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Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Original poster

Do you let your cat out at night?

68 replies

Tabbysmummy · 02/03/2025 22:20

I have a new cat just about to be let out (he is 12 months). I have always let previous cats out at night, but recently I have researched how to introduce cats to the outdoors safely and seems the advise is to not let cats out at night. We live on a quiet suburban street and I actually thought it would be safer for cats to be out at night as no cars, no dogs, no people. Seems like cars paradise to me. There are foxes but I didn’t think they were interested in cats .Do you let your cats out at night?

OP posts:
Clingfilm · 02/03/2025 23:14

Ours comes and goes as she pleases. She'd scratch the back door to death if we locked the flap. In the winter she usually spends most of the night sleeping indoors on our bed but in summer we hardly see her! We do sometimes wake to the sound of a mouse chase in the kitchen, or (better imho) mouse guts and she has got into scrapes but she's just not the indoor kind so we have to let her go and live her best life.

maudelovesharold · 02/03/2025 23:28

101Kittens · 02/03/2025 22:49

No. Cats should be kept in at night. It's safer for them and wildlife. Cats are not nocturnal and sleeping is when they are most vulnerable.

I understand the first 3 sentences. (Nice to see you adhere to the old MN adage - ‘No’ is a complete sentence!), but I don’t understand the 4th sentence. I think my comprehension skills must be compromised after 11 p.m!

Cats are not nocturnal and sleeping is when they are most vulnerable.

Cats may not be nocturnal, but they can be very active at night. And yes, sleeping is when they are most vulnerable, but they’re unlikely to be sleeping outside at night, if they have a home to go to. The two parts of the sentence don’t seem to belong together. They’re just two separate statements. Could you clarify the point you’re trying to make with regard to keeping cats in or not at night? (Apart from the wildlife issue, which I get!)

Sid9nie · 02/03/2025 23:33

Mine goes in and out as he pleases. When it's cold he stays in, when it's nice he's out for hours.

purplecog · 02/03/2025 23:41

Not any more. He’s a hunter and we were fed up of being woken in the middle of the night by live creatures that he’d released inside the house!

He can break cat flaps when locked but we now have a cat flap cover which does the job! He soon got used to staying in.

MoonWoman69 · 03/03/2025 00:05

When I went to the vets for my twos last jabs, she said with them both being black, to keep them in at night. I thought I'd have a hell of a job with that! But they're in and out all morning, come in for an afternoon nap with me. Then out again late afternoon, come in for their tea, out again for a couple of hours, then in for the night between 8 and 9pm! They both have reflective collars on anyway, but I don't leave them out at night.
We do live on a fairly quiet crescent, but non resident cars don't tend to stick to the 20mph limit which worries me. And I'm aware that accidents can happen day or night.
I had thought about a microchip controlled cat flap, but that would mean having to have a new back door, as the one I have, due to its design, won't take a cat flap! I think in summer, they'll be out a bit longer, but then I'll have the door open later anyway.
They always seem to come back within two minutes of each other, if not together! Little mischief makers, the pair of them!

StrayGoose · 03/03/2025 00:11

Mine has a cat flap so comes and goes as he pleases. He has a routine in which he patrols the neighbourhood at certain times (e.g. 7pm each night, then again at 11pm, then, as far as we know he stays in until about 6am). We don't have a litter box. He's neutered and has only come home twice banged up a bit (scratched) but we don't have much traffic in our town or foxes that I know of. If we did I'd probably lock him in at night with a litter tray.

ohreallyIsee · 03/03/2025 00:41

We keep ours in a night for a few reasons, he's a hunter so keep him in dusk to dawn, he's bolshy and likes fighting and he's a dark grey tuxedo so not always very visible

hereismydog · 03/03/2025 01:15

No. I have three cats, one goes out after breakfast and has to be home before dark (he knows the rules and is ready and waiting in the garden!), he does have a microchip-activated cat flap but won’t use it. On the odd occasion he isn’t home by dark, I embarrass him in front of his mates by calling his name and shaking the Dreamies until he comes back just to shut me up.

One is getting on a bit now and will go out for an hour of fresh air and then comes back in. She’s a good girl.

One is a cross-eyed liability and would be dead within hours from eating something she shouldn’t, attempting to befriend a strange dog or lying down in the road. Also not sure how well she can actually see due to her crossed eyes! She doesn’t go out unless it’s under strict human supervision in the garden, and only then it’s after her brother is out of sight as he knows how to get out of the ‘cat-proof’ fencing (that we spent hours putting up!), and she would try to follow him and hurt herself 🙄

DiscoBeat · 03/03/2025 02:13

We haven't let our kittens out yet, they're 9 months and 7 months and new to us (had them 6 weeks) and we're still in vaccination time so can't let them out yet. When they can go out they'll be out with supervision and we'll be keeping them in at night.

minipie · 03/03/2025 02:21

Yes. Our cat is in and out all evening and early morning and comes in for a snack and a sleep around 9am. She doesn’t catch birds, we’ve had the odd mouse but that’s been equal day and night.

