Cat Health Care – Making the Best of a Home Move With Your Cat

A major part of cat health care is ensuring that stressful and traumatic events are not allowed to take their toll on your pet. This means that it is important to consider the effects of certain events on the cat. Moving house is one event that cats often find particularly stressful, especially because they are such independent creatures who will be used to their own routine of going indoors and outdoors as they wish.

Remember that moving to your new home can be as stressful for your cat as it is for you! When owners are distracted and stressed, cats pick up on those signals and will feel anxious themselves. Because the moving day and the run up to it involve stress and chaos in the house it is best if the cat can go and stay in a cattery or with a familiar person who is competent at cat health care.

Once the move is complete it is time to introduce the cat to its new surroundings. In an ideal world the cat should only be taken to the new house when things are unpacked and in order. If this is not possible it’s vital to keep the cat confined to a quiet room with food, drink and litter tray as well as familiar items such as bedding and toys until the noise and movement has subsided.

Allow the cat as much time as possible to settle in, keeping familiar items close by at all times. Letting your cat outside too early is the worst cat health care mistake home movers can make. Cats need to become familiar with their new home so that they can find their way back to it. A cat that is let out too early might try and make its way back to its previous home, risking traffic and other animals along the way.

The first time the cat is let out should be after about two weeks, longer if the cat is struggling to settle. Letting the cat into the garden when he or she is due to be fed is the best way to make sure the cat won’t stray too far and get lost.