Kitten scared to go outside

[BluLagoon]

My kitten is now 7 months old so pretty much fully grown and has been neutered etc and all ready for life outside the house! He is a moggy but mum was half Maine coon so I hoped he’d laid back and confident.

Trouble is he hates going outside! We waited until mild weather days and introduced him to the garden etc and started to leave him for longer periods. However he hasn’t grown in Confidence and just hides in our garden or next door, and more recently resists if I try to put him outside.

I feel he needs the exercise and has begun to scratch my new leather sofa so keen to help him explore. What can I do? There is a other cat or 2 nearby but I rarely see them, and haven’t seen them in the garden so not sure if this is a factor.

I'd leave it another couple of weeks. It's been really grey here most days - DC has only water to go put on her own a couple of days.

What she will do is join us if we are outside. So she will come out if we are pegging the washing up.

So, I'd go slow, and go out with him.

Just give it more time, he will be far more interested when spring truly arrives

Some cats just have no interest in it. Don't force him!

I’d say he’s a bit too young. We didn’t let ours out until 8.5 months old and we had 2 so they had each other to play with and they give each other confidence. 7 months is not fully grown usually, ours are still growing at 10 months.

This was my cat this time last year, started letting her out from about 7 months (after her spay wound was fully healed). She would sit at the window/door and look outside but was a bit scared to actually go out and when she was out would dash back inside if anything came or strange noise etc. When the weather got a bit nicer i just left the window or door open and she slowly got more confident and by summer was out more than in however when winter came and the weather got miserable she's not very keen to go out again, especially if it's windy or raining. I'm sure yours will start going out more when the weather's nicer

Don’t know much about the breed, but we “allow” our ragdoll outside and she couldn’t be less interested. She looks awkward and uncomfortable and only stays cowering under a hedge as long as she can see one of us is around, otherwise, she’s straight back inside on a nice comfy bed can’t say I blame her.

My cat never wanted to go outside. Tried to introduce her to it and she would sprint back in in a panic immediately. She has access to a cat flap and we are not careful about leaving windows/doors closed and yet she has never chosen to venture out. She's an indoor cat by choice!

Leave him alone , buy some nice scratch posts and redirect him every time . My sister has an Omelet one that lights up , the cat loves it and it looks quite good .

Some cats don't like being outside but he'll probably change his mind once the weather turns nice :)

He's nowhere near fully grown at 7 months of age. All mine have continued to grow until the age of around two.

Not all cats are interested in being outside and that's okay. You shouldn't force him. If he's scratching at your furniture then buying him some cat furniture and scratching posts instead of forcing something he clearly doesn't want.

I wouldn’t put him outside. Just leave doors and windows open and go outside by yourself and see if he follows. If he does play with him outside. Let him come in when he wants to.

Our adopted one year old has just started going out but we leave the door or window open. She comes back in every 10 mins or so (I think to make sure she can still get in) and then goes out again. It means leaving the door open when it’s cold which is a pain. We’re getting a catflap fitted next week.