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’ve had 8 cats over 40 years. I have lost two to cars in the night, I was devastated both times, one was young and roamed a long way, one was 15 and had become a bit hard of hearing. They are less likely to be seen at night and more likely to roam at dawn and dusk. The other six have lived until between 15-22. We do not live on a main road, and back
onto endless long gardens and school fields.

Mine are all banished to the home now when they come in for their tea, and not allowed out again until it’s properly light. They also wear Tractive trackers when they go out so I can see where they are or where they have been.

Yes. Leaving them to roam is completely irresponsible.

I think it is exaxtly the same as just letting a dog out the front door to roam the streets - which NOBODY would do for obvious reasons.

My mind boggles that anybody could think ot OK.

Would you put your dog out on the street because of the inconvenience? Makes my blood boil, dont get an animal if you are not prepared to care for it adequately.

Over the years most of my cats had free rein to come and go at night via a catflap but we changed this rule with our current pair if reprobates. They come in at dusk and the catflap is locked. They spend night time in the living room with a litter tray but it's rarely used. We used to let them roam the house but they'd start hurtling through the house at ungodly hours. I feel happier knowing they are safe indoors. We live in a quiet cul de sac but I still worry about turning traffic especially as our council have switched the street lamps off at night.

i’ve always done the locked in the big kitchen overnight thing. safer that way. yes i need to clean the litter tray more but i’d actually rather they crap in my property so it’s not in neighbours flowerbeds

Mine have 24/7 access to outside. Over the years have lost one to the road and that happened at school-run time on a Friday afternoon.

Ours are generally in at night - but in this hot weather they sometimes choose to stay out in the cool night air. Can't say I blame them.

Ours go in and out as they please, day and night.

No. She comes and goes as she pleases

Ours go out or they wake us up at stupid o’clock every night! Also they are getting older and we’ve had a few accidents overnight. We don’t use litter trays, they go outside.

Our cats were indoor for their first couple of years but over time they started going out more and more.
We have an electronic/lockable cat flap with a curfew...so I think in the summer we set it to unlock at 6am and lock at 8pm, we set it to less outside in the winter/darker months. It's connected to their chip so they can get in but then not get out bargain after curfew time.

Ours has a cat flap, so comes and goes as she likes. She tends to stay in if the weather is wet.
She only has access to tge kitchen over night. If I haven't put her in the kitchen by 11pm, she will come and remind me, if im upstairs.
She was a wild cat, rescued by rspca, so I wouldn't deprive her of her outside time.

Wow so he figured out how to open it even when it's locked?
Worrying

Yes, always.

My cat is only allowed out in the garden during the day and when I am at home (I work from home most of the time).

I have foxes using the garden almost every night and other cats visiting so I don't want to risk her getting into fights when I am not there to intervene.

Are you still talking about at night

Do you mean you didn't given them litter trays

We do much the same as this with our 2 cats.
They are used to the nighttime routine and actually 'encourage us to go to bed' if we stay up later than normal! 😂

Well yes, I mean we as in the household, not us personally! 😂 Only used litter trays when they were kittens, we are rural with fields around so no need really.

My vet friend says most injuries happen at night (cars, foxes, cat fights) so it’s wise to keep them in.

Well I meant that it sounded like at some point you'd tried to keep them in at night (because you said they'd wake you in in the night if you did keep them in). And it wasn't clear if you provided litter trays and they chose not to use them or there wasn't any and that's why there were accidents at night

Mine uses an indoor litter tray permanently.

Catflap gets unlocked as soon as I get up in the mornings (around 6am on a work day) and she gets called in just before I go to bed - which is when I feed her.

She has run of the house overnight, unless she's bopped someone's toes too often, and they shut their bedroom door to keep her out!

Ours have always been allowed out at night even the Bengal. Current DC is a former barn cat and even with the ability to use the flap of cat still sometimes comes to shout at me for attention at 4am so if she was locked in I dont think anyone would sleep. In winter she sometimes chooses to stay in all night but in summer she likes to be out before we are up and in the heat often sleeps outside

@purpleme12 not that poster but most cats will go on the rampage at dawn. We shut our boy in the kitchen overnight for that very reason! It’s a shame because he’s delightful to cuddle up and fall asleep with, until about 4am. He does use a litter tray and will sometimes come in specifically to toilet then go back out, but we did the same with our previous girl who toileted outside 99.9% of the time. She had astonishing control and would generally hang on until after breakfast and go out for a wee, but we always had a litter tray in there for her just in case she needed it.

I read somewhere that cats are at their most vulnerable to predators when they are eating or toileting, so it’s good to have the option of a “safe space” even if they don’t really choose it.

I've got multiple litter trays anyway as we used to have 2 indoor cats (now have one) so no problem with litter trays 😆

I'd love to keep them in overnight, but the yowling and carpet shredding defeated us. It's hard to reconcile with the fact that they stayed in until about 10 months. But, their first three months were in the wild until they were rescued and they were originally a little feral.

I'm pragmatic about it, if they hadn't been rescued they'd have not had long so everything is a bonus for them.