Moving house with our 2 cats help.

[lollilou]

Hi, we are moving house in a weeks time and I would love some advice on the best way to help our cats during and after the move. The journey to our new house is only 5 min by car.
Our cats are brother and sister age 3 and used to roaming around outside. They will have a garden at the new place.

I would suggest you book them into a cattery for the day of the move - if not they will get distressed (and possibly end up in a packing box!) with all the too-ing and fro-ing. When you get them to their new home, make a safe place for them where you set up their food, beds and litter tray - if possible confine them to this area for a couple of days. You will need to keep them in for a period of time - other posters may have better suggestions as to how long this should be; we've only ever moved some distance with cats, so not such a great danger of them trying to find their way back to the old house.

It may be an idea to alert your buyers that the kitties may come visiting!

I agree with Garry, put them in a local cattery even if it's for just one day/night. At least they won't be there when the 'old' house is packed up and the new one moved into. Then collect them and keep them in as long as possible. I have only ever moved with the cats at least 70 miles away, so little chance of them going back.

I couldn't keep one of mine in for 2 weeks so it was more like 5 days when I let him escape out. But it was all ok, even though it was the longest hour of my life, little horror,

When I moved I cleared out 1 room first in the old house and put her in there while all the packing was going on with her bed, food etc and then put her in 1 room in the new house while we were unpacking.. She was fine, we opened the door once everything had calmed down and she was able to explore in her own time :)

Thanks for your replies. I like your idea rainbow. I'm a bit unsure about a cattery as our nearest one is 10 miles away and they hate the car, also our black boy really doesn't like strangers and I think he'd be a bit tramatised by it. Not looking forward to doing the litter tray again though.

Hi there. Good luck with your move. We moved our two cats a 15 min drive. I drove them down before the movers arrived and shut them in a small bedroom on the top floor with feliway, food, water, litter, and a familiar blanket. They stayed there for a week while we sorted the house. We would go and make a fuss of them as much as possible. Then we let them explore the house but go back to the safe place to sleep. Then they had the whole house for three weeks but not going out (takes skill to keep a very determined pair inside!). Finally we let them in the garden - best to do that when they're hungry - for 10 mins and called them back with a treat (tuna). We progressed to longer visits outside, then all day outside but in at night, until after about two weeks we just let them come/go as they please! The key is to not think you're being mean confining them to a small space; they really need the security at first, progressing only when they're ready they escape Hope it all goes well!

i've done the same as rainbow and jaffa before, and the cats have settled fine. i made sure they were shut in "their room" before everyone descended to help with the move so they didnt get freaked out/lost. feliway seemed to help our nervous boy, as did regularly checking them and making a huge fuss and feeding plenty of tuna