Outdoor access for current cat if we get a new kitten?

[giraffetasticc]

Hi all, looking for some advice here on managing outdoor access for our current cat if we were to get another cat in the house.
We have a very sociable 2 year old male cat who absolutely loves the outdoors, especially now it's getting into the long spring/summer evenings and also uses our garden as his litter tray. However we're thinking of getting a second cat in the house, as we've noticed him spending time with other cats on our road and our working hours are about to increase so we won't be at home as much and don't want him getting lonely.
The only issue really stopping us at the moment is we're not sure what to do about outside access while the new cat/kitten is adjusting to life with us? I know no matter what age the new cat is it should be kept indoors for 2-3 weeks minimum while adjusting to life with us. How have others managed this? If we try and keep our boy in for 2-3 weeks he will not be happy at all and don't want to add additional stress to him in a transition period.

The only way I can think of doing it at the moment is having the cat flap set to 'entry only' so we can let our boy cat out when he asks and he can come in as he wishes, but not sure then what we would do if we were out during the daytime/evening. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

We have recently acquired two kittens, one is almost a year old and the other 10 months. They stayed indoors for two months to get used to their new home. The older one (male) was already neutered but the female wasn't spayed so we had to wait another month to go out. We just let him out when he wanted to and set the cat flap to 'in only'. The girl had a litter tray so it was fine if we went out. They're both now free roaming until 10pm but we do put a litter tray indoors in the evening and if we go out for long.

Microchip cat flap? Older cat could come and go as he pleases whilst it won’t open for the younger one. Longer term I also think they’re worth the investment because it stops random cats and if you’re ever in a scenario where you need to keep one in for a vets visit or recovering from an injury you can programme it accordingly.

We have a dual scan cat flap. A single scan cat flap will restrict cats coming in, but allow any cat out which is not what you need.

We have a dual microchip cat flap if you can afford them they are good. We were in the exact same situation as you. We got a 8 week old kitten in February with a sociable 2yo female. The thing we noticed was female wanted to avoid kitten a lot, she would be out longer and avoid his 'safe space' after about a week she started to be more comfortable around him but would still be out a lot. In time, he started to think the indoors was his domain and was quite antagonistic towards her when she came inside in the evenings even though this was her home first haha! Recently she's learned to open the microchip cat flap for him. Firstly she propped it open with her nose form the outside so he could get out...now she's learned she only needs to be near enough the car flap to activate the lock so he can get out! Thankfully once he was microchipped we could set his to 'in only' and he isn't a roamer, he just cried to be let back in while she sat contemptuously watching him from the wall! Now they have supervised garden time together and she is really enjoying pounce and play outside...kitten is more tired in the evenings and so she is more comfortable to settle inside. I would say we underestimated the older ones reaction and time needed to get used to the kitten...we also thought she was sociable and would appreciate the company but she freaked out massively at first and took a long time for her to start to relax around him evening though he was tiny!

Yep, microchip cat flap, dual. Saying that one of our kittens, now 3 can't use the cat flap because he's such a dipstick - he gets caught between the two flaps (we have ours through the wall so cat flap on inside and outside - the other two cats are fine, he just looks co fused

Agree with PP re microchip flap. We have a smart one so can set in / out times and have indoor cats, which is good so you know if the kitten gets out accidentally it can get back in. Annoyingly you can't set different curfews but you can change indoor only status which we do for the kittens so they aren't allowed out as early in the morning or late in the evening while they get used to it.

It can get a bit obsessive but it was handy when we were away once and one of our cats hadn't been around for days, she was stuck in a room upstairs and the (very deaf) person coming in to feed them hadn't heard her meowing!

If your working hours are about to increase, is it the right time to get a kitten? It sounds as though your cat is socialising on his own terms. They don’t tend to enjoy sharing their indoor space with other cats.