Keeping outdoor cat inside whilst on holiday

[Mrs Mac]

Hi, I'm new to the forum and hope some of you can give me some advice. We have a 15 year old cat Rosie who we adopted last year when the previous owners moved away. She's an outdoor cat with cat flap, although we keep her in over night and she doesn't tend to go out in the evening.

On previously 2 occasions we have taken her to a cattery for a week whilst on holiday but she wasn't too impressed. In august, we left her for 5 nights in the care of a cat sitter and she was really happy and relaxed when we came back. The only issue was that the cat sitter was supposed to lock and block the cat flap in the evening, but Rosie was not always in when they visited - so my neighbour kindly locked up later in the evening after Rosie had come back in, which kind of defeats the purpose of paying a cat sitter...

We're going away again for 4 night in a couple of weeks and I'm wondering if I should keep Rosie inside for that time. The sitter will still come twice a day but Rosie won't get out therefore eliminating the risk of her not being in in the evening and inconveniencing the neighbour.

Does anybody have experience how outdoor cats react to being kept inside their own home for a few days? She has the run of the whole house so I would think that she'll be ok... Does Feliway help, does anybody know?

[Kay]

I'm sure she'd be OK for such a short time, but why not try keeping her in 24/7 for a couple of days before you go away, so you can see how it affects her, and also get her used to the idea that there are going to be days when she can't get out

you can try Feliway if she seems to be getting stressed, but I suspect at her age she'll learn to just shrug her shoulders once she realises her freedom has been curtailed

I'd recommend blocking off the closed flap so she can't see it, though, otherwise she might spend hours trying to open it, and that would increase her stress levels

[Janey]

Hi and welcome. We rarely go away but we went for a few days this year and our cat which loves to go out was kept indoors and she was absolutely fine. My sister, has a similar routine to the time you went away, they go away for a week and she tries to keep the same routine for her cat. She is lucky as her in-laws live close by and call about 3 or 4 times a day and feed him and let him in and out so he can keep to his usual routine. They also have a neighbour who will take over if he didn't happen to come home at the usual times. As I say though my cat was kept in and in my situation I would prefer that.

[Lilith]

Agreed - at 15 she's probably past the age for swinging from the light-fittings - though you never know lol!

When I used to cat-sit at odd times for neighbours I preferred to keep the cat in, and sit in the garden and supervise her in fine weather if the cat wanted to be out, in one case; in another the 'out' cat spent her time snoozing indoors! Fine by me!

I'm sure she'll be perfectly happy - enjoy your hols!

[meriad]

another option, and it would depend on suitability of location of the cat flap and finances, is to replace your existing cat flap with a microchip one that has a dusk/dawn sensor - so it opens automatically when it's light but locks when the sun starts setting; which means your cat could always still get in, but not out again.

You mentioned the cat sitter was asked to lock and block the flap - why the block?

[Mrs Mac]

Thanks to you all for your input! I think you gave me a couple of good suggestions there. Trying to keep her indoors for a day while we're still around seems a good way to try this out. Although she'll probably drive me nuts, part of me thinks that if she's on her own and can't get out she'll realise there's no point complaining as there's nobody there to give in...

We always 'lock and block' at night, blocking it with a cube ikea foot stool so the can't see the flap and get confused as to why it suddenly doesn't open anymore and worry away at it for hours...

Didn't know there were microchip flaps with dusk and dawn sensors so that's something worth looking into but again, I wouldn't want her to get confused about the flap not opening at certain times. I'm nervous that this might put her off using the flap altogether...

I'm such a softie with her because she used to belong to a neighbour and she has been known to wander off to sit in front of somebody else's house if something is not to her liking. Feline blackmail!

[Mrs Mac]

Kay, one question on Feliway - do you only use it when they are stressed or can it be used as a preventative? I thought I might use it to prevent her becoming stressed when we're not here and especially if she's kept indoors.

[Mrs Mac]

The other option I thought about was asking the cat sitter to put the cat flap on 'entry only' setting after Rosie has gone out in the morning. That means she can have her morning round which usually lasts 1 - 2 hours and after that she can't go back out, ensuring she's inside when the sitter comes back in the evening.

The only thing is that the flap would not be 'blocked' until sitter puts footstool in front in evening so of course I don't want her sitting there all afternoon wondering why the thing doesn't open anymore...

Anybody who uses 'entry only' on their flaps? Perhaps I'm just being paranoid and Rosie would just go 'ah well...' and be absolutely fine with the flap not opening at certain times.

[Kay]

I think Feliway is more likely to work as a preventative than a cure for stress - it's commonly used, for instance, before a new cat is introduced into a household already containing cats, in the hopes of soothing the incumbents rather than the newcomer

in the same way for a cat prone to stress cystitis, the various bladder supplements such as Cystease and Cystaid can be given in anticipation of a stressful situation rather than brought out once the first symptoms are noticed

[Mrs Mac]

Thanks Kay. I will try the Feliway diffuser a few days before we go away to see how she reacts to it and if all is well use it during our break!