Moved yard cat - how long to keep in ?

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Muddywellies

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I have moved yards, and have taken my stable cat with me. She is now living in the barn in a big dog cage, with her food, litter, bed etc, and is ok'ish. She must be getting rather bored though, as she's an outdoor cat, and I would love to let her out. But I am afraid she will get lost or run away. She only moved last Satuday so she has only been in for 4 days. When i move my house cats I keep them indoors for 4 weeks, but she will go stir crazy stuck in a cage for 4 weeks.
So who has done this before, and how long did you keep the cat in for ?
 
She's going to need a few weeks - not in a cage, but in a safe confined area. 4 weeks is pretty standard.

She's likely to just try to go 'home' if you are too quick about it all.
 
I recently moved house and kept my cat in for 9 days. He was going stir crazy. He had settled in the house and was fine for the first few days then really starting getting fed up and antsy. I took him to be microchipped (precaution!!) and then let him out in the garden one evening when I was there. I followed him round for a few minutes then brought him in for food. I made sure I had a tub of his favourite treats and let him roam the garden and shook the tub to bring him back. He came in and out several times that evening until I thought he knew where to come back to, then let him out. He stayed gone for a coulle of hours, then came back at 10pm (intense relief!!)

We have a cat flap so he let himself out again, and came back at 4am (I heard the flap go) hes been fine ever since.
 
I've always done a minimum of 2 weeks with cats that I have "adopted". From then on it's a case of taking each day as it comes and doing the best you can to judge the cat's character (okay, so that's a very unreliable method!). When I do finally let them out, I make sure that I do it very shortly before feeding time, so the cat should (hopefully) not stray too far as he/she should, with luck, be anticipating their next dinnertime.
 
i kept my yard cats in for 4 weeks just to be sure. i got mine through cats protection and they leant me a pen for that time - bigger than a normal cat crate. do you have any connections with cats protection in your area? they may be willing to lend something of they have a spare.
just a thought.
perce
 
How interesting, I rescued 2 cats from a rescue, they told me 3 weeks to keep them in. I thought that was too long, having read this post I shall do as they said. I do live in a very rural place so thought they would be ok. Clearly they need more time. How good is this forum!!!!
 
Hey i did this when we moved are horses home!! But the cat was on deaths doors so we had to take her!! She was in are horsebox for about a week with food and water and a lovley bed!! She was only in there to make sure her illness was not goin to be past on to are other cats!! But after that she was moved into the house for for about 2/3weeks But she was that ill she did not want to go out!! The thing that makes me sad is the fact the y/o could of helped her but they never. They left her to die she had a really bad ear infection and was not able to walk so she could not feed herself etc she was in a right mess!! xx
 
Is the yard cat a rescued stray? CPL will advise that starving strays will always always always stay where the food is, and I've proved this with the cat I rescued from my last yard where no-one cared if he was starving or not. I also adpoted a young cat from the vets where his owners had left him as they couldn't afford the fees for major surgery to try to rebuild his shattered hind leg, injured in a RTA because they hadn't had him neutered. What worked for me was to carry the new cat around the immediate new area (my back garden!) in the safety of your arms, so he can have a good look round and know where the door is and shelter, fences etc. Good luck x
 
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