boots

[tracyann1]

please can somebody give me some sensible advice. I have a 2 year old male cat, he has been neutered and is house clean.. he has always been used to going out as we lived in a house with a cat flap and he could come and go as he pleased. 6 weeks ago I had to move into a 6th floor flat, with a balcony. I let him out on the balcony but he keeps jumping up on the rails and trying to get over to next door, so I started keeping him in, I know hes not happy as he cries a lot more. I don't know what to do, Am I being cruel by keeping him locked indoors, I really don't want to get rid of him as I already had to get rid of my dog, please help

[meriad]

what have you provided for your cat to 'replace' the outdoors that he had? Cats do adjust going from outdoor to indoor cats; although at 2 your boy is in his prime so will be gagging to get out.

In the meantime get lots of places he can jump up high on, you need to make life interesting for him. Can you net in the balcony and put a cat tree on there so he can get fresh air and see the world go by, but not fall off / escape to next door

[tracyann1]

so far I've got him boxes to climb in and out of, he always had a fascination with them, I got him some toys, he climbs up on the kitchen sides, I have various sides and storage boxes he can climb on, he plays with a few balls of wool. we make at least 15 minutes play time with him every day.

[chloekitty]

I don't have a huge amount of experience caring for indoors cats, but I would suggest that 15 minutes playing time isn't enough. My cat is an outdoors one, but he demands to be played with every few hours so we give him short games (about ten mins or until he gets bored) every time he asks. I think basically as long as your cat is kept occupied and given plenty of interesting activities he'll settle into indoors life okay. It's just a difficult switch for him to make.

[Lyn from Australia]

You are wise to keep him in. So long as he has lots of stimulation he WILL adjust. Just the thought of a young cat and a high-rise balcony frightens me.
I'm so sorry you had to get rid of your dog.