kittens going outside

my 2 kittens 7 months old use the litter
well now they have started going out i leave
the back door open for them when they go out
but both come in the house to use the litter
rather than go outside should i move the litter when they go out
or leave it
any ideas
thanks

I would recommend you keeping them inside at all times. Indoor kitties have a much greater life span than outdoor kitties for obvious reasons. Automobiles, wild animals, and various other accidents that can happen.

Also unless these kitties are spayed or neutered, you may have other things to worry about soon then where they potty. Please keep them indoors- they truly will live longer-

they are spayed and neutered
they already go out
but come back to use the litter
any help

Originally Posted by mikuk

they already go out

Click to expand...

They are young enough to be untrained to go outside. Please, for their safety and health, do not let them out anymore.

If you are bound and determined to allow these cats to go outside and inside, you also have to provide them litter pans in the house. They will go potty outside, but inside, if you take away their litter pans, you will have confused kittens and they will start pottying all over the house. Putting the litter pan outside, is a losing proposition, for cats can't reason like we can and figure out that inside is not suitable for pottying, but outside is okay.

I am not jumping on you when I ask that you please keep your cats inside. I too, have inside/outside cats, but recently, I lost some pretty special kitties because of outside hazards. We are waiting now for the weather to clear so we can finish our cat enclosure and once it is finished NONE of my cats will have free access to roam outside- and we live on four acres in rural country-

Hiya,

I am presuming that Mikuk is writing from Staffordshire, UK. I think that there is quite a big difference in thinking between England and the USA / Canada. Over here in England, letting our cats outside is much more common. Yes, there is always the danger of the road, but in general, the majority of peoples cats are indoor / outdoor. A lot of people over here think that cats belong outdoors (or at least should have access to outdoors) to be able to roam freely, chase mice and sleep in warm spots in the sun.

I'm not saying that the other opinion is wrong - I believe there are a lot more cat eating creatures over in America and if I lived and had cats over there I dont think I would let them out then.

In answer to your question though, my cats started off still using their litter tray but started to use it less and less once they started going out. In the end, they decided that going to the toliet indoors wasn't to their taste and would only do it outside! That caused a bit of a problem when it snowed and my Jasper wouldnt go outside coz it was too cold! He crossed his legs until he had to eventually give in - but he didnt give up easily!!

My gang are indoor-outdoor cats because the garden has been cat proofed, it's a safe enclosure and they love to be out in it. Having a cat flap, they also have free access to it and they prefer their litter trays out there. One of mine chooses to use the garden, the raggies all say litter is cleaner thankyou very much! I didn't let any of mine out alone though until they were five months old, I made sure the kittens didn't figure out the cat flap until then, and Jazzie at six months still doesn't have indoor-outdoor trays completely figured out. As Hissy says, if you're not very careful, the kitten gets confused and starts using some quiet corner of the house. When I did start my kittens off on outdoor trays I moved all but one of the indoor trays out (the older cats like the outdoor trays best and use those) and then moved the kitten's tray close to the back door, then taped open the cat flap and put the tray near the open flap, so they could see and smell it. I also for the first day or two didn't keep it as clean as I would usually so they had no trouble in finding it. You do need the kitten to be very happy and confident about coming in and out and being in the garden alone though, day and night, otherwise she may be too scared to use the tray when she needs to. Once you've got the link established about go outside-use tray, you can gradually move the tray further away to where you want to keep it, and start if you want, transferring the cat to the garden not the tray. It works fine, so long as it's not rushed. One problem can be when spaying/neutering happens and you'll need a tray indoors for a few days. I've waited with all of mine until that was well over first.

Originally Posted by mikuk

my 2 kittens 7 months old use the litter
well now they have started going out i leave
the back door open for them when they go out
but both come in the house to use the litter
rather than go outside should i move the litter when they go out
or leave it
any ideas
thanks

Click to expand...

Leave the litterboxes where they are even after they've learned to do their business outside.

Thanks Jasper for the clarification. In my area, I have seen motorists deliberately swerve to hit a mama duck and her ducklings on the highway! I shudder to think what they do to a bigger target like a cat-