Any tips for moving house with a cat.

[Nic083]

As title says we are after some tips for moving house with a cat.
We've bought her a new bowl, a new bed & new scratching post for her to use now so she's already used to it.
She's more of a house cat when she does go out she only sits in our garden.
Our new house is on a quiet estate & opposite an old people's home so not alot of traffic. I just don't want her to go to the new house & start marking/spraying. any tips would be much appreciated.

We took cat and dog to my parents when we moved and picked them up once we had moved into the new place. I believe the advice with cats is to keep them in for a few days. She might prefer familiar things rather than everything brand new to help her feel at home.

You should try to keep a cat in for 2 weeks when you move.

Have a look on cats protection website, there is lots of advice on there.

We only moved a few streets away so walked our late cat round, she was very clever and knew that where we were was her home so she wasn't an issue. I did give her fresh fish for a few days...so she knew where the good stuff was.

How far are you going? We moved within a couple of miles so I booked the cats into a cattery for the day. We dropped them off at 7, dc into breakfast club at 7:45 and then moved house :-)

Thanks so much for the advice. We are moving less than 5 miles away from where we are now. Fingers crossed in a few wks.

I'd also say - get them before the lorry turns up. For some reason as soon as it does they get wind of something happening and disappear, and may not come back until after you've moved. We did lose a cat that way once.

Put them into a cattery for a few days over moving time, and bring them to the new place once everything's unpacked and in place. They'll get freaked out if you're moving furniture around still. And then keep them in for the first couple of weeks as pp have said.

You can spray her bed and travel basket with Feliway for a few days prior to moving. If you are having packers in then put her in a cattery during the pack and actual move and then bring her back to the new house. Keep her in for a few days and then let her potter in the garden with you whilst she gets used to the new place - let her out when she's hungry and feed her when she comes back in.

Feliway plug-ins throughout the new house will help her feel secure. Start off with her having access to only one room. Once she has had chance to get familiar with that room (overnight), open the door and let her explore the rest of the house. Don't let her out for at least two weeks.

I think the cattery idea is a bad one unless they're used to going to one. Move your furniture from one room and leave the car in it until you're packed up ready to go - with food, litter tray and water available. Then when you get to the other end try and put them in a room with the same stuff until you're all in and then let them get used to the place. And keep them inside. My cat is usually gagging to get out within about a week and I've accompanied her outside but she's not much of a wanderer anyway.

I wouldn't have bought new everything for my cat. My cat spent a lot of time crying until I found her blanket and as soon as she saw it she lay down and stopped crying.

At least you're only going a few miles - we had a 2 day drive with a cat that hates her travel basket. I'd never seen a cat go 12 hours straight without sleeping before!

We out ours in a cattery. They were used to going there. That meant we weren't trying to stop them escaping and they didn't have to worry about noise.
Confine them to a single room to start with and be very careful not to let them escape.
Remember to update chip details.

We moved ours round early on & shut her in the smallest bedroom with her stuff. We locked that door so that the movers couldn't accidentally open it. Unfortunately she got cross & tried to tunnel out, lifted the carpet by the door, blocking us out and her in. It took us ages to open the door (using a metal ruler in the end to get the carpet down!). She was furious with us for a good few days afterwards - Feliway helped calm her. Kept her in for 3 weeks then took her for supervised walks round the garden for another week, then let her get on with it on her own.

I used a crate for ours, one each. Litter tray one end, bed in the centre, food at the other end. We were moving gradually so once we got to the stage of staying overnight in the new house we took them there and crated them and left them with a radio for the day while we went back to load a van at the old house.
If you do it before you move they get used to it (and sometimes like to continue using it afterwards) and it will keep them safe.
I don't let mine out to roam have an enclosure in the garden so no fear of losing them, but I did get some collars you can put a message on, plus tags with phone.no's and one collar that has 'I am microchipped' on it in case of accidental escape because although one was fine with the old garden she would be lost here straight away.