To the cat owners out there --- advice?

Ah, she'll stay put if you put the carrier on top of car. THe wind will hold Cleo in place.
 
sequoias said:
Not the best idea to take the cats on short trips because of the heat down there in Australia and it's summer there. You should never leave pets in the car. If going on a one way trip and take the kitten to a home, that's fine.
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And they check and see if the cat will have to be quarantine . When a niece of mine moved to Hawaii her cat had to be quarantine for a few months. I wanted to go Mexico but I could no bring my dog as he would had to been quarantine longer than I planned on staying there.
 
I guess we were lucky. We moved from Central Florida to South Florida and had 2 cats in the car. It was a 4 hour drive and at the time, there were no cat carriers. Luckily, both cats loved riding in the car. They slept on a pillow on the back-seat floor. We stopped at a service plaza on the turnpike and they had some food and water and used the litter box. These were cats who did not play at all. They hated any playtime at all.
 
Indeed you were lucky :)
I had two cats once.
One of them was just like yours - liked car travels, except he tend to have a motion sickness so if ate too close to the trip he vomited in the car,
so we could feed him only about no later than 10 hrs before the trip.
Then lots of water.
But in the car he would lay down quietly.
he loved to be taken for camping, picnicking and the likes - never ever strayed away. always came when called away, jumping out of the bushes sooner or later :)
Smart as a whip :)

The other cat though, he was either scared of movement or of the engine
and crawled all over entire car like crazy.
There was the constant danger of him either blocking the driver's view,
or sliding under the gas or brake's pedals.
Not to mention him squirming in the lap without a moment's break
and meowing every little while
was quite annoying, too.
This little piggy stayed home :)

Fuzzy
 
my two cats was fine, when we took them on short car trips, only meowed out of curiousity -- so this is a good sign, they are fine with car trips :)
 
JClarke said:
my two cats was fine, when we took them on short car trips, only meowed out of curiousity -- so this is a good sign, they are fine with car trips :)
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So you ended up getting two cats instead of one? That's great! I think a cat's favorite cat toy is another cat. ;)

I wish you many years of happy cat companionship. :)
 
if interested to teach a cat to accept a leash, though, it will take time to do it, though a kitten would acclimate faster.
Pair up the use of the leash with tasty - meaty, not kibble - treats and gradually increase initial leash use so that the cat learns to associate leash= good stuff. Then you can reduce or eliminate the treats.
 
dogmom said:
if interested to teach a cat to accept a leash, though, it will take time to do it, though a kitten would acclimate faster.
Pair up the use of the leash with tasty - meaty, not kibble - treats and gradually increase initial leash use so that the cat learns to associate leash= good stuff. Then you can reduce or eliminate the treats.
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My cats hates the leash - so won't need to use it, as they are indoor cats, if I need to transport them or take them to the vet, I will use the carrier.
 
The carrier .. the trick is to leave it out WEEKS before you need to use it. Put a comfy blanket in it. Put cat toys in it. Put catnip in it. Make it feel like a cat-home. Then when you need to actually use it to transport them for vet or travel, it's not some "foreign" thing to them.
 
:wave:JClarke...the carrier, yeah I understand. That is often the easier <between the two> way with cats though they may still have to be adjusted to one.
AC has some good ideas too about the carrier-
 
AlleyCat said:
The carrier .. the trick is to leave it out WEEKS before you need to use it. Put a comfy blanket in it. Put cat toys in it. Put catnip in it. Make it feel like a cat-home. Then when you need to actually use it to transport them for vet or travel, it's not some "foreign" thing to them.
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The carrier's out to them, for them to chill around with however we use the blanket they use to sleep with in the carrier when come to travelling
 
If you really want your cats to love their carrier- sprinkle tiny amount of catnip inside.
But just tiny, or they'll might go drool crazy in it :)

Fuzzy
 
now there are a few cats I've come across who don't like catnip and also a few who've had extreme reactions to it - fear/aggression.
the type and quality of catnip varies-
 
dogmom said:
now there are a few cats I've come across who don't like catnip and also a few who've had extreme reactions to it - fear/aggression.
the type and quality of catnip varies-
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Right on!! Now, the current cats I have LOVE catnip and we only use enough here and there as a treat. We have had a cat that was allergic to it and we had to be really careful. I have also had cats the quite literally got sick from the catnip and lost too much weight before we found the cause. Luckily, they survived. Currently, Sammy is okay with it. It's not his favorite, but he does like it. Tinkerbell will go totally nuts over it and beg for more.

Now, these cats of mine do not have those plastic carriers at all. The previous owner had cardboard ones that the Shelter provided for him. The cats hate their carriers but since they never go anywhere except the vet, we don't have too much of a problem. When I had to take them recently, We let each kid pick up the cat, we brought in the "carriers" and deposited a cat in each. They were obviously upset, but eventually calmed down. We do have fleece baby blankets in them and then also put in their favorite toy. Luckily, the vet is just 12 miles down the road. Just too many stoplights along the way.
 
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