Have you ever converted a cat...

In My Humble Opinion
1

from outdoor to indoor? There are a number of cats that live near my office, and my wife and I have been thinking of getting a young cat for our house. Assuming I could catch one of them, and the vet said that it was healthy, I would want to convert it to an indoor only cat.

Is it possible to covert a cat who is used to living outside its whole life to being a purely inside cat? To the point that they don’t bolt for the door whenever it is left open? Or is “adopting” a cat of this type in general a bad idea?

2

It’s possible. Depends on the cat though. Some cats think “Hey, I’m on easy street now!” and never want to go outside again. Others want to go out and stalk stuff and will howl to go out. But generally, cats will adapt.

3

Not sure you’re going to be able to turn an adult feral cat into a nice pet. Not without first giving it the kitty equivalent of a lobotomy.

But apart from that I’ve found it’s easier to convince a fixed older cat (over say, 5 years old) to stay indoors than a hot-blooded youngster. Intact cats are sluts. Fixed cats are whores–they’ll stay where the food & comfort are.

4

If they’re feral, then no, don’t even try. Feral cats are not equipped to live inside. Unless it’s a very young kitten that hasn’t been “socialized” yet, in which case it’s too young to leave its mother, it would be a bad idea to adopt one of these cats.

However, if the cat(s) are runaways or were abandoned or were indoor/outdoor cats that were cared for by people, then it’ll probably turn out good. My cat that I got from a shelter was found on the street but he is very obviously a housecat and adapted well to staying inside, although he does try to escape every now and then. If the cat comes up to you and likes to be petted, then he’s probably a housecat, but if you have to “catch” him then he’s probably feral and shouldn’t be adopted.

Why not just go to a shelter? They fix the cat for you there and give it all the shots beforehand.

5

I have no idea how “feral” these cats are. They aren’t particularly friendly and will run away if you approach them. Since they probably have a fairly miserable life right now, living outdoors and catching their own food, I thought it would be a nice thing to provide one of them a real home. At least I could make sure they weren’t sick and creating yet more feral cats.

One of my biggest concerns is disease since there are other cats in our neighborhood and I would hate to introduce something nasty if it did accidentally get out of the house.

6

Our last convert, Domino (we call him Large, cuz he is) is quite happy to be inside. Mostly because he doesn’t have to walk around much, being large and all. He’ll cry just a little bit, but if you pet him, he quiets down.

7

I adopted a street cat, well he adopted me, and it turned out just fine. He did have a couple medical issues that I had taken care of and we spent a number of happy years together. He may have been an indoor cat at some point before that, but I really don’t know.

So yes it can happen, but as was mentioned it will depend on the cat. If a cat is unhappy indoors it will let you know it. Loudly. Possibly painfully. and of course often.

8

Good heavens, NO! Do you know what it’s like to try to hold a cat through the required triple pouring of or immersion in water for a good Trinitarian baptism?

9

I’ve been working with feral cats for many years, so I do have some knowledge on this subject. In my experience, a cat that was born to a feral mother is very difficult to socialize after its about 6 months old. I have successfully socialized older cats, but it takes much longer and they are never really people-loving cats. If you can trap one that is less than 6 months old, they can usually be socialized successfully, but there are some exceptions. I vividly remember one beautiful tabby male I trapped when he was about 3 months old. He eventually would let me hold him without trying to kill me, but he never enjoyed it. He never purred or tried to initiate contact in any way with any human. I tried for 3 months, then gave in and released him in a monitored feral colony. He just didn’t like people and would not have made a good pet.

Unless you have a lot of time and patience to devote to socializing a feral, I think your best bet is to adopt from a shelter. Some cats who have become accustomed to being allowed outside never get over wanting to go out. None of my eight cats have been out since I have had them (several were born to feral mothers, so they were out as infants) and not only do they not try to get out, on the very few occasions they have been out they didn’t like it and wanted back inside immediately.

I am impressed by your concern for the ferals you have encountered. The life of a feral cat is often difficult and short. You might want to contact your local shelter and see if there is a feral trap-neuter-release program in your area. Then the cats will not continue to breed themselves to death and will be much healthier. Putting out food for them is a good idea if you can find a place where they won’t be a problem. Thank you for caring about them.

10

We have five happy, healthy feral cats in our household. Four were quite young (under 4 months) when we adopted them. One was about a year old. To socialize them and acclimate them to an indoor life took quite a bit of dedication, patience, and love. And, as Snakescatlady says, success is not guaranteed, even with young feral cats.

I must say that our domesticated feral kitties are among the liveliest, sweetest, smartest cats I’ve ever known. Now that they’re adults, the only drawbacks are that they are very skittish around humans other than my husband and me, and they like to stay up late at night batting things around on the floor and playing bowl-hockey with their feeding dishes.

11

You already have some good advice from experienced folk, and have said that you’d have the kitty checked by a vet. Be advised also that said checkup may not be cheap as these things go, and in my limited experience you have a relatively high chance that the poor animal will have one or more diseases, some of which, like feline leukemia, not only readily infect other cats you already have, but can linger *in your home * for up to a year. There are immunizations, but AFAIK no cure for this or for feline immune deficiency. Both diseases are heartbreaking as the cat slowly deteriorates miserably. That’s not even counting things like fleas, other parasites and respiratory infections.

12

I would also note that if it’s a male, he may have urinary track problems. Mine did and had to have surgery to correct it. I was told by the vet that it’s a pretty common issue with male cats.

