Moving House with 3 Cats

[Nemesia]

We are moving house in a few weeks, new house is about a mile away from present house. Can't get my head around the logistics of it all. Do we move cats before all our possessions and risk them escaping while the movers do their stuff? Or wait til all our stuff is moved first?
Also, the cats don't really get on with each other so it makes it more difficult to keep them all in the same room.
Any advice most welcome.

The best thing to do is put their belongings, toys, beds, blankets, food, water, litter into a spare room in your current home, a week before moving and let them go in and out of it. The night before you move keep them in that room, lock it if you can on the moving day, so removal co don't go in there, or publisher sign on door not to enter cos of cats. Move the cats to the new place last, so they aren't waiting in the car. If you have travel boxes for them, could you put the least friendly one (meant in the nicest possible way), in one of the boxes whilst they're in the room during the moving day, and don't leave him/her in there the night before?

In your new place keep them confined to one room with all their things again, for a few days, so that they acclimatise. They might be ready to come out of the room sooner, so play it by ear. Don't let them outside for a few weeks. Some people let them out sooner, again see how they are, but don't let them out too soon.

Hope that helps. Good luck.

Mine go into the cattery a couple of days before the move, and are collected when we are vaguely sorted.

Great advice to confine to one room while you are packing up. And then in the new home if you have a spare room there start them off in that for a few days and make sure you don't let them out for three weeks at least. You will have to be very careful about that and make sure there are no open windows in rooms they have access to.

I cage them separately when the movers are coming and going rather than risk an accidental opening of door.. Release then to use litter trays etc in old home before re-crating. On arrival I keep them keep crated in a shut room whilst movers do their thing. Then release to explore new home once they've gone - I don't confine to one room at all. My cats moved house five times in six years though so probably used to it.

Thank you so much for the advice. They don't actually have 'possessions' like toys and beds (or even a litter tray) as they just sleep where they want and are not interested in toys! I will however need litter trays for the new house for when we keep them in.

Wellwhoknew, i think that i will also let them explore the new house as they will just fight if i confine them all to one room for any length of time!

Cattery.

No stress for you then.

Cattery for the days either side.

You know, i never even considered a cattery as I've never used one before! Definitely one to consider. We aren't moving g far away which is good and bad i guess as if they escape on moving day it is easier enough to get them back, but it also might mean they can make their way 'home' once we do move.

We crated our two up and took them to the new house first, then set them up in a room the movers wouldn't need to go into with trays, food etc for a few hours until everything was in. Lots of yowling when they could hear us moving around (they are very vocal) but we popped in a few times to reassure them.

Like Wellwhoknew as soon as the movers were done we let them out to explore. I think having some familiar furniture in place helped them realise this is home now. The sooner they can start rubbing their faces on things to scent mark the better!

Their move before that was Dubai-UK so they weren't overly phased by the last one!

Might sound a bit hippyish/weird but for the big move, we got some animal-specific flower remedies from a company called Creature Comforters to go in their food. Hard to tell if it made a big difference but they did seem to settle quite quickly.

Cattery. Less stress all round.