Do cats really need to go outdoors?

[emilymaywilcha]

It does not matter what kind of area you live in. Everywhere there are houses with yards, there are roads to get killed on, trees to climb up (cats can't get back down), poisonous plants to eat, wild animals to be bitten by, etc. Some areas may be less dangerous than others, but no area is safe for cats. If you live up north, your cat can injure itself on a sheet of ice in the winter.

If you think your cat absolutely needs to go outside, the solution is making a cat-safe yard with no trees, grass, ponds, bird products, or gardens.

 

[carolina]

It does not matter what kind of area you live in. Everywhere there are houses with yards, there are roads to get killed on, trees to climb up (cats can't get back down), poisonous plants to eat, wild animals to be bitten by, etc. Some areas may be less dangerous than others, but no area is safe for cats. If you live up north, your cat can injure itself on a sheet of ice in the winter.

If you think your cat absolutely needs to go outside, the solution is making a cat-safe yard with no trees, grass, ponds, bird products, or gardens.

Emily, please.... Cats can't come down from trees? Now, that's an idea..... Yep, I know how their claws are shaped, no need to educate me on that one..... But cats do go up on trees and come down from it day in and day out. Climbing down and jumping down.
I have 3 100% inside cats, I am going to be the first one to say I am against cats roaming..... But I also know cats are no inside animals :nod: They do live outside, and they have all survival instincts and mechanisms to do so. We have a tendency to think they are babies.... Well, they are not - they are little wild carnivores, who happen to be wonderful furry pets too. But they are stil very much cats. They come from thousands and thousands of years surviving the elements.
Cars? Mean people? That's an entire different thing IMHO...... But trees..... birds..... grass..... really? :dk:

 

[Willowy]

Wow, I think I'm going to wrap myself up in bubble wrap now :anon:. I might get hurt by ice or grass.

 

[carolina]

Wow, I think I'm going to wrap myself up in bubble wrap now :anon:. I might get hurt by ice or grass.

:lol3: don't forget the slippers

 

[crickets mom]

I certainly understand both sides of the argument.  Growing up all my cats were strictly indoor cats.  My cat that I had had scince I was thirteen, died 2 years ago, and she was always inside, her whole life.  I found Cricket last summer. She was pregnant.  I found her in an area where there were no houses within 15 miles.  I think she had been dumped there.  She was on the side of the road eating a lizard.  She was obviously starving.  She was skin and bones with a big pregnant belly.  I took her home, and kept her inside until she had given birth, weaned her kittens, got fixed, and healed from surgery.  During the time she was inside, she drove me crazy trying to get out.  She did suceed a few times, but I quickly got her back in.  She was literally climbing the walls.  She tried to get out any way she could.  She howled at the door.  She tried to get out of screens.  I had to keep all the windows closed. She cried constantly.  She was not having it. I was not planning on keeping any of her kittens, but could not find homes for two of them, so of course, I did the responsible thing and kept them.  They also go outside. 

I agree it is safer inside.  It is safer for us inside too!  According to Wikipedia, unintentional accidents are the 9th leading cause of HUMAN death.  Should we all stay inside too? 

Living in a city, or suburbia is also diffferent than living in the country. 

We had a big rodent problem before we had indoor/outdoor cats.  Isnt that why we, as humans, started our relationship with cats?  To cut down on the rodent population?  All animals are more content when they have jobs.  My cats are so proud of themselves when they bring me a kill.  

I love my cats very much.  I check them all the time.  I bring them to the vet at the first sign of any problem.  I take good care of them.  

Im not gonna lie, and say I dont worry about them.  I do.  They come inside at night, and when its raining, and anytime they feel like it.  They are very happy cats.

I come to TCS for many reasons.  I get great advice here.  I get great support.  I love talking to other people who love their cats.  We all love our cats, or we wouldnt be here right?  We dont come here to be judged.  To say that I shouldnt have adopted my cats is not really cool.  Should I have left Cricket starving and pregnant? She was such a great mom, she probably would have died trying to care for her kittens, and with out her, her kittens would have died too.  She loves me, and so do her kittens.  She loves that someone loves her now.   She probably would not have been adopted if I had taken her to a shelter.  And, even if she did, whos to say the adopter would not have let her outside too.  And, I know no one could have loved her as much as I do.  My vet told her when I brought her in the first time "You are a very lucky kitty". She knows what good care I take of my babies.

