Traveling with cats (Felines)

[Bob R]

We are getting ready to move our residence from WA state to NV for the duration of existence and will be towing the 5th wheel down there of course. We also have 3 cats that need to travel with us. Has anyone traveled with cats and do you have any suggestions?

I plan on having them in the truck with me. Hopefully they will just find a place to lay down and sleep, as our cats in the past have done.

I am not really looking forward to doing this but it has to be done.

When taken on short trips to the vet, etc they do fine in carriers and I may just leave them in the carriers while we drive and let them have the garage at night.

bob

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by Bob R

We are getting ready to move our residence from WA state to NV for the duration of existence and will be towing the 5th wheel down there of course. We also have 3 cats that need to travel with us. Has anyone traveled with cats and do you have any suggestions?

I plan on having them in the truck with me. Hopefully they will just find a place to lay down and sleep, as our cats in the past have done.

I am not really looking forward to doing this but it has to be done.

When taken on short trips to the vet, etc they do fine in carriers and I may just leave them in the carriers while we drive and let them have the garage at night.

bob

I think any animal will pretty much acclimate to their surroundings given time. With our dogs, we start out the season by taking them for short rides to get them used to the movement, getting in and out of the truck, and exposing them to the noise.

Progress to longer and longer rides and keep the routine consistent, i.e. we get out, tell him to stay, open back door grab leash, tell him to come, give him water, and take him for a short walk. Back to the truck with a command of "up and in" and a small reward. It's important to use the same words and inflection in the voice.

I know cats are less responsive to following commands but they are trainable.

[cliff]

We have a cat, two birds, and a dog. The cat and birds travel in the fiver, the dog in the truck. We have a place next to the window for the cat to look. He's happy there and travels well. Check the bed slide. If there is a big hole when it's in then get some aluminum sheet and mount it to cover the hole and allow the bed to slide. Before we did that it took three days to get him out from under the bed.

[CWtheMan]

I'd recommend taking cats for a ride in the vehicle they are going to ride in. We have always traveled with cats and they are seldom a problem. However, we did have one cat that got motion sick every time we moved. We found a Vet and got him some tranquillizers. About 15 minutes after a tranquillizer tablet we could load him into the truck and he would go into a deep sleep for about 6 hours. He never showed any side effects from the tranquillizers.

[chunker]

Years ago had a dog that got car sick and the solution was lemon juice before starting a trip. Little squirt lemon type. If trying that with a cat I'd suggest heavy gloves. Years ago I moved across country with my 2 cats in an extended cab pickup. I set the "back seat" up for them, with beds, litter box, food, etc. After a couple hours I let them out of the carrier they they proceeded to panickingly explore every crevice of the truck. On my head, between feet, under and over everything. Took a few hours for them to settle in. Fortunately gas tank was full so I didn't have to worry about stopping. When I did finally stop I scooted them back in the carrier.

The first few hours as I said were hectic but after that we did fine.

[FlyingAroundRV]

The safe and responsible way to travel with animals is either in carriers / cages, or in the back of a station wagon type vehicle where the back is meshed off from the passenger compartment.
You'll probably find in a lot of states that the law requires animals to be restrained from freely roaming the vehicle near the driver while underway.
If the cats will travel happily in carriers, that's the way I would do it.

[notanlines]

Scott, "On my head, between feet, under and over everything. Took a few hours for them to settle in" that was my exact thought. I see this as a fairly unsettling situation. They could 'settle in' in their kennel. Period!
On edit: So as not to 'set off' the feline members, I only meant that THESE cats should be kenneled because of what was said. I didn't mean to infer that ALL cats should be kenneled.
Well behaved pets deserve privilege!

[Brent M]

Travels great, sleeps in his bed.

[chuckster57]

In 2009 our Siamese cat “Harry” sat on the ice chest in the back seat of the truck and got to see America on our cross country tour. Current flame point Siamese “Max” sits on the bench seat leaning on me for comfort. He is only in a carrier when moved from truck to trailer and back.