Help Making Indoor Cat into Outdoor cat.

[Brian37]

If you spend more time outside, the cat will too.  Got ten of the little fuckers.  Cant keep em in at day or out at night.

That is inspiring. If I were a cat, that would not bode well calling me a "fucker", no matter how true. LOL.

[The Grand Nudger]

They're lucky I didn't stuff em in a bag and throw them into the creek as kittens. If one of them keeled over right now, I'd feed it to the others.

It's not all bad, I haven't seen a snake, mouse, or bird in about a year - altogether they probably eat about as much as a human being. Used to be an issue on account of all the fish, feed, and fruit.

[vulcanlogician]

Thanks for the advice all. I'm no stranger to challenging animals, so I don't mind tackling this one's issues. I guess I just need to be patient.

I do spend some time outside with him. I'll even carry him off the porch and then walk back to the porch with him.

Still open to litter box suggestions. Even if I do get him used to the out-of-doors, he'll be cooped up inside during the winter, and I'll need to find a way to deal with that.

[The Architect Of Fate]

A friend of the family passed away a few months ago, and we took on two of her pets. One of them is a cat who has been an indoor cat all his life.

I'm fine with an indoor cat and all, but this cat makes an unbelievable mess in the litter box. It's insane. I actually have two litter boxes in his area and I have to change them four times for every one time I change the litter box our other cat prefers to use. (I have two cats. And they seem to have claimed certain litter boxes as their own.) IDK whats up with him filling litter boxes like he does. I'm going to bring it up to the vet next time we go.

Anyway, I want to make this new cat an outdoor cat. But he is very afraid to be outside. It's like, he wants to go outside. He will walk outside, but then he gets scared and meows at the door and won't wander around. Every day that it's been nice, I've put him out on the porch with a can of tuna. He gets his fill (usually half the can) and then he goes straight to the door and meows continuously to get back in. He won't wander around or explore.

Anyone have any experience doing this sort of thing? I could really use some tips if anyone has them. I'd really like for him to hang out outside so he can do his "business" out there and not go through so much kitty litter. I've never seen a cat that didn't enjoy being outside.

This thread just made me think of this 

[The Grand Nudger]

Still open to litter box suggestions. Even if I do get him used to the out-of-doors, he'll be cooped up inside during the winter, and I'll need to find a way to deal with that.

Get the inside measurements of a window, buy a small cat door online, and set the cat door as an insert in ply, and that whole thing as an insert in that window.  Ideally, a window with an exterior ledge that the cat can reach from the ground.  Goes in and comes out with the seasons - or when I leave the house.  Doesn't require a hole in any doors or walls.  If security is a concern - get the remainder between the window slide and the top (or bottom) of the window - and cut a 2x2 that long to keep it from opening further with ease.

Pair that up with a tower feeder and waterer, and you have a cat you can leave.  The best kind.

(if you wanna go nuts, and that fucking hairball still won't go outside outside - it's pretty easy to build a wire box run off a cat door.  Push it out the hole every morning and shut it out until the evening.)

---

Here's one of my offenders.  She's doing her favorite thing.  Warming her tits and menacing chicks from above, asleep on the brooder.

---

---

[Anomalocaris]

One word. Defenestration. 😁

[Angrboda]

[Brian37]

I think with cat it starts at birth. If you raise them outdoors, there are still going to be more health risks, but if they are used to it, they are going to be more street wise. But, if they are raised indoors as kittens, when they become adults, it is going to be harder for them to aclimate to the outdoors.

[AFTT47]

It is very bad to feed tuna to a cat. The amount they will eat will result in the uptake of toxic levels of mercury. I researched this for my own cats. I knew it wasn't a good idea but it turned out to be far worse than I thought.

[Brian37]

It is very bad to feed tuna to a cat. The amount they will eat will result in the uptake of toxic levels of mercury. I researched this for my own cats. I knew it wasn't a good idea but it turned out to be far worse than I thought.

Mercury always gets blamed for everything. What did that planet ever do to you?