Discussion on Cats, Moggies and Felines in general [with Pictures]

[RooFlyer]

I've been wanting to get a small dog or an inside cat for a while, but have put it off as I have been travelling so much.

But having found a friend of a friend who cares for cats left at 'cat home' until they can be adopted, (vetted etc) I might have an 'in' to getting a nice indoors cat. For my long trips, I'd put it in a 'cat jail' or maybe the new friend might take it But for shorter periods, may I ask:

* Once the cat is settled, and say >1 year old, how long could I leave it by itself at home if I ducked away?

* I guess there are timed or remote control cat feeders? Again, how many days would they provide for?

* Do indoor cats tend to make a bolt for freedom if a door is left open?

I do have lovely neighbours who would look in, but I really don't want to call on them a lot - I go away for 1-3 days quite often.

 

[Flyfrequently]

I've been wanting to get a small dog or an inside cat for a while, but have put it off as I have been travelling so much.

But having found a friend of a friend who cares for cats left at 'cat home' until they can be adopted, (vetted etc) I might have an 'in' to getting a nice indoors cat. For my long trips, I'd put it in a 'cat jail' or maybe the new friend might take it But for shorter periods, may I ask:

* Once the cat is settled, and say >1 year old, how long could I leave it by itself at home if I ducked away?

* I guess there are timed or remote control cat feeders? Again, how many days would they provide for?

* Do indoor cats tend to make a bolt for freedom if a door is left open?

I do have lovely neighbours who would look in, but I really don't want to call on them a lot - I go away for 1-3 days quite often.

The only question I can give a brief answer to is about the cat feeders @RooFlyer
My friend uses one when she goes up country for a few days, from memory the longest she has done was a week but usually 4 days.
Must say, she is a wonderful person with animals and has just dog-sat gratis a friend's dog for 3 months!

 

[Cossie]

Our previous cats bolted for the door to get out, but they were outdoor cats. Max has been an indoor cat since we have had him. He doesn't make the same effort to get out, but he also has quite a large enclosed run.
He normally goes to jail as we don't know anyone to cat sit, when the boss was nursing, it was quite easy to find someone to do it.
No experience with automated feeders.

 

[flyingfan]

* Once the cat is settled, and say >1 year old, how long could I leave it by itself at home if I ducked away?

* I guess there are timed or remote control cat feeders? Again, how many days would they provide for?

* Do indoor cats tend to make a bolt for freedom if a door is left open?

I do have lovely neighbours who would look in, but I really don't want to call on them a lot - I go away for 1-3 days quite often.

I can only speak for my one experience of a purely indoor ragdoll with its particular characteristics:

• Our cat does seem to miss its hoomans after a while and although the longest we left it was for a couple of days (interstate trip) with an automated feeder, we wouldn't do it again.
• We have a wifi, remote-controlled video feeder. Once in a long while (several months) its wifi connection seems to go haywire, we can't control it remotely at all, I'm not confident the scheduled feeding would work and the only solution seems to be a quick pull the plug out and put it back in again. This is only a minor bother but not possible to do remotely, unless you plug it in to a powerpoint that can be remotely turned off and on to reset it I guess. Or have a second feeder as backup. (We have neither)
  Our feeder could probably provide for at least a week but it can get jammed or break (happened a handful of times) and the food dispensing grinds to a halt even though it has plenty. Our main limitations are more the prolonged absence of hoomans and, for our purely indoor feline, cleaning the litter tray.
• Fortunately ours has a wariness of the door with the noisy street outside but I'm very fastidious about avoiding escapes.

 

[Brissy1]

I've been wanting to get a small dog or an inside cat for a while, but have put it off as I have been travelling so much.

But having found a friend of a friend who cares for cats left at 'cat home' until they can be adopted, (vetted etc) I might have an 'in' to getting a nice indoors cat. For my long trips, I'd put it in a 'cat jail' or maybe the new friend might take it But for shorter periods, may I ask:

* Once the cat is settled, and say >1 year old, how long could I leave it by itself at home if I ducked away?

* I guess there are timed or remote control cat feeders? Again, how many days would they provide for?

* Do indoor cats tend to make a bolt for freedom if a door is left open?

I do have lovely neighbours who would look in, but I really don't want to call on them a lot - I go away for 1-3 days quite often.

Re bolting, my experience.
Ruby's an indoor cat but allowed outside the front or backyard, originally on a lead, don't bother now as someone is always with her.
She bolts throught thedoor, but only onto the verandah then checks that someone is coming too
The important thing is to be able to simply pick her up and bring her inside when you want to, Cats often won't let you pick them up knowing they're going to be taken inside.
So, I'd pick her up and then put her down often outside; so a pickup isn't associated with coming in. And give a bit of food every time I bring her in.
A bit of training so no stress about recovering an escaped ruby, just pick her up. Neighbour used to spend an hour trying to get theirs back in.
And suggest an airtag on the collar just in case.
And (sorry getting long-winded) in my limited experience females don't feel the need to explore as much, although my conditioning worked with Otis the male too.

This is ruby upstairs verandah which has a 7m drop from the railing. Wouldn't have been able to trust Otis not to jump after passing birds.

 

[JessicaTam]

I am able to leave our cats for up to 36 hours. Extra for breakfast in the morning and then extra for dinner the following night. Unfortunately BJ will eat anything and everything so I can't leave out a bowl of bikkies for the others.

Making a bolt for the door depends on the cat. BJ will always try to dash out, but his sister doesn't care. They now have a large enclosed 'catio' in the new house so they can get their 'outside' time at will.