Letting your kitten outside....advice?

I am not sure, it is hard to keep them in once they want to go out. I used to have to keep mine in until they had had their injections but I cannot remember how old they were. When I first started to let mine out, I used to put butter on their paws to stop them roaming, just until they got used to not wandering off, that works too.

About two months old, she's too crazy...But I don't live on a busy road...I let her out for a short amout of time and gradually longer... It's hard, but sometimes we need to just let go, they are animals, they shouldnt be pent up...I understand the car risk, so maybe you should wait until you live somewhere safer... I'm sorry to hear about your kitten, RIP Nigel **

As I haven't been able to be on My Lot much lately, I wasn't aware your poor kitten had been hit & killed by a car. I am very sorry. Regarding your new kitten, how busy is your road? I have always let all of my cats outside, but then I have always lived on quiet streets. The risk is still there I know. One of my old cats was once hot by a car, & required knee replacement surgery. I let my cats out bit by bit. First, I let them out the back under my supervision. Eventually they are allowed out the back whenever they want. I know they can jump the fence to get out the front, but they tend not to for awhile. Next, I begin letting them out the front. Do you know what I did with my latest cat? I bought a cat walking harness & took her out the front with that for awhile, before I let her go on her own. Both cats seem to avoid cars. I usually wait at least two weeks with a new kitten before letting them outside, following the above process. Good Luck.

I think my kittens were allowed to take a look around outside within a couple of weeks of my getting them, so they must have been 8-9 weeks old. I do live in a very quiet area though with pretty little risk during the day time. My biggest worry at the time was our own dogs!

So Sorry Coffee about Nigel..i know i've lost some kitties over the years just like him. Right now almost all my cats are old and just hang around the front porch, but i do have one mama in the garage with 4 baby siamese..the parents are Siamese too! Hopefully you let him have some freedom but unless you keep them enclosed allday long, they will sneak out and get into mischief and thats the worse that will happen.

Thats to bad, I am sorry for your loss. Maybe if you have enough land you should get a fence that they can't get out of. Or they make cat leashes so you can slowly introduce the outside. I'd say around a year or so I'd let them out. Give them time to figure out the world and realize were home is so they will always come back. MY best advice hope it helps..

I'm sorry to hear about your kitten, Nigel. Well, it mostly depends where you live and how brave your kittens are. When we lived in the country, we let them out after they were three months old -- if they wanted to go outside, we always encouraged them to like being indoors though this didn't always work out. If you're in the city, I wouldn't reccomend it until he's at least a half a year old and wiser about cars. A healthy fear of cars, when you let your pets outdoors is very useful. Nowadays, since we're in the city we won't let our cats roam freely. We will hold onto them and take them out for walks around our house and backyard. And we bought a harness for our oldest cat who dislikes to be held outside, so that he can walk where he likes but we still have his leash just in case he gets frightened and tries to run away.

I don't let my cat outside. There are just too many dangers out there. My cat used to be an outside cat when someone else owned him and he has the freespirt also. He does try to get outside frequently, but I have a screened patio door and that is just going to have to be good enough. I'd be crushed if anything happened to him.