MyRagdollCat.com

Gretta,

Ragdolls are great cats and congratulations on your new kitty.

Cats do a lot better indoors than outdoors, and are a lot safer and live a lot longer. It doesn’t matter how much they cost, all cats deserve the safety of being inside.

You control whether the cat goes out or not, actually. It takes patience and being on top of it all the time, to prevent escapes. You can distract your cat when he is at the door by throwing a toy for him. But having an environment that is cat-friendly and appealing is one that will help a lot. Place the tree in a spot where people hang out so your cats will feel like part of the family.

Get a tall cat tree with shelves and little tunnels. It should be at least 5 feet tall, and have sissal on it. Cats love to clean their nails on sissal, and will be attracted to it. Lots of good toys help as well. If he hangs out by the front door and is begging to go out, use a can with pepples or coins in it to make a terrible noise. A water gun can help, but Rags seem to not mind water that much.

You could consider building an outdoor enclosure for your cats to give them outdoor access safely.
For more detailed info about switching a cat to indoors visit:http://www.paws.org/cas/resources/fact_sheets_cats/catathome.php

As far as your new cat is concerned, you need to keep them separated for at least 10 days. You want to be sure that the new kitty is free of disease, and is not carrying an infection from the cattery. The cats at the cattery may appear healthy, but they may be immune to whatever may be going on there. It is far safer to be cautious.

So keep the new kitty confined to one room, with litter box, water, and feed the best canned food that you can get. Cats need protein, not carbohydrates, and cats that are fed well, remain healthier and live longer. You will need another litter box anyway, as you do need one box for each cat, at least.

Introduce them slowly. Pay more attention to the resident cat during intros. Supervise them when they are together and as long as they are getting along pretty well, just observe. Hissing and growling is to be expected.
For more detailed info how to introduce them, visit:
http://catnet.stanford.edu/articles/introducing_cats.html

Good luck to you with your cats. Hope this helped.

Troublesniffer
Owned by cats for over 40 years
Freelance writer/blogger for
http://www.petside.com/

You can leave it for 3 or 4 days alone.Leave it a lot of dry food and plenty of water.If you have a friend ask him to come and see it one or two times.Generally it is preferable to keep a cat indoors to avoid accidents

Just don’t let him outside. Cats are extremely easy to keep indoors. All they need is a litterbox kept in the same spot all the time, full of litter, and a food and water dish. If you’re worried about him accidentally getting out, make sure you push him back with your foot when you leave, and you could get him microchipped at the vet (a painless procedure) that way if he gets lost or someone steals him, he will always be tracked back to you.

Just because they COST a lot of money doesn’t mean they have to live indoors for the rest of their days, They are still cats,and the decision should be theirs.get an outside run built were they can get into it from the house if you don’t want them to wander.but don’t confine them to 15/20yrs locked in doors just because they cost you a lot of money.we all love our cats but they are after all. wanderers

Get your kitty’s micro chipped just in case they do get out. And then basically, just don’t let your cats out.
As long as they have a litter box each, (then a spare one) 2 cats = 3 litter trays. Food, water, toys, scratching posts. They will be fine.

Cats are a lot safer indoors. No cars to run them over, no animals to get diseases from or fight with, no poisons for them to eat. In my opinion cats should be kept indoors anyway,
You wouldn’t let a dog wonder the streets, why would you a cat?

Being ragdolls they need to be brushed daily to reduce the risk of them getting hairballs :]

You can buy leads and harnesses for cats so you can take your little ones outside,
Being an indoor cat my little girl doesn’t like it outside but she doesn’t mind sunbathing so i take her in the garden when its warm.

When people say that cats will always want to be outdoors, its not true. If a cat has never been an outdoor cat, then that cat will not want to be one.

Pyra(my calico DMH) is much happier sat behind me on the sofa in the sun, she doesn’t like all the noise outside it scares her lol

Good luck with your too cats :]

Lottie & Pyra
xxx

I have the same fear. Just make sure you have a collar with your info on it. Most people will do the right thing. But I feel like Its not fair to the cat to keep them from the outside natural environment. Its scary I know. You never know, because some cats dont feel comfortable outside… Just do your best to raise him inside and he may want to stay inside… 3 out of 4 of my cats prefer the inside…looking out…lol…Gl…

I have 2 Birman cats which both cost a lot. Regardless of cost I keep them indoors 24/7, I got them when they were kittens so they have never been outdoors, but I did train them to wear a harness and lead so that I could take them out for fresh air, a walk and a nibble on some grass under supervision.
I worry more about other people and their cats. I worry that neighbours don’t look after their cats and as a result mine may get sick. I also worry that if they were outdoors someone would steal them because they are so pretty!
I am home all the time so my cats have someone around all the time. I keep plenty of food and water out for them, and always a clean litter box.
My cats are my babies so they are spoilt! I got a scratching post custom made for my house big enough for them both to play on and hopefully not get too bored. I also buy every toy a see and keep most of them in a box. The cats then pull out what they want when they want from the box. Cat’s also love boxes, toilet rolls etc to play with so make sure they have plenty of entertainment.

As long as your cats are not bored and give them somewhere to sit so they can see the outside world, they should be fine. If you can train them with a harness then they will learn when it comes out on special occasions, then they get to go outside. Mine sit at the back door and patiently wait for me to take them for a walk.

Regardless of whether your cats are free or expensive you get to decide what you think is best for them. A bored cat leads to destruction of furniture etc…