Letting new cat's out for first time

just need some advice,have got 2 rescue cat's,had them for approx 6wks,have started letting them out for short periods while we supervise,With them been the "new kids"on the block any suggestions/advice on how to stop neighbours cat's bulling them??? or do we have to just let them sort them self's out,they are such friendly/loving cat's and i'd hate for them to get hurt. thanks in advance.

My suggestions:

a) make sure they're at least 6 months old, neutered, vaccinated, chipped first.

b) start letting them out whilst there's still plenty of daylight hours left and you're not going to need to leave the house.

c) leave the door open at first and go out with them. if they're startled they'll hopefully run back indoors.

d) get a microchip cat flap and make sure they learn to use it. then if any bullies around they'll be able to get back in the house and bully won't be able to follow.

e) if you're anything like me you might need strategies to help you calm down if they go out of sight for more than 5 minutes when they first go out

Everything that midgecat says, plus:

1) the first time you let them out, make it about 10 minutes before dinner time, so that you know they're hungry and you can make dinner noises and they will want to come back in immediately, and

2) before you let them out the first time without you being there, take some of their dirty cat litter outside and either dig it into the garden or something similar so that they have a smelly homing beacon for where they are meant to be (in case they leave the garden and get disorientated as to which way they're meant to be going).

As far as bullying goes, for the most part they will have to work it out for themselves, once you've got them used to a way to get safe (coming in through the cat flap where the bully can't follow). The exception to this is if there is one cat which is creating a problem within your garden, and in situations like this a campaign of being a bigger and more scary cat than the bully can be used to just persuade this bully that your garden isn't somewhere that they want to be (thus freeing up the garden for your cats).

To do this you don't need to catch the bully cat being nasty to your cats, you just have to catch him/her crossing the boundary into your garden and make it plain that this is your patch and s/he is no longer welcome. A really strong water pistol is handy for this. It hisses like a really big cat, which cats find scary even if the water doesn't hit them, and it then gets them unpleasantly wet. This is best done when your cats are happy and asleep on the bed upstairs so they don't get upset by it. Take it from me, a cat faced with a really big and scary cat telling them not to go into a garden will just diplomatically decide to be elsewhere, once informed of the change of plans a few times

However, please bear in mind that even friendly cats play rough, so don't go on the offensive until/unless you're sure that there's really a problem.

Good luck

Definitely recommend the microchip cat flap. We had big problems with bull cats at first and getting one really helped.

Thanks for the advice here - I think these are 2 cats that have been rehomed from RAIN (maybe wrong but sounds like them).

They are wonderful adult males really friendly and scrumptious - get on with anything - 5 of the neighbours cats seem fine - just one of them doesn't want any neighbour cats.

They should hopefully stay very close to home, as they have been in a while, but lets hope so. They came to us from very sad circumstances - and have found a wonderful home here with their new mum - fingers crossed bully boy leaves them alone.

Thanks for the advice here - I think these are 2 cats that have been rehomed from RAIN (maybe wrong but sounds like them).

 

They are wonderful adult males really friendly and scrumptious - get on with anything - 5 of the neighbours cats seem fine - just one of them doesn't want any neighbour cats.

 

They should hopefully stay very close to home, as they have been in a while, but lets hope so. They came to us from very sad circumstances - and have found a wonderful home here with their new mum - fingers crossed bully boy leaves them alone.

You have got it spot on,they were rescued from rain,i love them both to bit's and would hate them to get hurt,things have got slightly better,they have been nose to nose with some of neighbours cat's and no problems.the bully one has cornered one of mine,my boy backed away and came home,was that a good thing for him to do?or will bully cat target him again and again??

My partner's cat is going for his final inoculations and microchipping today, so he can let him outside very soon. He is 24 weeks old. I have carried him out into the garden and let him have a very brief walk around, at first he seemed very nervous and even shivered. But now he seems more confident. We are going to let him out for longer periods until he gets used to it.

Thanks for the cat litter idea, Medusa, I will tell my partner to try this.

I'm just worried someone will take the kitten in, he is a gorgeous cat, incredibly friendly and very greedy, so if someone offers him food, he will go into their house.

some really useful advice so far. I always familiarise my cats with the sound of their rattling biscuits or treats jar being gently shaken and use a code word or phrase just for that to get their attention and some recall eg 'what's this?' That way, if I ever had any unplanned escapes or wanderers and wanted the cat(s) to come back, they usually did do.

It's even more important now that we have housecats because if any get outside, they need to recognise my voice to get back home.

How are the boys doing now? Any better.

It's worth it to have protectapus fencing round your garden if you can afford it. Keeps others out and yours safe

Ah, a fellow Rain cat rescuer!! We got our 2 ginger toms last year from Rain when they were teeny tiny kittens. They've grown into beautiful boys and we've just started letting them out also. One of them is yet to work out how to climb fences though so he hasn't gone far yet

Hope all continues to go well with your 2

Oh bless. Nice to hear they ok. Fancy popping pics of those cute gingersup on the rainrescue facebook

Great idea that fencing. Do they have a website. How do you find out about it?