Do some cats just prefer to be outdoor cats?

[ScaredButUnavoidable]

Brief background: I had two cats from a rescue centre two months ago who were classed as ‘bonded’ but within a few weeks of being here it became evident they weren’t. After lots of support from the Rescue Centre, behaviourists and the vet, the decision was made to rehomed one of them, which we did last week.

The cat we had is now much happier now she is here alone.

However, she seems to have decided she wants to live outdoors!!

We have a cat flap, and our back door is generally open for most of the day but she still spends about 75% of her time outside in the back garden. She never goes wandering off, she just potters about in the back garden all day, sleeping, playing, running about etc, but outdoors is where she seems to want to be.

She even stays outside overnight (her choice) which doesn't worry me as we bought her a lovely outdoor accommodation house thing and she has food and water and she’s very sheltered and we know she doesn’t leave the garden.

She comes in the house for a few hours in the morning and in the evening and is playful, loving and affectionate with all the family, but she much prefers being outside.

We obviously go out and sit with her in the garden and she is playful and affectionate with us, likes to interact with us etc so she’s bonded and happy with us…. but she just seems to have took it upon herself to want to primarily live in the garden.

Can this be normal?

I’ve tried bringing her in the house for the shade during this weather but she just goes straight back outside (and finds shade outside).

She’s 18 months old and prior to coming to live with us she’d never had outdoor access before and so I’m wondering if maybe she’s just loving the freedom and fresh air??

Yes

I have three cats at the moment and one barely leaves my side, one is a mostly homebody around our house and garden and one occasionally deigns to visit us at feeding time.

they all spend a lot more time indoors in the winter.

Of course some cats prefer to be outdoors. They are just exhibiting natural behaviour.

I think I would understand it more if she went off exploring or something because we had nearby exciting outdoor places that she wanted visit, but we don’t 🤣

She just sits in the garden all day. I can’t help but think she must be bored! I spent a bloody fortune on cat toys and cat trees before they came to use from the rescue centre and they sit unused in the living room 🤣

My cat seems to prefer it outdoors. He was a farm cat, born literally in a barn so I guess it’s just his happy place and where he spends most of his day. Ventures in and out for food/water. He’s affectionate in the mornings, stays in at night (our choice) and often sleeps in our room. He’s only 7 months and recently been snipped and chipped so not sure if it’s all novel to be outdoors or just what he prefers

Never try and understand a cat OP

My childhood cat was a former stray - he basically lived outside for the first 10 years of his life and we didn't see him for much of the day. In his last 7 years he spent more time indoors.

Could it be weather related? In the summer, my cat lives outside almost 24/7, popping in for a brief hello or to get some food, even before this heatwave

Put the toys outside for her. She is a perfectly normal kitty loving the outdoors. She will be right in when the winter comes for sure.

This really made me smile 🤣🤣❤️

My cat goes outside for a quick toilet trip, then back on his chair!

She sounds settled and happy in her own territory (the garden).

Oh, and once you find a food that she really, really likes, don’t buy in a shed load of it. Because then she’ll no longer line it … for reasons.

This is The Way Of The Cat.

🤣

Funnily enough, for the last 3 days she has point blank refused to eat the food that she’s been eating for the past two months 🤣🤣

It’s driving me mad!

She looks at the bowl, looks up at me with a perplexed look on her face, looks back at the bowl and then jabs the food a few times with her paw, gives me a long disdainful stare and then she just walks away! It’s baffled me.

I have given up and “new cat food” is on my shopping list for tomorrow 🤣

The Way Of The Cat also includes Never Play With The Toys. Unless you decide to give them away, then they’ll suddenly play with them so you decide to keep them after all. Repeat at will. Same with the food.

Main thing? Don’t stress it, she sounds fine. Just pray they don’t get opposable thumbs. P

She’s just a little mystery to me.

A really, really funny and beautiful one though! She’s so quirky and charismatic……she’s just hilarious.

It’s just the way she walks around like she’s in charge of the household and although everyone warned me that cats behave like that, it has taken me aback by just how true it really is 🤣

I almost feel like I should be grateful for any acknowledgement she shows me 🤣

In nice weather our previous cat was outside pretty much all the time - although we always kept her in overnight. She had a kind of “den” under next door’s bushes where she was sheltered even if it was lashing rain, and she’d spend hours just sleeping in the lawn borders in the sun. At one point she developed a fondness for next door’s garden furniture and the blanket the previous neighbour used to sunbathe on - the neighbour was a very glamorous woman with a stunning figure, and would be lying out there in her bikini with our cat cuddled up to her! (She started to leave the blanket out for her.) As a pure white cat she knew she had to get sunscreen before going out in summer, so we always kept a bottle in the utility room for her.

We sadly had to have her pts with cancer in 2024 aged ten, and now have a little boy cat who had been a stray kitten born in a woman’s shed. He likes being outside but tends to be quite “busy”, trotting around rather than sunbathing, although he doesn’t really roam far. He likes to sit on the shed roof or the garden table but won’t snooze outside, he prefers his bed or cat tree. I think he knows he’s fallen on his paws here, and his al fresco days are definitely in the past.

Yes, mines out about 80% of the time now. He was a stray kitten. Sounds like this is recent behaviour for your cat OP and may be happening as the weather has warmed up.

@ScaredButUnavoidable Cat tax please.

It’s the weather. Mine are out all day and night at the moment but it’s the opposite in winter.

When we have a hot spell like we have now I see mine when she comes in to feed and have a drink and then she is outside again.

When it is cooler she will spend hours sitting on me or any other human who is around.

One of mine would love to live outside and makes a dive for it whenever he thinks he can get through. Sadly we are in Australia and we are strict with our cats that they are indoor cats. Not a fan of dead native wildlife. They have a catio.