You’re going away on a long weekend trip, but you can’t bring your kitties with you. Maybe you don’t have a close friend or relative to stop by and check on them. Should your cats be left alone for the weekend?
Here’s the thing… We did this. A lot. Whenever we went out of town for a short weekend, we’d pour a bunch of kibble in a bunch of bowls, fill up a few extra water dishes and head out the door. I’m sad to say that we didn’t even think about asking someone to stop by and check on the babies. Fast forward to today and we would never think about leaving them alone. Why? Because once you know better, you do better.
Reasons Why Cats Shouldn’t Be Left Alone For Long Periods Of Time
- The only somewhat sustainable food that you can leave out for long periods of time is kibble. This is because it is packed with preservatives and overly processed. Kibble is not a species appropriate food, and we don’t recommend feeding this to your cats unless there is no other choice. In addition, we humans think that providing a ton of food will last them a whole weekend, but most cats end up stress eating when you leave them alone. This usually results in a scarf and barf type situation, which isn’t healthy for your kitties. They often end up eating all the food quickly, leaving them nothing to eat until you get home.
- Your poor babies will have to use dirty litter boxes. Cats can’t scoop their own litter, and litter should be scooped at least once a day, so leaving them to fend for themselves requires them to reuse their boxes when dirty. Cats don’t like using dirty litter boxes and this may just result in you cleaning up some elimination from the floor when you get home.
- They could get sick or injured while you’re away. If something happens to your kitty and she becomes sick, gets into something poisonous, get stuck somewhere, or hurts herself she’ll be waiting (or possibly dying) in pain until you get home. We hear too many stories of people coming home from a trip to devastating discoveries. Just don’t chance this.
Confession:
The last time we left our cats alone for a weekend trip we came home to find that we’d accidentally locked one of our kitties in the closet. He was in there with no food or water for a whole day and a half! We felt like the worst cat parents on the planet and vowed to never do this again.
If you don’t have friends or family to stop in, scoop the litter and feed your kitties while you’re away, hire a pet sitter. We are lucky to have someone stay with our cats, but even if the sitter just stops by once or twice per day you will be able to vacation with more peace of mind. 🙂
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