How to Travel with your Cat (or Pet)
Thanksgiving is here and so is all the holiday season travel that accompanies it. Many of us with furry roommates and family will be looking to prepare for the inevitable trip to go see parents or close family. With that being said, some of our pets will make it all too easy and others will make it the most stressful and challenging ordeal of our lives. So we’ve put together a few pointers on safe travel with pets, with a slight focus on cats. Though some of these points will work for dogs too!
Always be Training
It kind of sounds weird, but it’s very true. The more we work with our pets to train positive behaviors, the easier they’ll understand that we’re trying to work with them and not against them. This is especially true for travel with cats. Cats are both admirably and notoriously independent. That’s not to say that they don’t like us, they simply approach the world with all four paws on the ground and attentive eyes.
When we travel, they’re taken out of their familiar environment and exposed to a lot of loud sounds and big open spaces. It helps to lighten the stress by training with them frequently to have them come to you when called, be ok with gentle (and for some cats, sporadic) handling, and to encourage them to be curious in what’s beyond the door. While it’s not a fix all, it should help lessen the nasty behaviors of resistance when trying to cage them. It’s key to be disciplined about training though, if your kitty learns that treat training has loopholes they’ll exploit them and ignore the lessons.
Here’s a great example: Sean and Cara do treat training frequently. Sean calls for Cara, and when she comes to him, she gets a treat. Once she understood being called means receiving a treat, he started to call her randomly, especially around the time when he leaves and rewards her for coming. As she understands more, treats are rewarded randomly, so she learns that coming when called is the important part and not just getting a treat. Cara still dislikes her car carrier, but because she comes out of hiding when called it’s not very stressful to get her in it.
Choose a carrier that works for both of you
Cats are generally small and very mobile. Almost every veterinarian will tell you they should always be transported outside the home in a carrier. And in today’s day and age, there are tons of carriers to choose from. Carriers come in soft, hard, stroller, and bag forms now. For cats, the appropriate size carrier may be the less spacious one. It also may have less windows to prevent too much of the outside world from overwhelming them. For us humans, we’re charged with the task of safely transporting them, so their carrier may need a shoulder strap or extra secure handle. Choose a carrier that works for your cat, but also you. Hard sided carriers are the best for cars, and soft sided carriers are great for mobility and plane travel. Rarely will you need a stroller or bag carrier in the car or on a plane. While a carrier should have plenty of ventilation, be cautious of too much freedom of vision. The carrier is like a den or hiding spot for your cat and provides security to them. A slightly closed off carrier may be the most comfortable.
Cara in her travel carrier. She prefers a soft carrier with some visibility.
Use a seatbelt!
The important bit to keep in mind is the physics of where you are. When we ride in cars, the most common way to be injured is from an accident. This is especially true of cats. Most accidents occur at low speeds and close to home, but even those can be traumatic for our pets. When a car is in motion, and suddenly stops or loses speed rapidly, the inertia of things inside will still move. This is why when you slam the breaks, you jolt forward in your seat. This happens to our pets too. So it’s important to have a carrier that we can strap in with a seat belt, else we risk our furry friends becoming clawed projectiles in the unfortunate event of an accident. This type of movement is the most common way pets are injured in cars, with broken bones and bruises. It even affects dogs and is a reason to keep your pooch on a leash and secured to a seat.
Remember the food!
This is true of almost any pet. Especially when visiting family that have pets, it’s tempting to make it easy on ourselves and trust our cats (or dogs) will like the food when we get there. While this may be easy, it’s sometimes not so easy on their stomachs and can be extra stress. Similar food provides familiarity, and while new food may be tempting, and bringing their favorites can help ease the stress of travel. Not to mention, some of our pets have picky stomachs, so a little bit less flatulence on the return trip is much appreciated.
Plenty of treats
Even the most outgoing of pets will enjoy this one. Don’t be stingy with treats when traveling. Try to reward positive behaviors more than just giving treats but being generous will help take the stress off. And for our pets who are bit shyer, there’s nothing like a tasty snack to coax them out into the open, even if it’s only to say hi, find the litter box and food, and go right back to hiding.
Some pets are shyer than others. Cara doesn’t take much coercing to explore new places.
So there you have it, some travel tips for our furry friends. Cara highly approves of the last one and would like to say a few extra stomach rubs are always in order around the holidays. From all of us here at the HoneyCure Team, we’re grateful for our customers and supporters as we make it through a stressful year. Thank you for sticking with us and all the support. We’re excited to grow and introduce more HoneyCure in the months to come.