Moving Cross Country With Cats

[tinydestroyer]

My husband and I will be moving cross-country with our two cats, and our dog in about mid-October. We are hoping to all travel in the same vehicle. All my pets get along great, especially the two kitties, who are BFFs. My dog has moved and traveled with us extensively, and is great in the car. We have never driven for a long road trip with our cats before, though. It's about a 36 hour drive, so we will be going over multiple days and stopping at least a couple of nights in a hotel.

I have read the following articles:
How To Move With Your Cat To A New Home In A Safe Way
36 Awesome Tips For Road Tripping With Your Cat

But I'd love any tips that the rest of you with any experience or ideas might have!
For example: has anyone successfully trained their cats to use bunny bottles for drinking? How long does that take?


Do any of you have any good tips for which kind of carrier / crate I should use? I will need one that is large enough to give them some space, but that also gives us some room for the dog and a few necessities in the car. I'm looking at either getting an expandible soft one, or a medium sized dog crate for both of them. Any ideas or suggestions?

Do you think it would actually be better to put them in seperate carriers? (I currently use the large sherpa collapsible carrier.)

Do you think the cats should be harness trained, even if I don't plan on ever letting them out of the crate until the hotel stop? Do you think there is a benefit to doing this?

Does anyone have any great tips for the move itself? We will likely be using the UBOX pods, and gradually filling them up ourselves at our current house, then having them shipped for us to the new location. Do we really need to keep the cats in one part of the house during the entire, gradual move, or only towards the end?

Does anyone have any experience with calming OTC or RX options that I could discuss with my vet? I haven't had the need to drug them so far, but I wouldn't want them to be totally miserable or risk their safety. Alternatively, if you know of any products or drugs that are dangerous, or do NOT work, I'd love to know.


Thanks for all your help!

 

[jen]

Absolutely separate carriers. Even if they are the best of friends they could get spooked and redirect their aggression to each other. I moved from Ohio to California by cat last November with 3 cats. 1 LOVES car rides and other people, places, animals, and is harness trained. Personally I think it is a little late to worry about that with your cats now as something to rely on for the trip. They will feel safer in some type of enclosure anyways and not in the great wide open. My other 2 cats hate to travel and hate each other, one even wasn't too fond of me. It took us 4 days and 3 motel stays. I used one large dog cage, and 2 small carriers and rotated them, well the 2 scardy cats, the 3rd I could do whatever with. They were also given Gabapentin. It worked WONDERFULLY. I did a trial run at home first to see how much they needed and make sure I wasn't giving too much and also to make sure it didn't have other unpleasant affects on them.

The whole ride went suprisingly smoothly. It was a great trip and experience. I hope yours goes as well!!

 

[tinydestroyer]

Thanks for the advice! I had to give my cats gabepentin right before their spay/ neuter, so I know they do ok on it (at least no side effects.) But I'm not sure how calm it makes them, since I didn't observe them very much that day until after they'd been under an aesthetic. I'll talk to my vet about trying that.

 

[jen]

It is different for all cats so discuss it with your vet. Mine were amazing. My one cat was a feral kitten and I had her for years before I could even touch her. I put her to sleep about 3 weeks ago and to that day I held her probably under 10 times in her life. She just was a cat who did things on her terms. She would get so very aggressive when she left the house, she hated women, she hated being restrained, cages, etc. On Gabapentin, she purred the whole way with her roomate of 15 years next to her for some of the trip.

Another thing if you do get a large dog crate, cover it with a blanket so the cat can only see out the front and isn't overwhelmed.

 

[rubysmama]

Here's a few threads that might have some tips for you:

14 Hour Road Trip With Two Large Orange Tabbies
Moving Cross Country
Summer Road Trip!!!

Good luck.

 

[tinydestroyer]

Here's a few threads that might have some tips for you:

14 Hour Road Trip With Two Large Orange Tabbies
Moving Cross Country
Summer Road Trip!!!

Good luck.

Thanks! Those threads were super helpful.

 

[tinydestroyer]

It is different for all cats so discuss it with your vet. Mine were amazing. My one cat was a feral kitten and I had her for years before I could even touch her. I put her to sleep about 3 weeks ago and to that day I held her probably under 10 times in her life. She just was a cat who did things on her terms. She would get so very aggressive when she left the house, she hated women, she hated being restrained, cages, etc. On Gabapentin, she purred the whole way with her roomate of 15 years next to her for some of the trip.

Another thing if you do get a large dog crate, cover it with a blanket so the cat can only see out the front and isn't overwhelmed.

I'm sorry for the loss of your kitty. She sounds like one special feline! I'll talk to my vet about the gabepentin. Good tip about the blanket, too. I need to take some vehicle measurements and see what's the best way to fit everyone comfortably.