Whats the best way to introduce my cat to going outside?

[kayleighcouture]

I have a 1year old british blue cat and for the last 3months or so, Ive been taking him out for walks on his harness and since then, hes developed a massive desire to go outside more often. Ive never been keen on the idea of letting him outside, purely because Im terrified that hell get hurt or lost and I could never handle something like that.

Both my family and I work a lot during the week and I feel like its unfair to keep him cooped up in the house all day with nobody to play with; now that hes experienced the outside world.

Hes been snipped and chipped and were looking at purchasing an electric cat flap so only he can come in through it.

Ive also looked at GPS trackers that you can fit onto their collars (DAFT, I KNOW!) but Ive been told by a lot of cat owner friends that Ill buy it and realise that he will always come back and apparently Ill see it to be a waste of money but I dont know!

I just want to know if there are particular methods that make the transition for home life to outdoor life a lot easier for him?

And how do I set up some sort of routine for him to return at night - which is the time Id be most worried about him!

Any help is really appreciated; thankyou [emoji]9829[/emoji]

 

[tchotchony]

Actually, I'd be careful with collars for outdoor cats. My previous two cats both were indoor/outdoor cats, and they both found the trick of getting rid of their collar... by hooking it behind a branch and walking backwards while balancing on the garden fence! I've been really lucky we caught both of them doing it and we decided not to put any collar on them at all ever since, having them hang itself really isn't worth the risk.

Before letting a cat roam outside, you just need to be aware of the dangers. Any kind of wildlife around that might hurt cats? Busy roads he could get on? A neighbour putting out rat poison (or heaven forbid, shoot them)? We kept both our cats indoors for a month or two so they knew this was their home and place to eat. But that won't be a problem with yours. And yes, they come back, no worries! Also don't worry too much if they stay away overnight once in a while, even if they don't make it back, they'll find some sort of shelter or food, cats are a lot more independent than you think. Although I usually fed him right after he came back, so he had quite the incentive for returning. That, and he quite enjoyed evening lap-time, wouldn't miss it for the world.

 

[segelkatt]

 
I have a 1year old british blue cat and for the last 3months or so, Ive been taking him out for walks on his harness and since then, hes developed a massive desire to go outside more often. Ive never been keen on the idea of letting him outside, purely because Im terrified that hell get hurt or lost and I could never handle something like that.

Both my family and I work a lot during the week and I feel like its unfair to keep him cooped up in the house all day with nobody to play with; now that hes experienced the outside world.

Hes been snipped and chipped and were looking at purchasing an electric cat flap so only he can come in through it.

Ive also looked at GPS trackers that you can fit onto their collars (DAFT, I KNOW!) but Ive been told by a lot of cat owner friends that Ill buy it and realise that he will always come back and apparently Ill see it to be a waste of money but I dont know!

I just want to know if there are particular methods that make the transition for home life to outdoor life a lot easier for him?

And how do I set up some sort of routine for him to return at night - which is the time Id be most worried about him!

Any help is really appreciated; thankyou [emoji]9829[/emoji]

My best  advice is DON'T! Would you let a 5 year old child go outside unaccompanied unless restrained by fences etc?  Of course not. Your cat would go right over the fence and has no more sense of the dangers than the child. Don't worry about the cat feeling "cooped up", he will sleep most of the day anyway. Get him a cat tree next to a window and some toys and he will be fine. He'll be waiting at the front door for you in no time once he learns that the sound of a car door, bus, certain foot steps etc tell him you are near. My cats wait for me at the door once they hear the elevator door, my neighbors tell me that only happens when I am the one who is coming out of that door, not when others do. In case you wonder how my neighbors can know that: I have a locking screened security door 2 feet in front of my apartment door. When I leave for just a few hours I lock the security door and prop the front door open so  the cats can look out the windows and the door.  

 

[jfed]

It was a very gradual process for me when I started letting my Gus go outside (more for my own sake than his probably). He was found as a stray before I rescued him from the pound, so he has always had a very strong desire to go outside. I also felt very guilty confining him to my small suite after he'd been living in freedom for the last however long.

