Relocating with a cat(Moving tips?)

[Jpgirl]

We drove from Ohio to Texas with 1 dog and 3 cats. My car was the animal car. We used a dog crate and put it in the back of my Jeep -we bought a travel litter box-it's smaller and has a hood with a charcoal filter. We tranquilized the cats. We stopped overnight in a pet friendly hotel and kept the cats in the bathroom. I suggest that when you get to your new house figure out where the litter box will go-set it up and shut the cats in that room with the litter box and food and water. Ours was the laundry room so it was pretty easy. The pheromone thing is a good idea too. Good luck-it wasn't as tough as I thought it was going to be.

 

[hopemax]

Okay, that was just the cross country move. At that time, my parents were living in a 600 square foot one bedroom apartment. A big change for the kitty after living in a 3000+ sq ft. house. She seemed to adjust to that fine, although she hid in the closet the first week. But she became this thing that needed to be petted a lot, she was never a lap cat, but she started sitting right next to you on the couch, or in your lap if you were in the recliner.

This August, my parents finally bought a house, and so the kitty went through move #2. We moved everything into the house, until we moved the cat. When we moved her, she did fine in the car, although she was a little more talkative. We did the walk through of the house a couple times with her.

The problem was, I think the house was so big for her, that she forgot where her litter box was, and started using the dining room as one. So to break her of that, my parents set up multiple boxes, and when they weren't home she was confined to their master bedroom suite. It's been 4 months now, and she has been retrained to use only her litter box.

She's also gone back to her loner ways, won't sit by you, doesn't want to be held. After the first couple of days, it was fun to watch her, because she would run from the corner of the living room, through the dining room, through the family room, turn the corner to the master bedroom and then around the bedroom, and then reverse the trip. So I think that when she was living in the tiny apartment, she was depressed. She needed reassurance, and now that she had her freedom back, she was NOT giving it up.

Although, just this week, my Dad has mentioned that she will jump up on the couch now, and he thinks she's realized that she's not going anywhere now.

 

[Imzadi]

Even if you think you won't be using tranqs get some anyways, from a trusted vet, ahead of time. You do not want to be looking for a vet in an unknown town.

When I moved, my kitty was too small to take on a plane, so we had to go by car. The first day, she cried & yowled the whole 10-1/2 hour drive. The second day she yowled for another 5 hours before I finally pulled off to a quiet service road.

I just about had it with her with the noise. I really didn't think she would yowl for that long. I could not take it for another few days. On the shoulder of the service road, I let her out of the carrier, and let her roam around inside the car, thinking, if she got used to her surroundings, before putting her back in, it would calm her down.

No dice, as soon as she was put back in the carrier, she started yowling again. It got so bad, I alternated between dropping her off at the pound, (knowing I'd regret it once the trip was over with.) Stopping at an unknown vet for drugs, but fearing it may hurt the cat, (because I truly loved her dearly.)

But one other idea came to me. I let her back out again. While she was sitting up on the dashboard, I slowly pulled forward, on the empty service road, at about 5 miles an hour. She simply looked around like she was watching tv! I drove a little faster, until she got used to that. Finally we were back on the open freeway at full speed. She just hunkered down & watched out the window without a sound!!! Whew!

When she finally got bored with that, she came over and crawled up into a ball in my lap & slept most of the rest of trip like that. I had her kitty litter box out, in case she needed it. And put out water for her.

 

[GeorgeG]

I think it really varies from cat to cat. We moved to Florida from New York 15 months ago and drove down with two cats. The vet gave us tranquilizers and instructions. The cats did not travel well.

The first day they were really freaked out. They are brothers ad usually cuddle together, but they had to be separated and hissed at each other the whole way. The second day we cut the meds in half and they seemed better, but still not good. We had planned on taking a third day, but decided to drive through and get the cats off the road for good. It took several days for them to show signs of relaxing.

I think it was a huge case of them not liking change. They had already watched us packing for a month and they don't even like it when we re-arrange furniture, let alone seeing it all disappear. Once in the new house they took about a week to start really checking it out. They holed up in a walk-in closet on some familiar blankets only coming out to eat a little and use the litter box.

We found most, if not all, Holiday Inns accept pets in a limited number of rooms. Call ahead to make sure they have one available.

Good luck and welcome to Florida!

