Should You Keep Your Cat Indoors or Outdoors?

An indoors cat can have a longer happy life

We talk on our website about cats and in particular about using cat trees. A cat tree is only useful where you keep your cat indoors. If he lives outdoors he will have plenty of trees to play on and to climb without the necessity of you providing him with one.

But should you keep your cat indoors or outdoors?

There is evidence showing that a cat kept indoors will have a longer lifespan than one kept outdoors. For instance cats kept outdoors are at risk of dog attack where for obvious reasons this will not happen indoors. And they can be run over on the road.

And there are risks for cats in suburban areas which venture outside their garden into the neighbours garden, for example eating something they shouldn’t or even being deliberately poisoned.

But probably the major reason for keeping your cat indoors is that they can be devastating to the local wildlife. Cats are extremely effective hunters and hunt mainly at night. And night-time is when you get the sugar gliders and other small native animals coming out to feed. A cat can be devastating on a sugar glider.

There is no reason why you cannot keep your cat indoors all the time. That is why we have this website, because indoor cats need plenty of exercise and fun things to do just as outdoors cats do, and because they do not have all those fun outdoor things to do such as climbing trees, they need you to provide their exercise and stimulation.

And a cat tree does that superbly. Read the rest of this entry