I remember hearing once before that spreading a cat's dirty litter around the perimeter of your yard helps them navigate themselves better if they stray a little too far from home. It also sends out information to the other outdoor cats in the area that this is your cat's property, and may deter them from overlapping into his territory.

So this is what I did, sprinkled his used littler around our property (lol, that would sure look interesting from an outsider's perspective) and like you, I started letting him outside on a leash and harness and we would walk the perimeter of the yard. Then I started to let him go outside off-leash, always under my paranoid supervision. I was fortunate with Gus though, because he follows me like a dog everywhere and we would literally go for walks together. Then I got braver and started to let him explore without my supervision, I'd check up on him every 20 minutes or so to make sure he was still around, and always rewarded him with treats when he'd come home. Now it's a part of his daily routine, in and out all day long, and he is rarely gone for that long at a time.

However, I am really only comfortable with letting him roam outdoors because I live in the country and in my opinion, he's not exposed to as many risks as he would be in the city. I don't have to worry about busy streets and cars and all the people... I just worry about bald eagles and the occasional other cat. I also don't let him out when I'm not home, I like to make sure I'm around just in case something were to happen. Also worth mentioning that because you've got a fancy cat breed, some people might like to scoop him up and keep as their own.

Be aware of the risks, make sure he's up to date on his vaccinations! There are nasty nasty and very contagious diseases out there that you don't want to expose your cat to.

Good luck!!

Oh, one more thing. Have a bell on his collar so he doesn't decimate the bird population!

 

[segelkatt]

 
Actually, I'd be careful with collars for outdoor cats. My previous two cats both were indoor/outdoor cats, and they both found the trick of getting rid of their collar... by hooking it behind a branch and walking backwards while balancing on the garden fence! I've been really lucky we caught both of them doing it and we decided not to put any collar on them at all ever since, having them hang itself really isn't worth the risk.

Before letting a cat roam outside, you just need to be aware of the dangers. Any kind of wildlife around that might hurt cats? Busy roads he could get on? A neighbour putting out rat poison (or heaven forbid, shoot them)? We kept both our cats indoors for a month or two so they knew this was their home and place to eat. But that won't be a problem with yours. And yes, they come back, no worries! Also don't worry too much if they stay away overnight once in a while, even if they don't make it back, they'll find some sort of shelter or food, cats are a lot more independent than you think. Although I usually fed him right after he came back, so he had quite the incentive for returning. That, and he quite enjoyed evening lap-time, wouldn't miss it for the world.

Cats DO NOT always come home. I found a tuxedo cat some years ago which just walked onto my patio and when I opened the door this cat walked in and made himself at home. Even after putting up signs and leaving them for several weeks nobody claimed him. So I kept him, he was only 3 or 4 years old and quite healthy and well fed. He would go out on the patio but never roamed the neighborhood, just sat on the wall. After 4 more years he decided to take a walk and never came back. I put up signs but nobody ever returned him, nobody had even seen him and the neighbors all knew him from sitting on the patio wall. This was before I had even heard of microchips, he did wear a break-away collar, but that could have come off if he poked around in bushes and got snagged. His name was James Bond for his elegant coat and demeanor.

 

[ayeshajae]

Hey just want to say that it can be dangerous for kitties to go out unsupervised, but that being said I know lots of indoor/outdoor kitties that seems fine, but you gotta know they all have caught some form of parasite from either fleas or eating some nasty rodent! If you let your kitty go out all day I'm just saying he will surely catch a parasite at least once

But to answer your question if you've already taken kitty out for a walk on the leash around your house I'm sure he will know where it is.

Also to segalkatt, sorry to hear about your kitty reminded me of when I was young actually and we had our first cat my mom got from the pound. This cat was a jerk so we left him(from being unaltered but I guess we didn't know that made them meaner) so we left him outside all the time. Well, we noticed that he would come back injured a lot, and one day he came back with an enormous head injury looked like the work of a pellet gun. In this area it's not unusual for birders to shoot cats. Even my grandma does it D: I guess the moral of the story is please leave kitty inside /:3...