Moving house with indoor cat

loveisdivine

Hi,

We are going to be moving house in the next few months or so and I've done a bit of research on how best to acclimatise our cat Ripley.

Pretty much everything I've read says to keep the cat in 1 room for the first week or so and then let her explore slowly.

Problem is I just can't see this working with her. She is a very clingy cat, probably because of being deaf, she's basically our little shadow! If you get up to go anywhere she will follow you, if you go into another room and close the door she will sit on the other side until you come back.

If I put her in 1 room for a week, away from us, she's going to be very lonely and stressed.

Has anybody ever moved with a cat and not left them in 1 room for a week or more? I was thinking we could bring her up to the house before we actually move in and just spend the day there, so she can get used to it. Or will that just confuse her going back and forth?

Nody

We've moved and let them have full access from day 1 to the full apartment; of course they were stressed from the move itself (even using one moving agency to do it all in one day) and hid under our bed for the first two nights and went exploring at night. Hence in your case I'd put a toilet in your bedroom and leave the doors open and let her follow you around.

It's similar to how when we were introducing our cats for the first time one of our cats howled her lungs out after 5 min being closed in (she wanted to explore everything) while her sister only came out from the room after a week and ran back there for months afterwards as her secure spot. The one week rule is great in theory but you need to adjust it to how your cats actually behave.

pawrick

Have done this plenty of times with indoor cats and never had a problem giving them full access (except to the room with the parrots) from day one. If anything the cats loved exploring their new surroundings and finding new places to relax.

Just make sure it's cat safe before letting her loose and that she cant get out during the move.

tcif

When we moved with our two we kept them indoors for a few days (usually they'd be in/out sort of cats, depending on their mood and the weather) but we gave them free run of the house as any more confinement out of the usual run of things would only have stressed them further.

Two other things we did which I think helped a lot was fed them Royal Canin Calm before, during and after the move and we didn't bring them to our new place until we'd had a few days to at least unpack into the busiest rooms e.g. the kitchen and the living room. That way they were surrounded as much as possible with familiar sights and smells and weren't in the midst of the initial box opening chaos.

SarahMollie

I think this advice mostly applies to moving cats that are going to be let out. We took in a formerly stray cat a few months ago and kept him in for a few weeks. He slept in our kitchen/dining room and stayed there during the day while we're at work. Other than that he just came and sat with us in the living room when we were watching tv in the evenings.

The purpose of keeping him in for a while was to allow him time to forget where he was. We then introduced him to where we live after 2 weeks indoors.

He now stays out during the day while we're working and spends nights indoors.

I've moved house twice with an indoor/outdoor cat and keeping her in the house at all, never mind one room, was impossible! She broke out after three days and was walking around the garden like a boss. If you can be assured she can't escape (if she got a fright, she could run outside?) then I'd see no reason to keep her confined to one room. Let her explore! The only dangers are that she might find an exit route that you aren't familiar with at the start. I got a new cat recently and he found out that he could get under the floors, totally unbeknownst to us. That's been blocked off now! Like others say I think this advice is about introducing outdoor cats to their new homes, especially new pets.

eezipc

We have done this a few times with 4 cats. Never any problems.
The reason for limiting to just one or two rooms is because the cats can get scared and hide.
So what we did was allow access to the most common rooms (sitting room, bedroom, bathroom) for the first couple of days then gradually start opening the other rooms.
It does not seem to be as stressful as people think.