for more than 40 years, and all of mine stayed in all night. I always fed them at set times (give or take 20mins) and made their last meal 10pm, which meant that they then associated that with being in. (dry food and a bowl of water down 24/7)

Yes inside overnight for our two, they come in for dinner around 8pm and that's then in, no cat flap. They're closed in a lounge/dining room so lots of space and things they can do or chill, and I put a litter tray in for overnights.
They're very used to it as we've always done this since they were allowed to go out so no protesting unless we don't get up around the usual 6.30/7.30am 😁

Majority seem to keep them in! Ours are black as well so do worry about visability at night. Will keep up the routine of locking the flap at night, particularly through the winter when its cold outside, and maybe open in the summer when they should have got used to coming in at night!

One of the cats has started doing poos outside, but they both come in to use the tray for a wee haha. Will need to start encouraging outdoor toileting and see how they get on, but if they need the tray, then we keep it obviously.

The only time we restrict ours from going out is I'd there are fireworks (diwali, guy fawkes, new year etc) or if we need to flea treat them

In the winter they seem to stay indoors most of the time and go out for the occassional wee (I presume)

Yeah mine are indoor and outdoor but in at night. They never go far but I couldn't sleep otherwise. Plus they like to get in the bed (I know, I know)

I was going to ask a similar question as I have a nearly 5 month old kitten who is already very excited to go out (not allowed yet as he needs his second set of jabs). We have quite a lot of other cats, particularly Tom cats (although all castrated) in the neighbourhood and he seems tiny at the moment compare to them. Will they target him or will they ignore as he's really no threat? On the whole they seem to have good temperaments although word on the street is one is a bit of a bully.

I should do but he wouldn't accept it. He used to be a stray and is used to being our a lot. He doesn't have a litter tray either