inside or out??

[carole]

i have both my cats vaccinated yearly for those disease, except rabies as nz does not have them, so i think they are pretty safe personally, in that respect, they are both showered with heaps of love ,attention, have the best flea treatment money can buy, good food, etc, which is more than they would have had, as both were strays confined to a life of none of the above, except lexie was well taken care of at the cats league, but she now has a real home with tons of affection, i am hoping get pics of her soon.
Now to change the subject i would like to know how often do you change your kitties litter boxes, once per day, every second day, once per week or what?

[Soledad]

Well, I was just pulling a number out.

I know you love your cats and you take very good care of them. I am relatively new to cats, and based on my experience, Boo needs lots of room to run and tear around. I can't imagine four more around in our place.

I was really hoping I could get educated on this, which is why I asked.

[NoahsMommy]

Originally posted by carole
Now to change the subject i would like to know how often do you change your kitties litter boxes, once per day, every second day, once per week or what?

In our house, we have five large litter boxes that we change every day.

[Songlover]

Dear Noah's Mommy,

Do you mean change COMPLETELY every day, or do you mean "scoop the poop" every day?? If you are changing the litter every day, then I must be a very, very BAD MEOWMIE!!!! Regards from Deborah in Montreal

[shais_mom]

Originally posted by NoahsMommy
I wasn't offended at your question, I just wondered why you chose "5+".

Many people here have larger homes or apartments. Our apartment is 1000 sq. ft. PLENTY of room for the cats...even more so when they all are in different rooms.

Well, Kelly isn't the only one that has 5+. Cataholic, moosmom, marysmerrycats, jenluckenbach just off the top of my head.

I have a big dog and a big cat in a 650+ sq foot house, does that make me odd?

[veegan]

I just have one litter box for my 2 kitties, and I use clumping litter, and scoop the stuff out as I see it. It is in my room, so that not only makes it easy to keep up with, but it also helps keep me cleaning it often because I cant stand the smell lol! And then I clean all the litter out whenever the litter is really dirty or low.

[Soledad]

No it doesn't make YOU odd. But don't be offended if I find it odd because I've never had any experience with it.

This was NOT intended as a personal attack on ANYONE. If you could take the time to explain to me how it works with having so many animals in one house, I would appreciate it.

[shais_mom]

Soledad,
I have a 4 room house. Very tiny.
Keegan is in her crate when I am not there, so she doesn't bother Kylie who is out and about.
If Kylie needs a break, she goes under the bed, or I have a kitty entrance in my closet. She goes in there and basically has her own room.
Whenever she gets stressed from Keegan she goes in the closet.
She isn't very active, so she doesn't zip around much. She sometimes does at night, so that is pretty much her activity.
Keegan, is still a puppy, I have a park 2 min behind my house. Sometimes I try to take her there when it is nice to chase a tennis ball, or I make sure I take her to my parents 3 acres at least once a week.
Now Shaianne, my RB greyhound, was another story.
She rarely bothered the cat. And she was a couch potatoe so she didn't need alot of activity. I never took her anywhere to run loose b/c I couldn't find any fenced in areas. She got her exercise when she escaped!
Does this help at all??

[wolf_Q]

I guess as I don't have a cat and never have, I don't really have any business replying to this thread. Oh well.

I'm sorry, not to offend anyone, but I cannot even *imagine* having a beloved pet wandering the streets. I guess I'm very overprotective but I would *never* allow any of my pets to be running freely outside without supervision. I feel comforted knowing where my pets are, and what is happening to them.

Almost everyone around me has outside cats. As much as I love cats, I don't appreciate cats pooping in my yard. My dog tries to eat it, lol, and that's not very enjoyable to dig out of his mouth (nor to step in). Real fun when planting your garden too.

I've watched the neighbors outside cats slowly die off. And I don't live on a busy street either, it's basically a dead end. Just the neighbors across my street for example...they've had an orange tabby, 2 black kittens, and a brown tabby. They still have one black cat..the rest lived less then a year before being killed.

My friend has an outside cat that's at least 9 years old. I'm amazed he's lived that long. He's always covered in scratches from fights. He'll disappear for days at a time. When he was in the house (before they moved) he was a very sweet cat...now he's turned a bit wild.

Sorry, I should stop now. I'm not at all saying that any of you that have outside cats don't love them, and it definitely depends on where you live. But from my personal experience, if I ever did get a cat, it would be inside only.

[carole]

i think we shall have to agree to disagree, u are entitled to your opinion, u cant imagine ever letting your pets out, here in nz we cannot imagine not. different cultures, different country.

[NoahsMommy]

Originally posted by Songlover
Dear Noah's Mommy,

Do you mean change COMPLETELY every day, or do you mean "scoop the poop" every day?? If you are changing the litter every day, then I must be a very, very BAD MEOWMIE!!!! Regards from Deborah in Montreal

hee hee.....we scoop every day.

[aly]

I don't understand how you think cats can catch just as many diseases inside as outside I don't know about you, but I don't have dozens of stray cats walking through my house every day. So since Shiloh is inside, she is never exposed to strange cats, therefore she can't catch anything. If she went outside, I would have no clue which cat's feces she'd be walking in and what she'd catch.

And vaccinations aren't 100% effective.

[Miss Meow]

Ours live inside. Mini and Jasmine were allowed out in the courtyard at the last house (under supervision), but the fences at this house aren't as secure. I don't want to even risk the cars, dogs, cat haters, council rangers etc. They adapted pretty quickly to living inside again, cats are adaptable creatures.

We got them the outdoor playpen, which they adore. I'll start another thread about it like I promised last week

[Soledad]

Sorry to confuse you, Aly. I knew I didn't word that right. I wasn't referring to diseases, but chemicals. Someone mentioned anti-freeze being an outdoor hazard.

I need to hear about this outdoor playpen!!!

[jenluckenbach]

Soledad, I had 6 cats in a one bedroom apt. and it was not crowded. The rooms lined up from the front of the house to the rear (It was a divided twin home) and they would get up any speed they wanted by running back and forth. They also had the ability to use the vertical space, so to them, the apt. was even bigger than it was to the humans.