 

[zumbergc]

If your going to use the feliway. Its similiar to cat fermones.
Make sure to try this before your in the car. Some cats will get relaxed with the spray, but some cats will get mean and more angry. YOu want to make sure your cat mellows and doesn't get meaner.
My one cat gets calmed by the spray at the vet.

Same thing is true about the tranquilizers. Some cats will knock out easy, some won't. Its a crap shoot.

I highly advise using a pet carrier.
If you want a litter box in the car. Somethings small like shoe box works in the car. Just put a plastic grocery bag in the box as a liner, add litter.
Easy to dispose of, just lift out the plastic bag and toss away.
If its an over night trip, getting an inexpensive kitten size litter box would work for in the car and in the hotel.

We have 2 cats. When I just had one cat. I would let the cat out of the cage. Siamese cats like to howl, and boy mine howl in the car. I had a cage, but he howled for quit some time, so I tried letting him out.
When i had one, he would howl the first 30-60 minutes, then crawl under my seat and sleep. (Recommend a litter box in the car if your are going to let them roam.) Just as I was pulling into my apartment complex in college, cat peed on passenger seat, and it rolled into the back on the floor. Simple solution, great for getting cat pee smell out of cars, clothing, and cleaning cage if there was an accident. Poblem solved w/ the shoe box cat litter box.

This trick no longer worked when I had 2 cats. When dominant cat would stop howling, other cat would start howling and wake up the other cat. Then more howling. At christmas, 3 hours of non stop howling.
Make sure to put the cats in the cat box before leaving.
When we left our parents house, my hubby neglected to do this.
Cat was going crazy in the first couple minutes of the trip, like super excited, howling. We stopped at a gas station, he had already peed, pulled out the wet blanket.
Bring extra grocery bags, and trash bags for things that may get need to get cleaned. We let him out to see if he had to go more in our imprompt to box.
The thing w/ my cats is now if I let them out at all, they act extremely horrible when they get put back in the cage, attempting to act up to get back out. In retrospect the trip the way to my parents went much better than the way home. The way there we had low volume constant howling, way home, excited louder disgruntled cat howling for 3 hours. It was a long trip.



In the cage, if its not big enough for a litter box, put newspaper to absorb little accidents, or a nice blanket, towel for something soft for them to sleep on.

If your cats like outside, and you feel its safe, make sure to put a harness on the cat, under the front legs, and around the neck. Just around the neck collar, cat can easily slip out and wouldn't want you to loose the cat.

I agree w/ the other posters, in your new home. Keep them in 1 room of the house w/ their food, litter and water whne your moving in . Bathrooms are great locations, and I always put a sign up if its more than just me and hubby moving, so that the cats do not get let out, and sneak out of the house.

Its a crap shoot figuring out first time cat trips.
Some people get really lucky and the cat curls up next to them and sleeps the whole way in the car.

 

[honeymom]

Have made 4 major moves with cats:

Move 1 - Flew with them in cargo on tranquilizers. It went fine.
Move 2 - Drove 8 hours with cats in car with a friend of mine. The cats were tranquilized, but one cat was upset still. My friend let him out of crate and held him. Then, after a little bit, the cat jumped off his lap, and climbed into the hole where the gas pedal went into the motor. Needless to say, we had to pull off the road and pull him out before he got into the engine.
Move 3 - Flew with one cat, cross country in the cabin with us. He was on tranquilizers and meowed his head off the whole way.
Move 4 - Different cat. We were moving cross country and spending 2 1/2 driving. We boarded him with our vet and then had a pet moving service, I think it was Jetapet out of Westport, CT pick him up. They took him to the airport and got him on the plane. He flew (no tranquilizers - the airlines don't want you to tranquilize anymore) and I picked him up at the airport. He was none the worse for the trip and I think a lot better off then he would have been in the car for 2 1/2 weeks. But it did cost $1000 to fly him and about another $500 for the boarding.

 

[Disneyaunt4]

As I stated this board has the best people!! Thank you for making me feel a little less stressed about the situation. I was also not sure about the meds and was looking at PetSmart at a natural spray you are supposed to spray in the carrier 5 min before the cat.Anyone heard or use something like that?

We used that spray when we moved with are cats to Florida and back a few years ago.It doesn't knock them out it just calms them. We had a big soft sided dog crate that we put them in and if they got to upset we would just give them a little spritz. They actually did very well and didn't even need to be calmed often.I would get the spray to have just in case.Good luck with your move.

 

[PLUTO2]

Thank you everyone for all the great suggestions!!