Longest you would leave cats alone?

[Anonymous]

Need a reality check. For the past 10 years, we've always had at least elderly cat - talking 15 and up. We always hired a pet sitter if we were gone a full day (so basically, a weekend, if we never came home Saturday). Those cats have since passed, and we're looking at our travel schedule and wondering how long of a trip requires his services now. My mom said we used to leave our pets for a week alone as long as they were healthy, but that seems over the top.

I know this is probably a stupid question, but like I said, after so many older cats who needed daily care, I really have no basis for comparison anymore.

[Anonymous]

I've left a cat for a week. Plenty of extra water and food dishes and a few extra disposable liter boxes. I've never had any issue

[Anonymous]

We have one healthy cat and travel a bunch. Will leave alone for up to 2.5 days (Thursday night to Sunday noon) with no check-in.

If longer than that (we've done trips of up to 10 days), we have a petsitter come for a short daily visit to feed wet food, check litter box, and refresh water. My cat is not interested in engaging with the sitter so is otherwise alone.

[Anonymous]

I don't have a cat so I don't know, but I would think video cameras would help a lot to make me feel better about it. So you can confirm the cat is okay and the water is good, etc.

A dog I don't think can be left alone for more than 12 hours, even with a kennel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have one healthy cat and travel a bunch. Will leave alone for up to 2.5 days (Thursday night to Sunday noon) with no check-in.

If longer than that (we've done trips of up to 10 days), we have a petsitter come for a short daily visit to feed wet food, check litter box, and refresh water. My cat is not interested in engaging with the sitter so is otherwise alone.

This is kind of what I was leaning toward.

[Anonymous]

3.5 days. Lots of extra water (I put a huge bowl of water in the kitchen sink and in the bathroom tub). Automatic feeder that is full.

For anything longer, we will take our cat to the "luxury" cat boarder these days instead of using an in-home cat sitter I hate to ask neighbors to pet sit, and we have one bad experience with a cat sitter who didn't dispose of the old wet food properly and we came home to roaches all over the kitchen. Ick. Plus, I don't have to worry that the door didn't get locked, or the stove got turned on inadvertently, etc.

I highly recommend cat boarding for longer trips.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:3.5 days. Lots of extra water (I put a huge bowl of water in the kitchen sink and in the bathroom tub). Automatic feeder that is full.

For anything longer, we will take our cat to the "luxury" cat boarder these days instead of using an in-home cat sitter I hate to ask neighbors to pet sit, and we have one bad experience with a cat sitter who didn't dispose of the old wet food properly and we came home to roaches all over the kitchen. Ick. Plus, I don't have to worry that the door didn't get locked, or the stove got turned on inadvertently, etc.

I highly recommend cat boarding for longer trips.

We've used this cat sitter for trips up to 15 days. We're good with her. Not interested in locking them in a cage for a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've left a cat for a week. Plenty of extra water and food dishes and a few extra disposable liter boxes. I've never had any issue

Same, left a pair of cats for a week. They were fine.

[Anonymous]

I would do a long weekend 3-4 days with automatic feeder and a loads of water

[Anonymous]

Depends dramatically on the situation. We've got a diabetic cat right now that needs insulin twice a day. Ugh.

For two young, healthy cats, with a proven auto feeder (run it a few weeks before you go to make sure they can't jimmy it and it works consistently), 2-3 clean litter boxes (and who are comfortable without them being scooped a few days, again, test this when you're home), and a couple big bowls of water - Probably four days? If I was going five or more days, I'd probably ask someone to come once in the middle to check on them. And if I was going longer, I'd probably have someone come every 3 days throughout the trip.

I wouldn't think twice about leaving a healthy cat or cats Fri-Sun.

[Anonymous]

Up to a week - no problem. When we do long trips - have someone check in on them every 2 to 3 days. Right now we have kids in the neighborhood who love our cats and so they come every day. The advantage to that? Cats never seem to get mad and leave us fun surprises

[Anonymous]

I have two cats but only 1 litterbox (small living space). I'm not comfortable leaving them for longer than 2 days without someone stopping by. I suppose I could add a 2nd litterbox and get an automatic feeder, but I had a friend who lives across the street so it's easy for her to stop over once a day.

[Anonymous]

I have a 15 year old cat and I wouldn't leave her longer than overnight without someone coming in to check on her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a 15 year old cat and I wouldn't leave her longer than overnight without someone coming in to check on her.

I mean, she is quite old… so we get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a 15 year old cat and I wouldn't leave her longer than overnight without someone coming in to check on her.

Right. This has been me for over 20 years (my first cat on my own was 16), so I have no basis for comparison when it comes to younger, healthy cats.