It seems to me a very natural thing for cats to go outside.  I feel like we have as a society gotten away from what is natural. 

 

[otto]

I agree it is safer inside.  It is safer for us inside too!  According to Wikipedia, unintentional accidents are the 9th leading cause of HUMAN death.  Should we all stay inside too? 
Living in a city, or suburbia is also diffferent than living in the country. 


..snip for brevity....

This is not a relevant argument in the indoor cats vs outdoor cats debate. Humans can make conscious choices about how to be safe outside. Cats do not know about poison, and evil people and that cars can kill and maim. They don't know that coming too close to a sick cat can make them sick. They understand danger, but only on an instinctive level. It's not the same thing as humans going out and about, not at all.

She was such a great mom, she probably would have died trying to care for her kittens, and with out her, her kittens would have died too.

That's called instinct. If one of the kittens was sickly, left to do it herself, she would have abandoned the sickly one. It's survival of the fittest, for animals. They are "great moms" because they are biologically programmed to raise their offspring until they have been taught to care for themselves, then they are left to get on with it.

I'm not negating your accomplishment, it's wonderful you rescued her, and found homes for the kittens and kept the ones no one else wanted. And since you did, it's your prerogative to choose to let them be outdoor cats. For myself, I wouldn't be able to live with the worry.

 

[malla]

Right now, I have my big cat who was an outdoors cat and is absolutely obsessed with getting back out. She whines, cries, howls, races for the door.  I will not let her out - my others have been raised as indoor cats their entire lives. I know she is not happy cooped up. I'm working on a solution for her. 

On the other hand, my grandmother had an indoor/outdoor cat that lived to be 21 in human years! A second cat never wanted to go outside though it was rescued outside by my aunt from a dog. 

 

[jcat]

Also keep in mind that in some European countries, it's culturally considered cruel to keep cats inside. If everyone around you was letting their cats out, if shelters wouldn't adopt to you if you wouldn't let the cat out, etc., you'd probably think it was cruel to keep cats indoors, too. Cultural norms are powerful things.

Thank you for pointing that out. Some members either aren't aware or have forgotten that TCS has members from all over the world. Although this isn't IMO, the guidelines for that forum do apply to opinion threads such as this one: IMO Forum: Rules, Guidelines and Membership Status

Our membership consists of people from around the globe. Opinions of people from all cultures should be treated with equal respect. Debate on any issue is welcome, but fight fair. Personal attacks will not be tolerated. Debate the issue, not the person.

 

[tarasgirl06]

To answer the original question with a simple, monosyllabic response, "NO".  Just plain "NO".  For all the reasons you probably share, and "experts" and caring, responsible caregivers concur with.

 

[melesine]

Mine go outside occasionally with supervision in the back yard, they enjoy playing outside and catching bugs ect. Someone is always watching them, and they come when called if we decide it's time to go in. 

 

[sohni]

If you think your cat absolutely needs to go outside, the solution is making a cat-safe yard with no trees, grass, ponds, bird products, or gardens.

While I do agree that cats should be indoors, this statement is just ridiculous. Should we have no furniture, toilets, house plants or curtains either? Heck, my cat jumps to the top of my grandfather clock, and could probably hurt himself if he fell off, but he doesn't. All of my cats are indoor only, and go outside only on leash.

I wish I had an enclosure outside and maybe someday I will. If I do, it will certainly contain all sorts of things for a cat to explore.

I also have no problem with altered cats living in barns. It is a good solution to overcrowding cat populations for farmers to take them and let them do what they were designed to do; hunt pests. Of course they'll need shelter and regular deworming, but I still feel this life is better than waiting around in a shelter.

 

[txcatmom]

If not? Why, exactly, should cats be allowed to roam when dogs are not? Why is it OK to let a cat pee and poop on a neighbor's property, stalk birds at their feeder, or track muddy prints across their car?

It's not safe for the cat, it's disrespectful to other's property....

This is a fabulous point and the first time I've seen it raised in this debate. 

