moving house with a cat

[diane1]

We are moving house in a week and we are wondering if anyone has any good ideas to help our cat settle in and not wander off to try and find our old house. We have been told that we should keep him in for 3days and 3nights and this will be him settled, this may prove a challenge as we also have 2 dogs,2 children and here in Scotland the summer holidays begin on Thursday! Any ideas?

[FredPuli]

The advice is correct. However all it means is that you should get the cat to accept that the new home is now his and to treat it as his territory. Once he has prowled round it a few times and slept there he will do that You can help by ensuring that the basics he associates with his home are the same viz whatever bedding he has or whatever cloth he lies on should be there (and still smelling the same) as should his feed bowl etc.He is unlikely to seek your old place once he understands that you and food ( above all), sleep and a territory to prowl are now all there in the new.The cat needs a good reason to leave;( I did once, though, have a cat who went back to give birth to her kittens in the old house within 48 hours; she'd had all her past ones there so that, exceptionally, was reason enough : instinctively seeking known safety)

[shybearuk]

And of course, there's always the tried and tested 'butter-on-the-paws'. It may be a bit of an old wives' tale, but it worked with my cat :o)

[comloulou]

My cat was disgusted by the butter on her paws and spend an evening cleaning and decontaminating. She knows where the food and the stroking comes from so she never strayed far. We've moved twice in 2 years and shes never disappeared. we kept her locked in one room with her tray and bowl and her toys while the major furniture and people were being shifted about. It kept her calm and didnt give her the chance to run off before we were ready to deal with settling her in! Good luck!

[andy hughes]

The first couple of times your cat goes out from the new house is the worry, so here's a little routine you might like to try. Feed your cat at a regular time, and just before you put the bowl down, tap on it with a spoon a couple of times, and call the cat's name. After a few days of this, let your cat out just before meal time, so he will be hungry, and then stand at the door and tap the bowl and say his name - he will associate the return to the house with food, and this will encurage him back if he's wandered off. A couple of times, and he should be secure enough to come back of his own accord when ever he goes out.

[Toglet]

My dad was in the forces, so we moved house every couple of years and always took our dogs and cats with us. Best thing is to keep the cat confined to one roomwith a dirt-tray for a week, then let into the rest of the house for the next week. Then when you finally let him out, do it just before his mealtime so he comes back when he's called. It always worked with ours.