HELP has anyone had to relocate

I have six cats, 6 dogs (two are large Great Danes) lg.Iguana, suger gliders and my Macaw.

Has anyone had to move that many because of job transfer 16 hour trip. How did you do it?

I Danes!

Um I have never had to relocate with that long of a trip but I would see about maybe getting some friends to go so you could have different cars taking different animals. Or rent a larger van?

Thanks for the reply I have a large astro van but I am wondering about cats and litter boxes.

The cats would probably have to be transported in carriers and let out every few hours to eat, drink and use the litterbox. Are they ok with carriers or do they freak? Also, talk to your vet and see what he recommends. Maybe a mild sedative will make them sleep most of the trip, but you will still have to stop occassionally.

Good luck!

I don't have that many animals but here are my suggestions.

You can load up in the morning, very early morning, it is cooler that way.
We spilt the animals up; some with him in the moving truck, the rest in the SUV with me.
We only have one cat; she was put in a large crate with litter and a bed, food and some water. No one was given anything medication wise.

Dogs were either wearing a seat belt or crated. Reptiles (the big ones) were in temporary enclosures, pet carriers and the like. The ones in their normal enclosures had lots of ventilation and we taped around each lid for an extra security measure so they didn’t get rattled about and come off.

I am lucky, none of my animals care about moves and they are excited to have a new place to check out. Good luck.

I did a 16 hour move due to a job relo with 5 dogs (the smallest was 50 pounds) and 7 cats. I moved ahead of my husband and lived apart for 9 months waiting to sell our house.

We moved 4 of the cats up in advance of the final move. Drove 3 of them and flew 1 of them. At the final move, we took the 5 dogs and 3 cats in a cargo van. The only seats were in the front of the van. We had bean bag chairs and sofa cushions in the back for the dogs. We had 1 very large dog kennel with a litter box for 2 of the cats, and another larger carrier for the other cat (long story, but she had never met the other cats and we weren't going to lock them up in a carrier for their initial introduction). We also had a medium height cat tree with us in the van.

We stopped about every 2 hours to let the dogs out to stretch. They were leashed in the van, we opened the door and one of us got outside to walk them. Once the door was closed, we opened up the large carrier and let the cats out to stretch. The cat in the smaller carrier was put in the larger one to use the litter box, eat, drink, etc. We then put the loose cats back in the dog kennel and let the single cat loose to stretch.

The stops would take about 20-30 minutes each and we never once opened the van door when the cats were out of the carriers. If one of them had gotten loose at a rest stop, we would have lost them.

I will add that even though we leashed the dogs, they didn't necessarily need one. They always came when called and we did it as a courtesy to others, so we weren't concerned about walking 5 dogs at a time on a leash. If one of them had gotten loose, they would remain by us. I suspect with 6 dogs, you have the same level of control.

It took a lot of thought up front, but when the time came, they were just terribly bored. None of them were really interested by either food or water throughout the trip, but we kept a jug of water and bowl handy just in case. I also recall that there were only about 2 lumps in the litter box at the end of the trip. They just held it for the most part. We had mild sedatives for the cats handy, but there was no need to use them.

Originally Posted by Momofmany

I will add that even though we leashed the dogs, they didn't necessarily need one. They always came when called and we did it as a courtesy to others, so we weren't concerned about walking 5 dogs at a time on a leash. .

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Thank you for doing this! With a leash you don't even have to worry about calling them back, or them getting ran over by a careless driver, or attacked by another loose dog, or chasing a furry animal, or other things that can happen on the road in an unfamiliar place with strange sites and smells.

Funny, those loose dogs that never run off and are always obedient 100% of the time are the ones that always end up running up, acting up, and ignoring their owners, right to my leashed and well behaved dogs for some reason! The owners are always insisting, they never do that, they always stay close, I don't know what got into them, and so forth.
I wish their owners were as responsible as you were, better safe than sorry. Glad the move went well.

Amy that was a lot of comfort. thanks

A friend was driving her two large dogs, son and a friend and husband on a trip earlier this summer. They were in a van and pulling a travel trailer.
A tire blew, she was able to slow down a lot, but both vehicles rolled when she hit the brakes. Fortunately, the injuries were minor. They had to evacuate the van immediately due the trailer's gas tank leak.
Smart woman, her dogs were already on leash, so they didn't have to risk injury looking for the leashes in the jumbled up mess in the van.

So now I keep the dogs leashed, even in their seat belts. Just in case.