13

My cat was an outside cat for about two years. I got her as a kitten and she got plenty of picking up and hugging. When I moved, two years ago, she was two years old and an inside cat for both those years. She had a litter, was spayed, had all her shots, etc. before I moved. I brougt her with me an kept her as an inside cat since.
She is really not accustomed to being an inside cat, though. Especially this time of the year when tomcat is roaming and she can smell him through the screen door.
Driving me nuts! Spray bottle helps but I haven’t the heart to use it too often. :slight_smile:

14

All of the cats I have now and most of the ones I’ve had in the past, were outdoor cats when I got them. Several of the ones I got off the street must have had contact with people because they were friendly to people, if a little skittish. They are all indoor cats now and seem OK with it.

The cat I got most recently was a feral. The shelter captured her after she broke into some elderly woman’s basement to have her kittens. She was absolutely vicious at first, but after several months, she became friendly, and now she’s fine. She’ll still run away if someone comes right towards her, but she also seeks out affection from me and shows little sign of her former hostility towards people.

However, I was also recently attacked in the face by a feral cat who we were trying to tame at the shelter… 2 days in the hospital because it was so close to my eye, which got cellutitis. Not fun at ALL. It was a male, and I’d say tomcats are more aggressive than female ferals, who are more defensive in their behavior. This cat was rereleased (after vaccination and neutering) where he was picked up after this attack and was not “tamed.”

I guess you have to be really careful with feral cats, esp. in enclosed spaces or if you have to pick them up. It can take a long time to get them used to humans. There are feral cat rescue programs, which you should contact for these cats. If any of them approaches you and seems friendly, then see how it goes.

15

I’ve considered taking the Neville kitties to a mikvah, so they can be officially Jewish kitties (they looooove gefilte fish), but somehow I don’t think they’d like it. The people who own the mikvah might have something to say about all the hair they’d leave in the water, too.

16

I’m going to suggest, as it seems others have, that you just don’t go this route. I think you’ll be better off in the long run if you get a cat from an animal shelter.

I have converted a cat, though. A tiny kitten followed my father home from a walk twice, so we adopted her; we spayed her but were never able to get her to stay inside. Every time we’d try she’d howl up a storm.

When I went away to college, I took the cat with me. Immediately she stopped howling or trying to get outside. I don’t know if it had to do with trauma concerning the move, or confusion about the change of circumstances, or what - but she has been a perfectly content indoor cat ever since.

That said, I don’t think she was feral. We picked her up when she was too young to be removed from her mother, and the only reason we did so was because she seemed not to have one. I think you’ll have less luck than I did.

17

So, the people suggesting going to the shelter…you’re not having a kitten shortage in your area too, then? The last of my mother’s elderly cats died recently, and no one has kittens. Not the NHSPCA, not people giving them away in the paper/freecycle/craigslist, not through the area vets (one vet took her name saying she was the 20th person to ask), only one person in the area is even selling them- not that she wants a $450 kitten, but she might have found a private rescue league that has some. She’ll find out tomorrow.

Anyway, regarding feral kittens: ten years ago a feral cat had kittens in our garage. We managed to catch one kitten when he was about eight weeks old, and gave him to my aunt Gerry, who’d recently lost her 18-year-old cat. Then the following week we tried to catch the other two without much luck. A possum attacked the remaining two kittens, killing one, and badly injuring the other that the mother then abandoned. We caught that one and it hid in the pool table for three days.

Sam, my aunt’s cat, has happily been a house cat for a decade. He scares the crap out of many visitors, but he’s gentle with her and besides throwing her food on the floor - he won’t eat it, just bats it off the plate - she has no complaints.

Boo, on the other hand, was an indoor cat the five years we had her. She was pretty happy, but never a lap cat. The other female cat got very ill and managed to make her feel so unwelcome that she snuck out past my mother one Halloween night and didn’t come back (thank god she’s spayed). My mother thinks she’s seen her a couple of times since she took off, but if it was her, she is obviously feral again. I sort of think seeing her is wishful thinking, but it’s remotely possible since she had a distinctive orange stripe running down the center of her otherwise black face.

Basically it’s a crapshoot since even kittens from the same litter react differently to being brought into a home. I suspect if you make the cat your only, like Sam is, s/he will feel more secure, but who knows. If you go through with it, I wish you luck.

18

We have two cats, adopted separately within one month of each other.

One of them (Paka) was a stray that wandered up to a friend of ours who is allergic to cats, but who knew that we loved cats and that we had been recently bereaved of a cat who had lived with us for 18 years. He was unneutered, and very friendly toward people. He had been on his own long enough to get worms and ear mites, along with more than a few burrs and knots in his long hair, but he was also obviously used to living outdoors more than indoors.

We did have him checked out by a vet before we adopted the second cat (Minou) from the Humane Society, if only so that any parasites he had wouldn’t get transferred before we could deal with them. Both of them are now indoor cats, with occasional supervised walks in our fenced backyard.

We’ve had them now for two years. Minou is 100% an indoor cat–she even ran away from open windows when we first got her. Paka very obviously wants to be able to go outside and chase wildlife and meet other cats in the neighborhood, but he also recognizes how easy life is now, with food, friendship, and toys immediately accessible. He also likes being inside when it storms or when it is very cold. We do pay a lot of attention to him when we are home, and I think in the long run, he is much happier now as a neutered indoor cat than he was as a fertile outdoor cat.

19

Perhaps not the greatest examples, but a good anecdote before I hit the main topic…

My cat, a nice mutt, I picked up off the side of the road when he wasn’t more than 3 months old, took him home cleaned him up, and now he’s absolutely terrified of the outdoors… more than two years later… He loves windows, but refuses to set foot outside!

My father however, has an outdoor / garage kitty, which he has unsuccessfully attempted to convert to a mild-mannered indoor cat with little success. I’d wager that after a certain age it becomes less feasible.

If you want a good indoor cat… Petsmart, if they are in your area, almost always have kittens on display for adoption!