r/indoorcats

• I know that it's ethical, mostly recommended and keeps them/safe as well as local wildlife.
• I know I live in a busy city, in an upper level apartment, and at this point they do not understand cars or hazards.
• I know that they were tiny rescue kittens from the train tracks who likely would have died
• I know that I kept 3 of them so they could have company while I'm at work.
• I know I constantly talk to them, pet them, think about them. Bring them toys.
• I know I built them a catio on my balcony so they can go outside.
• I know that they seem to really love me.

BUT

I just feel like if I was doing right by them as living beings I would be giving them a fuller life.

This is probably a values thing.

And maybe I'm projecting.

I long to see them run around outside climbing trees and exploring. It is very much in their nature and I feel like I'm a prison guard keeping them from a full life. I hate seeing them laying around bored and listless much of the time. I value freedom and exploration. I feel like I'm just condemning them to have their world revolve only around me, and food, and 3 rooms.

I've taken them out a couple times on leash and they hate it. They just want to roam freely and explore. When they were about 2 I lived rurally for a year. I knew I would come back to the city so I didn't let them be fully outdoor because the change would be too dramatic coming back. But we went outside together a lot. They absolutely loved it. Made friends with a group of cats. Climbed trees. Ran around the yard and always came back. Came to the beach with me.

But working a city 9-5 and then trying to get angsty cats to jump into your backpack so you can (somehow walk multiple of them??) on a leash they hate around a park feels unmanageable, especially managing exhaustion and depression dips.

DO YOU EXPERIENCE THIS?
HOW DO YOU GET OVER IT?

DID YOU FIND A WAY TO BRING MORE ADVENTURE INTO THEIR LIVES THAT IS COMPATIBLE WITH YOUR LIFESTYLE?

We've gotten our cat (male, british shorthair, 9 years old, spayed, indoor all his life) a few months back. He is healthy, has a normal weight and seems overall content (I hope).

He doesn't really like to play with anything we've bought so far, except for a stick with a mouse attached to a string and a single piece of string. He ignored any balls, anything that makes noise and anything automatic. He does like to play peekaboo and chasing each other but only one or a few times a day for a short while before he looks at me like I'm stupid.

He sleeps a lot and likes to be near us, but doesn't want to be pet at our initiative, only when HE wants to be pet (also only a little throughout the day).

We live on the second floor in an apartment and have no garden, but he does like to go patrolling the house and around it on harness and leash.

We do have a balcony that is cat-safe with a net where he likes to watch birds or the neighbours, but not all the time, especially not when it's rainy or too hot.

There are many times throughout a day where he scratches my chair or searches eye contact for attention, but then he doesn't want to play, eat or be pet. He of course likes to be fed treats but I can't give him treats all the time. I just don't know what he wants of me when he does this, and I can't always go outside with him. He seems bored but doesn't want to interact (at least not the ways I try to initiate) so he just watches us and meows and continue to watch.

Does anyone have any experience, any tips or tricks? Thank you in advance!

Theres this stray cat who always visits me and I have been feeding him for him to get comfortable being near so I can catch him and get him neutered. But I never have had a cat before. I know stuff about cats, but I don't know how to transition him to indoor or how to tell if hes litter trained. I don't mind having to litter train him as I love the little guy and it makes me sad to see him outside, I know it's very risky for cats and other animals. ​​

I'm thinking about getting a cat and I'd like to try keeping it indoors this time - the issue is my house gets stuffy quickly, so I like to open the windows every day.

I can get a catio for the back doors, but how to do deal with the windows? Do indoor cats try to leave?

Hi,

I've seen literally hundreds of messages about litter here but from many different POVs so time for a new one! Lots of people are focused on reducing tracking/smells but that's not my priority!

We have three indoor rescue cats so they do all of their "necessities" in their litter trays (3x large).

We've come to terms with the fact that sometimes our house is gonna smell and honestly it doesn't really bother us. We clean 2x day and change them out 1x week.

Thinking ONLY about their health/wellbeing, what is our best option?

So far we've used clay and then silica, neither or which convince me. I've heard occasional coughs/sneezes from them and would like to avoid this moving forward.

I just want to reduce as far as possible any negative health outcomes for them, any thoughts?

Thank you :)

Pls cat tax paid below!

https://preview.redd.it/b9shrdwdxwjh1.jpg?width=1500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=71253bec7ccdcdd14113529644560081fa5ba8ea

We are looking into getting a neighbour to look after our cat for 10 days when we are away. It would involve dropping in twice a day, feeding, refilling water and cleaning litter tray. What's the typical daily rate?

Every cat owner in this sub has an origin story: the first piece of furniture that made you realise you needed to actually do something about the scratching. Mine was a secondhand recliner I'd had for less than a month before it looked like it had been through a wood chipper.

https://preview.redd.it/kf3wwewu1wjh1.png?width=1402&format=png&auto=webp&s=86b44e1c89818e4d2e30ed611a18e45dce97299f

What was yours?

Later this year I'll be moving with 2 elderly, nervous indoor cats. Even the current short walk to the vets has them howling and shuddering. For the move I'll be traveling by taxi and then 1.5 hours by high-speed rail, only to put them into entirely new surroundings. They won't be happy.

