Do you keep your cats in at night?

[purpleme12]

What do you do with yours?

Can they just go in and out whenever they want?

Or do you keep them in at night?

I keep my cat in at night.
She has a litter box in the house if she needs it.

Thanks

Having an outdoor cat is a bit new to me!

Ours are shut in the kitchen with access to the back door, so can go in and out through the cat flap.

Ours is shut in the dining room with the window open . If he didn’t have access to outside in the night he would wake us up about 3am 😩

She comes in at dusk, and we lock the cat flap. She has access to the downstairs of the house overnight (including dry food, water, and litter tray).

We rarely hear her during the night (unless there’s a fox outside), when we do go down either during the night or on the morning, she’s casually lazing in one of her many sleeping spots.

We don’t let her out after dark due to cars, and her vast range of enemies.

She's currently at the door and I know she wants to go out

(But she's also fine inside at night)

A part of you feels bad when they're at the door wanting to go out!

I feel better with her inside at night

I always keep mine in at night.

They stay out during the evening on the whole, but once they return at about 10pm I don't let them out again.

We have a lockable cat flap and I let ours out after breakfast around 7am till he’s called in for dinner around 6pm. We have a litter tray. When I was younger (as a child) we had cats who just used to come and go as they pleased and they were always hunting and bringing half dead things in. Horrible. I think keeping them in at night cuts this right down: ours hardly ever catches anything now. I also worry about traffic not being able to see him at night, although we do live rurally and it’s very quiet.

Yes, always in overnight, and shut in the kitchen at actual bed time.

Thanks yes that's helpful as well

My new cat is REALLY camouflaged so even in the day she's hard to see. She is completely grey and doesn't stand out at all like other colour cats when you're looking for her.

Ours has a cat flap into the porch, where he has a warm, comfy bed. In the winter, he has a heater in there.

When we accidentally leave the porch door open, he comes in and out ALL night. He can’t enter the house quietly. He has to announce his arrival very vocally.

If he does get in, he demands that we get up and escort him to the front door, despite being perfectly able to access the cat flap. The demands involve more howling, and progress to biting and destroying things.

This cycle can repeat several times in a night. He rarely lasts a whole night like this as we have limited patience with deliberate sleep deprivation techniques.

Amazingly, we still love him dearly. He seems to like us too, regularly leaving us half eaten rabbits on the step in the morning.

I have one who actually brings herself in at a similar time every night and goes to the same place to sleep. She is a rescue cat and we've had her 3 months and it's adorable she has a routine already.
Then I have an older gentleman who has never wanted to be contained, although he does come in at night in the winter.
But in the summer he sleeps outside in a cat house my husband built. I cannot get him in!

We have a ‘lockdown’ for our cat when we all go to bed. She sleeps in the dining room and has a litter tray. We don’t have a cat flap but she gets let outside as soon as one of us is up. During the day she comes and goes as she pleases.
I don’t like cats being left out all night either. Like my moggies safe and sound inside!

We have a cat flap so they come and go as they please. They do choose to spend most of the night inside though.

After one of my cats was hit by a car and killed last year, my remaining 3 have all day access to catios (at front and back of house) and then kept indoors overnight. :)

I worry about foxes etc my mums cat came running home one night being chased by a fox I don’t know what wouldve happened if I hadn’t woke and got him in he was exhausted and the fox didn’t run away when it saw me

I am in Australia and where I live you’re not supposed to leave your cat outside overnight. My Burmese cat sleeps in bed with me every night, head on the pillow, body under the covers just like a human. Nothing like a purring machine to help me get to sleep. He then wakes up my husband around 3am wanting his breakfast before coming back to me, lucky he’s cute!

I can relate!

It's a whole new world.

We have a cat flap but do call ours in overnight.

We used to leave a window open for her to come and go as she pleased, but she's getting older now and I worry about her being out at night.

She seems happy enough to snuggle up and stay in.

Mine is sleeping at my feet currently. Never felt comfortable letting her stay out all night due to foxes and nearby road. We began by letting her out into the garden during the day but curiously she will not leave the garden or stay in the garden without us during the day. As soon as we go back inside she’s darting to the door to get back in with us.

In the evening she feels more daring and goes further afield into neighbouring gardens. We always called her back in about 10pm/11pm and she’s just in the habit of doing this now and has never not come back in though initially she needed coaxing in, but now just comes in.

I had nine and the older ones went out at night. After receiving a horrendous phone call early one morning and having one of my boys brought to my door dead in a large shopping bag in an awful state they all became indoor cats. There’s seven of them now (lost my 16 year old boy two months later unrelated) and they’ve formed a lovely pack. They’ve all built relationships with each other and the different bonds across different age ranges are lovely to see. We have no issues, but the brother of the one who was run over still looks for him, wandering the house and shouting every day. It’s heartbreaking. They had such a close bond. I think he thinks that his brother is stuck outside and he can’t find him. I’m very lucky that they’ve all adjusted so well and have become even more affectionate. Letting them out at night just is not worth it. You do not want to see what one of your babies has been reduced to. Inside they’re completely safe.

I let mine come and go as she pleases. It can be draining when she's up all night but she enjoys it

Always kept ours in at night, she’s currently asleep next to us on a chair.

All ours over the years stayed in at night, until our latest who has figured out how to open the cat flap! In the end it was easier just to let him go out. I actually think he's safer out at night as there are no cars in the street and no people either. Most neighbours also let their cats out at night, but we are semi-rural.

We let ours out most nights, they were rescued as feral as kitchens from a large park area and really are just outdoor cats! during the day time we leave a window open for them to come and go as they please, at night as Hubbie works shifts if they are in when he gets in around 12-1 am they will just dart out of the front door when he opens it. They are normally waiting or not far away when we get up in the AM