Hi

I have 2 cats that come in and out when they wish- they have a cat flap and access to it all of the time. They are really good and our female cat spends most of her time inside whereas our male cat prefers to be exploring outside.

We recently rehomed a male kitten from the RSPCA about a month ago - he has had his vaccinations, is due to be neutered next month and is about 18 weeks old. At the moment when we go out and overnight we keep him in our spare room with toys, baskets, litter box etc. However he is starting to get bored of being in there and I'm due to go back to work in a week so he won't be out during the day either. As soon as he can venture outside we will be happy to leave him out of the spare room during the day. I just wondered how old kittens should be before they should go outside. We live down a quiet cul de sac and the roads nearby are fairly quiet too. There are a few other cats that live down our road but we haven't had any problems with our other two going out.

I would love your advice!

Thank you

I wouldn`t let him out entil he has been neutered and has healed from it.

__________________
I know I need a spell checker.

A couple of weeks after they have been neutered. Not only could they get female cats pregnant (if they are mature - which can happen) they could also pick up some nasty diseases.

EDIT: What we do with Bella is put a harness on her and walk her outside. She seems to love the back garden escapades and it sates her for a while. Thankfully so far she hates the front garden .

Not until he's been neutered and is at least 10 months old. Tom cats especially need to be fully grown and mature as they will get into fights with other toms, and if he isn't then another tom could seriously hurt him or worse.

__________________

I didn't let my boys out until 2 weeks after the were neutered. This was partly due to ensuring they had healed but also because Wilbur had needed stitches.

When they were allowed out it was only on a harness, which is just as well as they did tend to get scared easily by any loud noise and wanted to run back inside.

They are still really little and a bit stupid/childlike, even at 6 months, so unlike a fully mature cat they don't sense danger the same way. We are in the process of securing the garden for them as I don't really feel happy with them free roaming as there are far too many people out there who would happily put antifreeze down to protect their flowers/plants from 'pesky' cats, and van drivers who use our quiet road to take a short cut and zoom up it with no regards to animals or humans.

__________________