Longest you would leave cats alone?

[Anonymous]

Our cats are competitive eaters, so if we left them unsupervised one would eat all the food and the other would starve.

Also, the whole house starts to smell like a cat box if you don't have someone cleaning it daily and opening the windows to air it out.

[Anonymous]

I don't currently have a cat but when I did, I did not leave him for more than 48 hours. Because you have a trusted house sitter, I'd probably use her for anything more than a regular weekend trip.

[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 agree with this, and I have younger cats - 1 and 5. They are very social, and are accustomed to lots of play and activity.

[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, though we’ve gone three days - again healthy cat. Just a check to make sure all is okay and cat not gotten itself into some goofy situation.

[Anonymous]

Depends on the number of cats. I'm more comfortable leaving 2 cats alone for up to 5 days (assuming you have a feeder, litter boxes, lots of water, etc.) I wouldn't leave a solo cat alone for more than 2 nights. You know your cat best, but solo cats tend to get lonely while a pair is fine because they have each other.

Strongly disagree with the pp who suggested boarding your cat. They do so much better in their own home. They aren't like dogs. They are so anxious when dropped off somewhere to sit in a cage for a week. Most won't warm up to anyone there and will be depressed. At least in their own home they have familiar spots and lots of space, even if they're a little lonely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends on the number of cats. I'm more comfortable leaving 2 cats alone for up to 5 days (assuming you have a feeder, litter boxes, lots of water, etc.) I wouldn't leave a solo cat alone for more than 2 nights. You know your cat best, but solo cats tend to get lonely while a pair is fine because they have each other.

Strongly disagree with the pp who suggested boarding your cat. They do so much better in their own home. They aren't like dogs. They are so anxious when dropped off somewhere to sit in a cage for a week. Most won't warm up to anyone there and will be depressed. At least in their own home they have familiar spots and lots of space, even if they're a little lonely.

Correct. Boarding a cat is borderline abuse.

[Anonymous]

If it's more than 1 night, we have the pet sitter come by. I can't imagine not having anyone check on the cat for a week! Our cat craves attention and would be so depressed.

[Anonymous]

Friday to Sunday would be my limit, and I'd have someone on call in case I got stuck coming back.

[Anonymous]

More than 3 or 4 nights we ask someone to check in. Our cat would rather be left alone for a few days than be boarded.

[Anonymous]

What kind of video cameras do people use inside their house?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:More than 3 or 4 nights we ask someone to check in. Our cat would rather be left alone for a few days than be boarded.

All cats would.

[Anonymous]

Right now I have two cat that are about 1.5 years old. When I go away, I do have a teen kid across the street go in once a day.

When I only had one older cat - I would try to have someone come 1-2x when I was gone for a week - definitely not every day. Once the person who was supposed to do it once during the week had an issue and didn't come at all and the cat was fine, FWIW. I suppose I still didn't plan to do it like that after that, anyway, though.

[Anonymous]

there is a legal limit on how long you can leave a cat
I think its 8 hours

[Anonymous]

When they were young without meds, 2 days max. Now I need an in-house sitter.

[Anonymous]

We do not leave our cat more than 24 hours without having someone come to feed fresh wet food and check on him. He is young and healthy and also has kibble + a water fountain.