How Far do Cats roam?

cat wearing the latest collar

One of the joys of Pawtrack is discovering just how far your cat will travel. The grey British Short Hair (seen in the Pawtrack video, and across this site) is 2 years old. Naturally we assumed that he was going to spend the rest of his life lazing around, prodding us to feed him another pouch of meat.

How wrong we were. It turns out that his day job (sleeping, relaxing, asking for food) was just that, his day job. A rather aggressive next door neighbour cat has made the outside a no go during the day. But the minute that next door cat had been put inside (and we his owners tucked up in bed) we suddenly discovered he was travelling miles (2.313 miles to be precise, as we measured his tracking the next day!)

I was not sure whether to be terrified, or secretly quite proud. Bit of both to be honest. The whole family looks at him with a new found respect. There are many arguments for keeping cats as house cats, and there is no wrong or right answer, but in this case it was fascinating to see where he goes.

So how far do they go?

Two studies have shed some light on this: Australasian Science and Journal of Wildlife Managemen t have shed some light on the behaviour.

Cats can wander up to 18 miles a week, but that will not be in a straight line away from home. Most cats will remain within 200m of home, which is still a long way away if you want to find them.

The distance will depend a lot upon the temperament of the cat. Prey Drive, or a love of hunting, will increase the distance. Stalking their prey will dominate their thinking, and they will register little else apart from stalking. Usual routines and patterns will go out the window.

Other factors will depend upon