Before we had any pets (which was just a couple of years ago) my boys came in from our fenced-in backyard with poop on their shoes.  Must have been a cat....don't see how a dog could have gotten in.  I'll tell you, I was quite annoyed.  Here I was with carpet that is a mixture of brown and beige so no way to know where my kids might have tracked this poop in our house.  I still clean up cat poop in my flower beds several times per week and just cleaned up a big dump in our driveway yesterday.  (The driveway could have been a very rude dog owner I suppose, but I think it was more likely a wandering cat.  Most dog owners in this neighborhood seem responsible.  I've never seen a dog wandering loose and rarely a cat, but I'm guessing there are cats visiting at night to leave their gifts.)

These wandering cats could cause stress to my indoor cats (who love looking out the window) by being on my property too.  Hasn't happened yet (that I know of) but someone could unknowingly cause all sorts of stress related problems for my cats (spraying, redirected aggression) by letting their cats wander into our yard.

 

[4catsncounting]

Welp - I had to "steep" on this subject before posting, to think about what/how much I really want to say.

It is, of course, the largest topic of debate for cat afficianados.

I lost one of my beloveds to coyotes 8 months ago.

I live on 75 acres, half forest-half field, and my property is surrounded by yet more forest and fields.

We have all manner of wildlife, and we see and hear coyotes very close to our house.

I have been a cat owner all of my 40 years and always felt cats are happiest and most fulfilled being allowed to go outdoors when neutered.

I still believe that.  All of the 100% indoor cats I've met in my years had a whiff of discontent in their personalities.  Perhaps I was projecting...

Having been a wildlife researcher, I also knew the dangers they can face with predators as well as parasites, cars, cruel people, falling from trees,

and so had tried to limit the risks by locking the pet door at dinnertime, baffling the trees closest to the house, and putting up scarecrows as well as "hazing" any coyotes in proximity by screaming and clapping my hands when I let the cats out.

But in the end, it was all academic.

None of that was enough to prevent a determined predator from killing my sweet naive little 1 year old.

We witnessed coyotes run directly under our scarecrows. Our game cameras snap pics of them yards from the house.

I also had an older cat fall from a tree (before I got the baffles up) and break off all her canines in the landing- so had to have a $1600 root canal job.

Also, as a wildlife prof, I came to understand that cat predation on songbirds is a genuine concern.

So.

It is about risk.  And it is about reconcilling, reeeeeeeally doing a gut check, on how paramount you place youself in the ultimate responsibility of being the caregiver for your cat.

And to complicate it further-  it is also about balancing the happiness of your individual cat with that risk.

Personally, even though I thought I knew where I stood emotionally and philosophically on the issue, the coyote loss has given me a hard lesson in seeing that I didn't really accept the more devastating risks.

Given that, I attempted to change the risk for the rest of my cats, and with tough love kept them indoors for 48 hours.

That was a nightmare.

So, I then greatly curtailed how much time they spent outdoors, doing 20 minute supervised jaunts with them.

This went on for about a month.

It failed as well- trying to keep track of 4 cats on 75 acres and catch them all after time's up (when they know they're being rounded up and just got started having fun) was impossible, anxiety riddled, and a source of daily misery.

I want to be happy owning them, and I want them to be happy - not just safe and stressed like zoo animals, but truly happy and content.

Then the final straw - my 4 year old neutered alpha male began spraying in the house. 

Pacing between all 4 doors, windows, and spraying everywhere.

He also holds in his elimination until his first jaunt outside, and I could see him getting more and more desperate as the hours inside in the mornings went on, and that cannot be good for bowel/bladder health.  Both he and his sister I notice are very prolific territory sprayers on our property.

So he won the argument - they are allowed out almost as much as they originally were. 

When I have new kittens, I will endeavor to have them be indoor-happy,

and am in the process of getting a hinged topped cat fence, but it is also a gamble as to how much yard my cats will be content with, having been accustomed to 35 acres (that is roughly how much of my property they circle).  If I spend several thousand on fencing in 5 acres, will that be enough, or a waste of money?

In other words, long story short - I've found that you cannot put the Genie back in the bottle.

As blank slates, more or less, kittens can ease into an indoor life if properly stimulated, but outdoor cats often insist on being alllowed out in some measure.

Not all of course, as you all can attest - and as I can as well- I do have a newly adopted stray that showed up who is content to hang around me inside just about all the time.

And cats ARE great tree climbers - and can instinctively figure out how to get down.

They also can fall.  I have personally by sheer luck, caught 2 of my cats from falling (and when they fall from 30 ft. high or so- it's not a clean catch but a hard messy breaking of their fall with your wrists surprisingly hurting like hell for days) and the 3rd fall, as I said, resulted in broken teeth and a severely busted nose.

