Are Siamese cats indoor cats?

Are Siamese cats indoor cats? The answer very much depends on the cat’s human caretaker. That’s obvious but it needs stating. It is a philosophical question to a certain extent. Attitudes about letting cats outside vary from country to country. We know that. And as the Siamese cat is purebred they are more valuable in a purely monetary sense and more prone to being stolen. This affects whether they are let outside to roam freely.

I was lucky enough to be able to do a mini-survey on a Facebook page where Siamese cat owners had the opportunity to express their views about letting their cats go outside. It revealed a range of options. In fact the full range of alternatives were employed by these concerned cat guardians. The results are set out below:

Thoughts and observations

The responses are useful I think. I’d like to make some observations. It doesn’t surprise me that 39 percent of respondents kept their Siamese cats indoors all the time. The owners made the point that they ensure that their cats are happy and that their cats got used to being confined to inside the home.

It is the rare cat than cannot be taught to be an indoor cat. The key is to enrich their indoor environment, to engage them in play, to cat proof the house… how do you cat proof the great outdoors, keep them away from predators, traffic, disease vectors, poisonous plants (any daylilies in the area? – Tom

The second point is that some of the respondents live with domestic cats other than Siamese cats and including Siamese cats.

An interesting finding is that 22 percent of Siamese cat owners used a leash to allow them to experience the outside safely. This is quite a high percentage. I didn’t realise that so many cat guardians used leashes and train their cats to accept it. Clearly, these people are concerned about ensuring that there cat enjoys the outside but are equally concerned about safety and therefore committed themselves to a compromise. It does take a little bit of time and patience to train a cat to accept a leash.

It is nice also to see that 16 percent had an enclosure of some sort or they recommended it. They saw an enclosure as a useful option. For limited access to the outside, what I mean is that they were allowed on to a decking area perhaps with the owner supervising.

It is also good to see strollers being used in four percent of the cases. Strollers are an option which could be used more in my opinion. I’ve got one and I have found it fun to use and it improved my cat’s life when he was confined.

My personal view is that I do not think it is viable to allow a purebred Siamese cat to roam outside freely despite the urge from the cat owner to allow their cat to be as happy as possible and fully stimulated. It is just too dangerous and in the UK there’s quite a lot of cat and dog theft. Siamese cats are very distinctive. They look like purebred cats and the casual thief will believe they can sell a purebred cat for a few hundred pounds and make quick money. I also believe that there are gangs of thieves in the UK and in other countries dealing in cats in various ways.

The presence of predators is obviously a big dictating factor as to whether a cat is kept indoors or not. This varies from country to country. The survey that I have referred to probably covers America and the UK. In America there are predators of cats but in the UK there are none except perhaps for a large fox against an elderly cat.