Cat in winter time, in or out, what should I do?

[murman2]

Hello enotalone cat lovers! I just recently adopted a male black, outdoor cat. He is gorgeous, talkative and very fun.

 

He sleeps inside during the day and spends the night outside. Winter is coming, so I am not sure what to do. I live on a busy road so when it snows out im not sure he will be able to travel in the yard, can cats walk through snow? so he will be exposed to a busy road, which makes me nervous.

 

Should I just keep him inside for the winter? Is it safe to let him outside? I'm thinking there will be no where for him to go other than the road because that's the only ground that won't have snow on it.

 

What should I do?

[Fudgie]

The safest place for cats to be is inside your home. As you said, you live near a busy road. This is a danger to him regardless of the weather, winter or summer. I fear that with time, regardless of the season, he may meet his demise on that busy road. That's the most common way that indoor/outdoor or outdoor only cats die: car accidents.

 

Unless you have a huuuuge back area (I've seen these a lot in UK, the cats just chill back there in the gardens in the back and don't go further) or you're in the country with lots of space and no busy roads, it's a good idea to keep your kitty inside all the time.

[Seraphim]

The safest places for cats is indoors. They have a very short life expectancy outside. They get in fights and get fatal diseases and abcesses. They get killed by raccoons and foxes , people and dogs and cars. They get frostbite and freeze to death in the winter. Cats belong indoors.

 

All my cats are indoor and vaccinated. I have 3 .

[murman2]

There is a very large back yard and other ground properties for him to run around on so he stays away from the road.

[Seraphim]

Is he neutered? Male cats that are not neutered have a very big wandering territory they also get into a lot of fights and of course create more unnecessary baby cats. If he is neutered he will be less likely to fight and have a shorter range.

[Fudgie]

Agree with getting him neutered. Please have him neutered. Neutered males will wander less far and they are much less likely to get into fights. I used to have an indoor/outdoor cat and before he was neutered, he would disappear for 1-2 days at a time and come back covered in bites and scratches. After he was neutered, he wouldn't disappear and he didn't get into fights anymore.

[Seraphim]

Neutered male cats are also more friendly.

[melancholic_too]

Agree with getting him neutered. Please have him neutered. Neutered males will wander less far and they are much less likely to get into fights. I used to have an indoor/outdoor cat and before he was neutered, he would disappear for 1-2 days at a time and come back covered in bites and scratches. After he was neutered, he wouldn't disappear and he didn't get into fights anymore.

 

Did she say he wasn't neutered?

 

Otherwise I do agree, keep him inside. Although, if he was previously an outside cat and she adopted him as an adult outside cat it's easier said than done to keep them indoors. I've had to move a cat to my parents in the country a few years back because he would not have being indoors (I lived in the city on the 3rd floor with no access to the outdoors). He very much stuck to my parents giant yard and the neighboring yards and was always only a call away... Unfortunately he did pick up some poison (whether intended for pets or rats) and found his demise when his body couldn't fight it off.

 

Also, growing up I've seen many cats (mine and other neighbor's cats) find themselves on the road out front. My parents believe in outdoor cats, and I agree that it's probably an enjoyable life for the cat, but it will certainly be shorter than the life of an indoor cat.

 

Tine

[charity]

We have cats that spend a lot of time both inside and outside. Our eldest one is 15 and she still goes out for the majority of the day. Three of our cats died from car accidents on the road. That is very sad but that's life. I would never keep a cat locked up inside...cats love hunting, spying, climbing...they love their outside adventures! Definitely get cats neutered, they will fight less and stay close to home. During winter I imagine the cat will want to stay in more.

[Seraphim]

It also depends upon environment. In the winter if you live in a region that is -20 or -40 or whatever with mountains of snow you could actually lose your cat or have your cat freeze to death so think of the environment you live in.

[SophieGrace]

Agree with Charity. The nature of most cats is to want to be outdoors exploring and hunting. Even if their life is shorter, it's a good life.

 

He will let you know if he wants to go outside in the winter. My cat used to think she wanted to go out in the winter, stare at the door and meow. When I'd open it, she'd feel the cold and look at the snow dejectedly until I closed it again. Sometimes she'd insist on checking the weather a few times a night in hopes winter had suddenly turned into spring, but she rarely went out. The few times she did, I would check on her 30 minutes later and she'd always be waiting to come back in.

 

I've also seen wild cats who refuse to go into a home no matter the temperature. They usually crawl under the house to keep warm at night.

[Lovelavie]

Keep him inside. I have 7 cats and we used to let them go outside. It didn't work, one would run away and show up after 2 days, the other would get in fights, the other would go to the neighbour (who hates cats and ran over one once!) so... we keep them inside now. What we did though is that we built a little "playground" for them attached to a window, in our case it's the window in the dinner room. It's got a net covering it so they are outside but not completely and they love it!

 

Cats do belong inside and I've learned this the hard way (poisoning, car accident etc).