Can I leave my cat alone in the house for 48 hours? The critical part of the question is the length of time: 48 hours. There could be quite a big discussion on this topic but the bottom line answer is, no because it is too long. In my opinion, no cat caretaker/guardian should leave their cat alone in the house for 48 hours. Anyway, there are fairly easy ways to avoid it happening so a failure to take measures would be sloppy.
However, a lot of people do leave their cat, unsupervised, in the house for 48 hours. Or they might have a neighbour pop in from time to time to see how the cat is managing.
That does not mean it is a good thing to do. Some people would say that it is totally unacceptable to leave your cat alone in the house for 48 hours.
There is another element to this. The answer is slightly different for a full-time indoor cat compared to an indoor/outdoor cat.
There is a greater risk of injury for the indoor/outdoor cat which means there is a greater need for someone to be there to respond to that possibility should it come to fruition.
For full-time indoor cats there is a greater need to entertain; another reason to be there. It would be cruel, really, to leave him or her alone for 48 hours.
Another factor is how connected the cat is to the human caretaker. If the relationship is very loose such as might occur on a farm the cat will be less upset arguably if the owner disappears for 48 hours. In fact, if the cat is semi-feral it would probably be okay.
In a close bond between cat and person, the person would not countenance leaving her cat alone in the house for 48 hours. In fact, I don’t think it would cross the mind of a committed cat guardian. It comes down to a question of standards and sensitivity towards the emotional needs of a domestic cat.
A lot of people don’t care to the extent that a committed cat guardian cares. My neighbour considers herself a good cat caretaker and that she has a close relationship with her cat. She leaves her cat alone except for visits by her neighbour to provide food. Her cat is an outdoor/indoor cat. She might go away for ten days. I can’t do this. It is a question of standards and emotions.
Technically it is possible to leave your cat ‘home alone’ for 48 hours provided enough food and water is left out but it is unsatisfactory for a number of reasons as mentioned. Even leaving food out can go wrong; what if the water is spilled? In the worse case scenario your cat could be without water for 48 hours. That would not harm but it is not good. It’s all too risky.
There is a nice but slightly distressing video on a page about leaving your cat for work each day. Do you know how your cat reacts? The video shows us how one cat reacts.
My cats line up when i get ready to leave for work and look mournful and greet me coming in like I’ve been gone for a week. Mercy took to pooing in the hallway and I stopped that by simply cleaning it up and finding an extra half hour to give her extra special attention and play. Leaving a cat alone for 48 hours is sort of brutal if they are highly socialized. I lost my good cat sitter and finding someone in my rural area is hard. There is a traveling pet walker/sitter I see driving about I need to flag her down as she’s already got a client at the end of the road.
Just don’t do it folks!
Pet sitters, if you can find a trusted one to live in, are the way to go.