How To Settle A Cat Into A New Home After Moving House
We’ve looked at settling a dog into a new home, but what if you have a cat. Well, we’ve got you covered, in this article we will be looking into how to settle a cat into your new home.
Whilst some of these tips on how to settle a cat into a new home are similar to that of settling a dog into a new home, cats are very different animals that often roam around the local neighbourhood coming back in the evenings to go to bed and for dinner. So, obviously this means that it’s important to find out the ways in which you can help when moving house with a cat.
Dedicate A Room For Your Cat To Settle In
Similar to giving your dog a room to settle in while the rest of the house is busy, this is also important for cats. By providing them their own space, this gives them the privacy and space to get used to their new home before they feel confident enough to move out of the new room and explore the rest of the area and see the rest of the family.
This is also a great tip if you have adopted a kitten and are bringing them home for their first night away from their mum or the environment that they’re used to.
Find/ Create Hiding Places
Finding or creating hiding places in your new home and kitting these out with cosy items such as cushions and blankets are a great way of providing areas in the house for your cat to feel safe and secure whilst they become accustomed to a new property. You may notice that you can often buy cat beds that have a roof, this is because in the wild cats can become prey for predators. Beds or areas in the house that reflect the places that they hide in the wild will help to make them feel that they’re away from danger as they only have to focus on the open area of the space rather than the 360 degrees around them.
Keep Them Indoors For Around A Month
Moving house with a cat can sometimes be difficult if they are used to roaming around the local neighbourhood. That’s why it’s important to keep them inside for a month before letting them go out and explore. Not only will this help them get used to the interior of their new home to find places that they can hide in, but will also stop them from escaping the new house and going back to the old house.
Use A Pheromone Diffuser
Pheromone diffusers are a great tool to use when moving house with a cat, as these are designed to help reassure your cat by releasing synthetic pheromones. Alternatively, if you’d prefer not to buy one of these, you can do the same by rubbing a cotton cloth on your cat and rubbing this on cat height areas of the house. Essentially, either of these methods helps your cat settle in as they recognise familiar smells around the new house.
Make Sure Nobody In Your Old Neighbourhood Is Encouraging Them Back
Something, that’s really important to do before leaving your old house, is to make the neighbours aware of your move and make sure they do not encourage your cat back to the old house. It’s quite common for people in the neighbourhood to feed or give attention to your cat. But, whilst this is ok when you live there, if this continues when you move this could make it very difficult for you to help settle your cat into their new home.
Make The House Escape Proof
As we’ve just mentioned, making sure that your old neighbours aren’t feeding your cat and enticing them back to the old house, making your new house escape-proof is another way to help settle your cat into their new home so that they can get used to the feeling of being in their new home and won't risk getting lost in the new surroundings and becoming stressed not being able to find their way home. For more information on ways to introduce your cat outside once they’ve settled in, check out this useful guide by Battersea.
Play With Them On Their Own Terms
You may think that getting your cat to play will take their mind off of the new environment and help them feel at home. But, it is recommended that you let them play on their own terms as they settle in and give them some space to explore the house getting used to the new smells, sounds and more. By letting them come to you when they feel comfortable to start playing, you can be sure that they are beginning to settle in and feel safe and secure going back to their normal routine, albeit in a new place.
Keep Their Routine
As we’ve just mentioned, routine is something that everybody gets used to and cats are the same. By keeping the routine of when you feed them, put them to bed etc, this will keep a sense of normality, especially in changing times. This helps them anticipate when things will happen, rather than worrying them about why something is not happening at the time it normally does.
A lot of tips on how to settle a cat into a new home can also help you if you decide to adopt a cat in your new home as you are still moving them from a location that they are used to, to one that they aren’t. So, if you have found any of these useful when moving house with a cat, be sure to use them if you get another cat. We’d love to hear from you, if you’ve got any other suggestions on how to settle a cat into a new home after moving house, so be sure to share them with us on Facebook and Twitter to help others.
