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Hi, so this is my first post so please tell me if i am missing anything. I am wondering when to let my cat Boo roam freely around my studio when I am gone. He is 4 months and so far I have left him in the bathroom when I leave. He is very well behaved, hasn't scratched at anything in the bathroom, gone through trash, or played with the tp roll. I've done my best to cat proof, taped cord to walls and spray them with bitter apple (he hasn't really shown any interest in them anyways). He does have free roam at night when I am sleeping, mostly because he just stays on the bed with me anyway but I would like to let him run around when I am in class or at work. Please any advice would be great! Thanks so much!
yes...and like I said in my post, he also has free roam when i am asleep. right now his biggest quirks are his endless desire for people food and meowing when I leave. im just nervous that with enough boredom and no supervision he goes for my interent cable which I am unable to tape, although he hasn't tried to go for it with me here...i just keep expecting all the kitten-ey mischief
yes...and like I said in my post, he also has free roam when i am asleep. right now his biggest quirks are his endless desire for people food and meowing when I leave. im just nervous that with enough boredom and no supervision he goes for my interent cable which I am unable to tape, although he hasn't tried to go for it with me here...i just keep expecting all the kitten-ey mischief
I don't think letting him have free roam while you are asleep or gone are very much different.
I am sure some other people will chime in. I would make sure to find some things he likes and have them available to him. If he tends to like people food, then don't let people food be available to him.
None of our kitties ever went to the cords. Perhaps it's because there was so much else of interest to them. And we have always played with each of our kitties. This newest one my husband would play with him early before work for nearly a half hour - chasing the thing on the string mostly; then a couple hours later I would play catch the mouse and after work my husband would play with him again - usually a stick with a toy tied on the end of a string - this time it was jumping exercise.
Once we got past the older kitties being too rough with the little ones, usually around 4 months, we let them have free reign in the house. We've never had kitties on counters or tables after the first time, and they learned quickly where the "kitty bed" is (blankets on the furniture they are allowed on.
I'd let yours free since he is fine when you are there.
It sounds like you may have lucked out with a well-behaved kitten! Lucky!
I think he'd be fine to roam the house at this point, but it's always best to make changes like this in small steps...try leaving for an hour, then gradually increase the time you're gone until you feel comfortable leaving him to his own whims for a full day when you're at class or work.
I've been lucky enough to have raised TWO kittens who were really mellow and well-behaved, and who I could leave to explore the house while I was at work with no worries whatsoever...the other 2 kittens I've raised were little hellions, LOL...couldn't trust them to not wreak havoc on whatever they could get their little paws on if I wasn't there to supervise, and one I still can't trust very well, but she's 16 now, so I pretty much let her do whatever she wants anyway...if I tried to close her in a room, she'd poop in the corners, that's what she does when she's mad at me, so she has me trained very well by now .
Yeah, I think if he's able to handle himself responsibly (or as much as any cat does ) while you're sleeping it's probably a good indication that he's going to be OK when you leave. You can try it--leave him alone for an hour or two, come back and check things out to see how he did. If you're really worried, you can set up a webcam with a good view of the place and just keep an eye on him for the first few days you're leaving him out.
The worst thing my cat did at that age when I left him alone one day was sharpen his claws on my bed--which I probably would have never noticed, except that at the time I was sleeping on an air mattress while I was waiting for my real bed to be delivered.
buy him toys, cat nip, scratching post or two and play with him hard before you leave. he will probably sleep while you are gone. 4 months is not too early to let him explore his home. just don't leave small choking things about, get him used to the scratching post and take it in little increments. and don't be surprised when he does get into the tp or moves some papers etc. he is after all still a young cat.
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