I already know about all the prep, their smells, introducing them to the new space, etc. but I'm very worried about the travel.

What are some things i can do, supplements i could give, that would help them calm down even just a little. Obviously during the trip all my attention will be on them, but I'm honestly worried they'll stress themselves out too much.

(15 year old sham-tabbies M and F, heavily imprinted on and devoted to me, indoors only)

The mods over there are extremely toxic and all under the false pretense of "cultural sensitivity" because some cultures have indoor/outdoor cats.

The truth is if you actually love cats you will keep them inside safe from other animals, cars, toxins, getting lost, etc.

Additionally, outdoor cats decimate small mammal and bird populations. This is particularly problematic for endangered species, especially on islands where species are endemic (found nowhere else).

Let me frame this cultural argument another way. Should subreddits have to allow the suppression of women because unfortunately some cultures allow it? Should subreddits allow homophobia because some cultures allow it? Absolutely not. Just because a problematic behavior is normalized in a culture doesn't mean it should be protected. It's such an outrageous and disgenuine argument the mods over there use to prevent people from being called out for their poor cat parenting.

Edit: was informed that that telling people to spay/neuter their cats also results in a ban. Not encouraging this behavior leads to strays and cats being euthanized.

For months I was spraying my couch with a citrus deterrent, and honestly it barely worked: my cat just found a new corner to scratch. What actually turned things around was giving up on "stopping" the behaviour and focusing entirely on redirecting it instead: multiple scratching options around the house, placed exactly where she already liked to scratch.

Within a couple weeks she stopped going for the couch almost entirely. Curious if others have had the same experience. 🤷‍♂️

Ciao a tutti, da qualche mese un gatto randagio ha deciso di venire sulla mia porta di casa a marcare il territorio.
Qualche suggerimento su qualche metodo per non farlo più venire? Vorrei trovare una soluzione a lungo termine, perché già uso del liquido per pavimenti al limone per pulire e l’odore del limone lo tiene lontano qualche settimana, ma dopo 2/3 siamo punto a capo.
Grazie mille!

Hi there! We have a neutered male cat, 15 years old, that has had access to go outdoors and has lived her all his life. This summer we finally decided to keep him fully inside due to several reasons: safety (streets on our suburban area, a scary cat that visits our yard etc.), keeping wildlife safe (especially during birds' nesting season) and our neighbourhood is always complaining about outdoor cats.

His mother lived with us and was an outdoor cat. She just disappeared, a long time ago.

So, we constructed a small & safe outdoor catio, accessible from a cellar window. He goes there for short periods of time, but doesn't use any climbing possibilities we made there. Our cat luckily learned to use an indoor litter box quickly. He eats regularly.

It has been five and a half weeks now. He spends a lot of time sleeping during the days. Most of the time under a certain bed. He's never been much into playing and doesn't really react to any of the store bought ones we have, but we can get him to play for a while on some very simple DIY things.

We have given him a natural ingredients relaxing supplement from the pharmacy. Hard to tell if it has had any effect.

He has been able to sneak out a couple of times when someone was careless with a door or a window, but he has returned to our yard (either a few hours or over night) and allows me to pick himself up & bring him in.

During the night he's very loud and scratches the doors several times every night, which affects our sleep a lot. We have given up on the main door, which is old and scratchy anyways, but his latest trick is to scratch a balcony door that I wouldn't want destroyed and is located in my and my wife's bedroom. We tried the scent of coffee filters & lemon, we attached two-sided tape - none of these help. I realize ignoring these nightly antics would be the best, but this balcony door thing just drives me crazy and I have to pick him up. The reason why he wants to access the upper floor balcony is that he is able to jump down and access the free world!

I would like to hear your stories, if this resonates: do we have hope that our cat will get used to this, and how long it might still take? Also any tips for keeping him off door scratching & tips for any toys to activate a cat that's not that young and agile any more would be appreciated! Also: is it even possible to alter his rhythm so that he would be more awake during daytime (without forcing it)?

In an ideal situation he would stay indoors and access the catio any time when we are awake and it itsn't too cold outside for keeping the cellar window open. I think bringing him to walks outside with a harness would open a pandora's box and he would demand it constantly when we are trying to sleep.

Hey folks,

I have a five year old cat that came to me as a ten week old feral -- she is a lovebug with us but will forever be pretty skittish and prone to door darting/running when spooked. We currently use an "air lock" system and enter and exit through our garage so it hasn't been much of an issue.

We are likely to be moving about an hour and a half away, and it will be her first move. My one and only previous cat was bulletproof and could not give a single hoot about moving, but it's going to be much harder on our current girl. I know the basics -- small room, as many familiar smells as possible, but could use any weird tips others may have and advice on order (move her first? move her last?).

We'll obviously have gabapentin on board but I'm looking for any and all tips regarding moving with spooky kitties while we are still very early in the planning stage and have time to take any advice into consideration. This is my biggest stress right now, I am very anxious about making sure I can keep her safe in this process.

Thanks!