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?

Depends on the weather forecast. Cold or very wet, we keep them indoors.

Yes he is neutered, thankyou for asking. Unless the rest of the toms around here.

I have always thought it was wrong and not safe to let cats out at night, and my 5 previous cats have always stayed in at night.
So, it was quite a shock that my present cat will not come in at night if he feels that way. He gets aggressive and destructive if we try to keep him in
He was born on the streets so is used to wandering all hours.
I still don't think he should be out at night though.

No.

I keep mine in overnight. I lost one to a road accident at night years ago so don’t take any chances now.

Yes, I think the risk from foxes and cars is too great at night. And we probably wouldn’t sleep if we didn’t know she was safe. We bring her in a good while before it gets dark as well, because when it starts to be a bit dusky she gets excited and is a pain to retrieve.

We keep both ours in at night. If they are still out when we go to bed, I set the cat flap to in-only, which does the job.

" because when it starts to be a bit dusky she gets excited and is a pain to retrieve."
Because that is what her instincts are telling her to do!

I know. But her instincts weren’t designed to deal with urban traffic. I think letting them out during the day and keeping them in at night is a sensible compromise between keeping them safe and giving them stimulation and excitement.

Have you heard that saying? Letting your cat roam free is like leaving your heart at the end of the drive every morning and hoping it will still be there later…

@LoobyDop "Have you heard that saying? Letting your cat roam free is like leaving your heart at the end of the drive every morning and hoping it will still be there later…"😘

But I'm more of a "if you love someone let them free" mindset!

So am I, and I think it’s cruel to keep a healthy cat in all the time. You can see how much they get out of being out from the way their little ears and noses twitch all the time. But they don’t need to be out after dark for that. Especially when they’re fast asleep within five minutes of coming in anyway!

My boy is kept in at night we shut the cat flap when it gets dark. He has a litter tray for night time which he never used until christmas when he was very ill and needed the vet several times. Since then he uses it quite a lot.

The vast majority of RTAs involving cats happen after dusk, so yes, I would keep them in after dark. Also it's better for local wildlife.
But it does mean you have to have a litter tray; locking cats inside without one is not fair.

I always call my cats in at night. I don’t know how true it is but I was once told by a rescue centre that the risk to cats is highest in the very early mornings. I live in a town.

Yes we keep our two in overnight, and have done since they were kittens, they are in the routine now (nearly 2). They sleep all night and wake up when we do in the morning. They normally come back by themselves at around 10:30pm, so we don't stop them going out in the dark, but just prefer them in overnight. A couple of occasions they have stayed out later into the early hours and they always bring back mice/worms etc!! So we now call them in if they do not come back by themselves before we go to bed.
We have kept 1 litter tray but to be honest they never use this now, they seem to prefer to wait to go outside after breakfast. But they have used it on a couple of occasions in the middle of the night, so we will keep 1 as I hate the thought of them really needing to go and not being able to get out. I think it works well, they have a good routine and never seem to get into fights with other cats, which I think mainly happen at night too.

We keep ours in, bout 19:00 till after rush hour in AM about 09:00. She gets out early on weekend. She has never been out at night unless on lead. She doesn't nap during day so full gas till night then sleep.

I keep mine in at night as there seem to be a lot of youths around at night. I dont want to risk it.

No, but we live very rurally so no real road risk and we need him for pest control!

I've had cats all my life and they have cat flap and come and go as they please.

We don't have litter trays they stink!