Keeping Your Cat Safe: Indoor Diversions and Approaches That Keep Your Cat from Going Outdoors

Kitties are hunters by nature, true, but domesticated cats should not be allowed to roam free. So much can happen to an indoor cat that is left outside. If you want to keep your cat safe and keep them from making frequent visits to the veterinarian, here are some helpful tips for cat care via the advice of veterinarians. These tips include preventive measures and diversions that will help your cat stay indoors where he or she is much safer.

Spay and Neuter Your Cats

In cats, escaping the house and roaming is almost always compelled by hormones. When cats do this, they are hunting for mates because the females are in heat, and the males want to breed. Cats hear and smell other cats in the neighborhood, and they know which ones are ready to breed. This drives your unspayed or unneutered cats absolutely crazy, and they will look for any and every way to get out of the house to get to those other cats. Prevent all of this troublesome behavior by simply spaying and neutering them.

Provide Your Cats with a Cat Condo or Window Perch

Cats just want to see what's going on outside. To abate the desire to run out and chase the birds, rabbits, and squirrels, provide your cats with climbable, multi-story cat condos or window perches. Then your feline friends will be able to climb, bat the toys on the condo structure, and sit in the window to watch the wildlife without getting hurt.

Give Your Cats "Hunting" Toys

Give your cats "hunting" toys. These are toys your cats can spend hours batting around, pouncing on, and attacking, and this will provide your cats with enough distraction from the outdoors that they will not mind missing out on what is out there. Examples of some fun hunting toys cats go crazy over are the ball-inside-the-circular-tube track and the invisible "mouse" that runs around under the circular blanket. Some cats also like the laser light toys, but these require some interaction and effort on your part. The others can keep your cats self-occupied for several minutes to an hour.

Allow Your Cats to Roam the Whole House

Some first-time cat owners limit kitty to just a few rooms in the house. That is not agreeable to any cat, since their general behavior and temperament is territorial. The whole house belongs to the cat, and he or she will let you know it by escaping as often as possible. If you give your cats full reign of the house, then they are less likely to try to escape through an open window to claim more territory elsewhere.

For more info, consult your veterinarian.