Cats initially liked their cat boxes... but one car journey and now they won't go near them!

[JimmyL]

Hi

I have two cozy fabric cat boxes/transporters for my two cats. We will shortly be doing a long journey involving cars and planes (around 16 hours) and the cats will be in their boxes.

I have had the transporters around the flat, making them part of the natural environment. The cats would regularly go in their boxes, even to sleep.

To acclimatize the cats to traveling, I took each of them on a short car journey in their boxes last week - they had never been in a car before. Both of them reacted better than I had expected; they seemed more curious than scared.

But now they won't go near the boxes. In fact, even when I moved one in the direction of the cat, she hid under the bed. So the 'association' has changed. Any thoughts on how I might overcome this?

Many thanks

James

 

[profcat]

I don't know if there's any way to do this. I have had cats that will jump right into a carrier, no matter how many times that has been used to take them to the vet. And I have cats that won't co anywhere NEAR a carrier ever again on their own once they have one bad experience with it. You can still leave the carriers out, but you might have to scoop them up and put them in them with a bit of a struggle.

Also I've found soft carriers to be not as secure as hard ones-- so be extra careful!

 

[ArtNJ]

Treats. Toss some in there. You might need to start with treats just outside the carrier first. But keep leaving the carriers out, and if necessary do some treat work, and you should be fine. They do forget. It can just take some time, and sometimes some extra work.

 

[Cat McCannon]

I feed Belle in her carrier at least once a day. She doesn't readily go I. the carrier if she suspects something's up. But getting her inside is less of a battle.