If I didn’t let her out she’d be shouting the house down to go out as soon as it’s getting light

biscuitsandbooks · 03/03/2025 07:57

No. We have three cats and they're all inside from dusk and back out when it gets light in the morning.

101Kittens · 03/03/2025 10:24

@maudelovesharold Cats need an average of 15 hours sleep a day. This is a 12 month old kitten who will need more as he is still growing. How do you think he's getting any sleep when he's locked out all night?

@Tabbysmummy hasn't said if she has bothered to get him neutered, which also leaves him more vulnerable if he's not. There is a prevalence of FIV and FELV in the UK from unneutered, outdoor males fighting.

My statements come from decades of specialist cat experience.

Grumpyoldpersonwithcats · 03/03/2025 10:55

We generally get our cats in at night - but if any if them refuse to come back at our bedtime then they are left outside. (Looking at you Lenny...)

ExtraDecluttering · 03/03/2025 11:03

We decided not to when we got our two but it wasn't practical, we are always in and out the back door in the evenings (they are not allowed out the front door because of it being close to the road) and they nip out, so we gradually stopped bothering to lock the catflap. They aren't great hunters, in 12 years they've only brought in a couple of dead mice. Also they do genuinely seem to sleep all night, either on our bed or nearby. On the sofa with us during the evening.

brokenwand · 03/03/2025 11:09

yes, he has a microchip cat flap & comes & goes as he pleases but is generally in at night in the winter & under a bush in the back garden during summer. He is a really very very lazy cat

Original poster
Tabbysmummy · 03/03/2025 11:41

101Kittens · 03/03/2025 10:24

@maudelovesharold Cats need an average of 15 hours sleep a day. This is a 12 month old kitten who will need more as he is still growing. How do you think he's getting any sleep when he's locked out all night?

@Tabbysmummy hasn't said if she has bothered to get him neutered, which also leaves him more vulnerable if he's not. There is a prevalence of FIV and FELV in the UK from unneutered, outdoor males fighting.

My statements come from decades of specialist cat experience.

He is neutered and vaccinated.

OP posts:
Mueslikid · 03/03/2025 12:13

I like to be up and on the spot to relieve her of any prey that comes in, so no I don’t.

Too many occasions of coming downstairs to the hallway covered in pigeon feathers (those birds have a LOT of feathers), but the final straw was DH getting up in the night and treading on a (mercifully dead) rat in his bare feet.

She still catches plenty of stuff in broad daylight, but it tends to be smaller, and it’s often still alive when we get to her, so better all round that she stays in at night.

faithspikebuffy · 03/03/2025 12:20

No, never
He's black and I don't want him out at night

RobinEllacotStrike · 03/03/2025 12:35

I have 2 black cats & they are in at night.
They are free to go out during the day if they want but I bring them in when it gets dark.

Julianne65 · 03/03/2025 14:06

Yes. We have a microchip cat flap and she can go out whenever she wants. We adopted her from CP and she had spent the first 18 months or so of her life living in one room with very little space so she is loving the complete freedom she has. She is very savvy though and has a very clear territory. She never crosses the (busy) road to the other side and stays in her turf. If I saw her venture over the road I might try and keep her in more.

Tubbyinthehottub · 03/03/2025 14:30

I have a neutered and vaccinated older male. He can come and go as he pleases unless it's bonfire night or he has an appointment. He doesn't bring mice or birds home. In the winter, he might only be out for half an hour, whereas in summer, he's out most of the night. There are foxes about, sometimes they meet and it's a non-event. I've seen it on cctv footage. I live on a quiet suburban street.

DiscoDragon · 03/03/2025 14:36

Ours stay in at night, we don't have a cat flap and I don't really want to get one. I don't want to have to deal with any more live lizards/frogs/rodents etc let loose in our house or any dead ones for that matter! We live rurally and there is less traffic at night, however it's usually night time when dickhead drivers are racing through the village far faster than they should be. We actually had a guy knock on our door one night at about midnight, he'd seen our light on and was trying to find the owner of a cat that had ran out in front of his car that he'd hit, it had limped off somewhere and he was really worried about it.

I'm much happier going to bed knowing where they are.

Goody2ShoesAndTheFilthyBeast · 03/03/2025 14:38

No. She's not allowed out from between about 1030pm and 6am

MajorBryantIsAnArse · 03/03/2025 14:43

No, we have them in. We are in a quiet suburban area as well, but we have foxes and badgers. I don't think foxes usually attack cats, but our neighbour once had a cat killed in a horrible fashion which he said he was sure foxes.

Both our previous cats who died via road accident was in the night when they did not come in. So, no, never now by choice although our younger one in the summer often has to be searched for. She is a hunter though and if she is out at night she usually comes home with something small and dead.

Caspianberg · 03/03/2025 14:46

Yes
He didn’t go out until 1+ year, and we have a sure flap cat flap. We tried locking it overnight ( as in tried for 2 years), but he hated it, would scratch to go out late in summer or outside earlier than we woke. Also stopped coming back to treats. We gave up eventually.

He’s now 7. In general hes in now once dark and stays in most the night but can go out whenever. He’s lazy and terrified of birds and mice so never had any issues with killing them.
Our road is a dead end so no through traffic.