 

[catspaw66]

Very well thought out and expressed opinion.  i agree that kittens raised indoors are less likely to want OUT, NOW.

  Mine get out on the screened-in back porch and that seems to satisfy them, even Silly who lived outdoors for the first 5 years.

 

[emilymaywilcha]

If not? Why, exactly, should cats be allowed to roam when dogs are not? Why is it OK to let a cat pee and poop on a neighbor's property, stalk birds at their feeder, or track muddy prints across their car? It's not safe for the cat, it's disrespectful to other's property.

Although I had not mentioned this before, one reason I oppose free roaming as much as a Republican opposes abortion is related to it.

Years ago, I read a newspaper article about a woman getting mad at her neighbor for letting a cat use the kid's sandbox. Think about it: many cat litters look and feel like sand, so to a cat, a sandbox is a huge litterbox. Duh! If your neighbor had a sandbox, would you risk the chance of a cat pooping in it because of its resembence to a litterbox?

Don't forget the urine factor as well. What happens to a liquid when it is buried in soil that a flower root is hiding under? My guess is the flower gets sick and dies because urine is just as fluid as water, so plants can't tell a difference.

 

[Willowy]

If plants died because animals peed on them (well, OK, I lost a bush because my 2 male dogs used it as a urinal. But that was excessive), we wouldn't have any plants left :lol3:. Anyway, my issue with the "cats shouldn't roam because it annoys the neighbors" thing is that ferals roam by necessity. If you get people thinking that cats should never be seen outdoors, it leaves very few options for true ferals .

 

[emilymaywilcha]

Very well thought out and expressed opinion. i agree that kittens raised indoors are less likely to want OUT, NOW.  Mine get out on the screened-in back porch and that seems to satisfy them, even Silly who lived outdoors for the first 5 years.

Thank God Silly is happy. It is more important for her than the others because something can come from her right side.

I have been wondering recently what to do with a feral queen after she is done nursing her kittens. Would living with me 2-4 months make her willing to limit outdoor time to a safe fenced yard? If it is, I don't want to return her to the wild when her kittens are two months old.

 

[emilymaywilcha]

If plants died because animals peed on them (well, OK, I lost a bush because my 2 male dogs used it as a urinal. But that was excessive), we wouldn't have any plants left. Anyway, my issue with the "cats shouldn't roam because it annoys the neighbors" thing is that ferals roam by necessity. If you get people thinking that cats should never be seen outdoors, it leaves very few options for true ferals.

 This debate is only about tame cats. I think we all agree ferals belong outside even if someone like LDG cares for them.

 

[jcat]

If plants died because animals peed on them (well, OK, I lost a bush because my 2 male dogs used it as a urinal. But that was excessive), we wouldn't have any plants left :lol3:. Anyway, my issue with the "cats shouldn't roam because it annoys the neighbors" thing is that ferals roam by necessity. If you get people thinking that cats should never be seen outdoors, it leaves very few options for true ferals .

Plants can die for other reasons, including rodent infestation, so not all neighbors are going to be annoyed. Some are pleased that there are cats roaming their property. Our neighborhood has had a major rodent problem for the past 10 - 15 years, thanks to the recycling/waste disposal laws. Most people object(ed) to the use of rat poison because it endangers other wildlife, dogs and (at least theoretically) children. A lot of people got indoor/outdoor cats to keep the rodent population down, and those who didn't have been pleased to have cats hunting vermin and often actively encourage feline visits with catnip.

This year has been particularly bad, and we've been wondering if the reason is that most of the original cats have gotten old and aren't catching as many mice, rats, etc.. Even little old sick Jamie, who only goes outside on a leash, got three mice last Saturday.

 

[Willowy]

I don't think ferals necessarily belong outside--as I said, I have several indoor ferals. Truly feral. And if they can adjust to living indoors, probably most ferals could. But it's not really an option for most people. A lot of people want friendly cats, others may be willing but don't have the room/resources to keep ferals indoors.

But mostly it's about attitudes. If you put it in peoples' heads that "cats don't belong outdoors", they aren't going to differentiate between tame cats and ferals. And it usually doesn't end up well for the ferals when people want to "save" them from an outdoor existence.

Besides, what's the difference between a feral that won't live indoors and a tame cat that won't live indoors?