Is it preferable for a cat to live outdoors or indoors? Twice now there has been some contention about whether cats are “better” indoor or outdoor. I’ve looked at the cites, and the longevity numbers are all over the map, with no first-hand data.
Here’s what I had to say in a GD Thread (couldn’t find the link, sorry.)
The anecdotes in Britain similarly disagree wildly with the anecdotal data here.
And finally, to find hard data, I have e-mailed the American Veterinary Journal of Medicine for the relevant statistics. (They never responded) What’s the truth of the matter?
Although GaryM above was joking he actually makes a point. Some people base their preference on this (i.e. laziness).
As a cat owner for 25+ years my opinion is this: Indoors (from the start) is best.
If you never let a cat outside they literally don’t know what they’re missing so you’re not depriving them of anything. And since cat owners generally like cat-like behavior we usually can provide them with enough stimulation ourselves.
I know that outdoor cats do have a great time, but between dogs, cars, fleas, ticks, and sadistic should-have-been-drown-at-birth little kids indoors is a much safer place for them.
Since I was the one reacting so strongly against in the other thread I guess I should post my point too. My cats have lived mainly outdoors (neutered all) because they were cats. I provided them with food and they provided me with company and entertainment. They came and went as they pleased. If it was a very cold night they could stay in, otherwise they slept in the hedge or in a little kennel-thing down one end of the garden. They very rarely used the kennel-thing. FTR I lived in a regular suburb with front and back garden and both residential and main roads nearby.
For me it seems odd to decide for an cat what it should or should not do. MHO is that if you live somewhere where a cat can’t be a cat (busy inner city area, extremely cold region or whatever) then maybe you want to get a goldfish?*
The cats I have had are indeed dead now. One at 7 after a fight with a neighbours dog, and one at 11 of FIV. They may have lived longer if I had kept them indoors, but as I see it, that was not my choice to make for them.
This is all MHO.
*yes I make a distinction between cats and goldfish.
Consider that whether or not living indoors prolongs the life of your cat, it will prolong the life of many songbirds, butterflies, fieldmice, etc. that an outdoor cat will hunt.
Well, a dog running free is much more of a hazard to itself and possibly other people.
My dog runs free within the house/yard. He can’t get out of the yard though. My cats when I had them could go where ever they liked, inside/outside. There are two good reasons to not let your cat outside. 1. Kills native animals. 2. Bad for the cat if you live near a busy road. However, if you live near a busy road then I don’t believe you should have a cat. You need to weigh up whether your cat is likely to kill native animals. The best our cats could do was the odd mouse here and there.
All my cats have been indoor and outdoor cats. In my experience when they get older the only time they ever want to go outside is when they need to take a dump. The younger ones are in and out all the time. I like to train my cats this way becuase I don’t have to bother with a litter box. (whoo hoo!) And also I think the cats themselves live a more intresting life. I’m not sure about the longevity though.
This pertains to my own particular suburban city (Warren, MI). I’m certain that it’s not the only town in the USA with similar legislation. I regularly trap cats that trespass my property, and county animal control tells me that it’s my right. I do take them to animal control – I’m not a sadistic bastard. If the animal is properly licensed (yes, even cats need to be), the owner will be called, he’ll pay his fine and boarding, and get his cat back. Otherwise they’re put up for adoption.
I don’t think what I do is cruel, and there are cruel people out there. The best thing to do is to properly and legally take care of your cats.
I know this sounds strange, but it really depends on the purpose of the cats.
We live in a rural area on 15 acres. Out here, cats are not pets – they’re tools. Their job is to live outdoors (around the perimeter of the house) and kill mice. And they do a very admirable job of it. Since getting them we have had no mice problem inside the house…
Its true, this is all IMHO, but I think the answer is self-evident. Anything will live longer in a safer enviornment. Personally I feel they live better lives inside away from the elements even though at times they must long to run around outside.
Do you want to guarantee your cat a long boring life? Keep him inside. Do you want him to have a free, fun life with all its ups and downs and scrapes and scratches and unknowns? Let him out. What kind of life would you want? Also remember that cats are very different than dogs. Dogs like to do people stuff, cats like to do cat stuff.
I think a lot of people here are giving too much thought to cats re: the have to be free stuff.
Do folks that live in cities want really want to live in the country - away from crowds and breathing fresh air? Is it mean to make people stay in cities?
I would think that if my indoor only cats really were missing life outdoors, every time my door opened they’d be running out to escape from their awful indoor existence. They don’t, so I’m thinking they like the life they have indoors.
With the possible exception of songbirds, all of these will replicate at a rate far exceeding the ability of a cat to hunt them down. And one's tolerance for the cute little field mouse soon dwindles when it starts coming inside. (I have trapped an average of three per week since August with no signs of running out.) With an average field mouse gestation period of 20 days and an average litter of 10-12, it would take only two or three females to replace the depredations of even a very successful cat.
“Even with a 90 percent mortality rate, 100 voles are capable of producing 2580 individuals in 4 months.”
An acre can contain an extremely variable number of voles but population densities in the 100s are not uncommon.
And elsewhere, the information that predators are not usually the limiting factor for voles (and I assume field mice) because of their extremely high reproductive rate (early estrus, large litter size, and many litters per year).
Now does the introduction of a well-fed domestic cat introduce unnecessary suffering and death into the field mouse population? That’s a bit harder to say, but note the references to “90%” mortality above. The mouse and vole population only rarely rises to epic proportions, so we can assume that they are being kept in check by limitations on food, disease, and non-cat predators. In other words, Nature has it in for the mouse anyway.
I didn’t find as much information on birds – feral cat colonies in parks in California have been blamed for decreasing the wild bird population and cats do kill millions (some say hundreds of million, but that seems less likely) of birds each year. But I don’t know if that’s above or below replacement rates for most species. One recommendation was to keep the cats indoors particularly during the bird breeding season in the spring when there are a lot of fledglings and younger birds about.
Thanks, Finagle, I cede your point about rodent-type prey. I am actually more concerned about songbirds specifically, since I spent a good time of the spring/summer chasing neighbors’ cats away from my birdfeeders and birdbath in the backyard.
And don’t get my wife started on them using her flowerbed for a litterbox…
And my cats choose to stay inside. I open my doors all the time (I have 3 dogs who go out into our fenced yard), and yet my cats choose to stay inside.
All of the cats my family has had, since I was very little, have been indoor/outdoor cats. My current kitty is about 8 yrs old and doesn’t look to be running out of steam very soon. Our last main kitty (mother of the current) lived to be… must’ve been at least 10 or 12. She lives inside and eats her food and has the run of the place and the litterbox, and if she wants out, she meows at the door and we let 'er out. Yes, she kills birds and mice, usually leaving their headless corpses on the front steps. Once she tried to drag a baby rabbit inside before it was even dead. But that’s a feline instinct – the hunting behavior picks up whenever she has a litter of kittens (no, she’s not spayed, that’s a whole other argument there). She comes from a line of barn cats (we used to live around a lot of farms, our first kitty was a barn mouser) and she loves going outside, but she also loves being in with us. She is healthy and active and happy and I wouldn’t have it any other way.