Summer 2002Moving House And Your Pets
How do we move our pets with minimal stress? Although most of our pets enjoy new experiences, they like their home routines to be stable, they get irritated if you even feed them later than usual, much less take away their familiar surroundings. There are a number of tips to make the move less stressful. Cats seem to take more offence at the change so we will think about them first.
Cats: We recommend keeping them indoors for some time after you move, somewhere from a week or even longer. When first letting them out, supervise them. I suggest the first times of both supervised and unsupervised time outside, that you let them out around about feeding time so they have a good reason to stay nearby as dinner should be on the way. Don’t take this as the time to change the bedding, food bowls etc, keep all this the same, so there are familiar things for the cat. If your cat tends to be a particularly nervous cat sometimes medication will help but this should not be the routine.
Dogs: They are usually more relaxed about the whole thing than cats but still the same principles apply. Try to keep some things familiar such as the bed, feeding routine etc. Make sure the fences are secure. If an indoor/outdoor dog, keep them indoors for a few days before letting them out.
Please remember to change the details on the microchip register.
If you don’t know the address of the register to send your new details to please contact us and we can supply the address. We frequently have microchipped animals come in and the owners moved house two years ago and no one knows where they are now.
A collar and tag with the new address and phone numbers are also a good idea, particularly for those first few days until registration data bases are updated. Remember that some pets remove them with great ease.
And don’t forget to enjoy the new house! |
So you’ve finally made the decision to move home. You’ve packed, the removalist is on the way, so what about the animals?