Moving Feral Cats 5 hours away

I am going to move my 2 black semi-feral (to me but feral to everyone else) about 5 hours away to IN. They were TNR cats and have only been trapped that once. I can pet them and they've started wandering into my current house as planned. They are super skittish and run outside at the first quick movement. Am stressed about the whole impending move with them. I intend to keep them inside due to coyotes and a fox on our property. Last time I tried to contain them inside they went crazy when I closed the door and started slamming themselves into the cupboards. Putting them in a small room for 3-7 days only works if you can get them into a room. Does anyone have helpful hints as to how to travel that long with them? What tondo if they freak out? How to cut their nails that are super long if a scratching post isn't enough? My heart aches thinking about the whole process and what happens if I can't catch them correctly the first time. Many times there's only 1 chance.

Hi Lynnew1,

I moved house with 20 semi-feral cats a few months back. It can be done!

Do you have your own trap? Set the trap up in the place you usually feed them now, but wire the door open so it doesn't close on them. Line the inside of the trap with newspaper or cardboard and lay some outside of the trap door too, so they don't notice they are walking on anything different. Cover the trap with a blanket. I recommend getting a Feliway spray and spraying the inside of the blanket with this every day, the smell relaxes them. Start feeding them in there every day until you need to trap them. Do you have a trap for each cat? You could use a large carrier to trap one of them in if not.

My recent move was only a 20 minutes drive, but I once drove from one side of Japan to the other with one cat. The vet gave me some travel sickness tablets for her. You crush them up and mix it into their food about an hour before you leave. As well as preventing travel sickness it also makes the cat really sleepy, so the journey is less traumatic for them. Ask your vet if they have anything like this.

Keeping them in one small room is a good idea. Make sure they've got a few safe hiding places to hang out in, but be doubly sure that you block off any gaps they could squeeze into where you might not be able to get to them. Be very careful of air vents, chimneys or loose floor boards. If you can squeeze your hand in there, they can get their whole body through. It's amazing how tiny a gap they can fit through. A Feliway spray or diffuser would be useful in the room too. Some people have had a lot of success with Composure treats, which also help calm the cats down.

One of the cats I took with me had been outdoors only for over ten years, but he's settled in very well and spends most of his time asleep on the couch now. I think it's probably less stressful for them than it is for us.

Keep us posted on how everything goes.

Hey Lynne,  I had to move a pretty much feral cat 30 minutes away to my new home.  He was an outside cat that had shown up as a small kitten.  I worked with him and he would let me pet him and would come in for short periods of time to check out my house.  I had someone show up at my house once while he was inside and he tried to throw himself through the screen door so I had definite concerns about moving him and making him an indoor only cat.  Since I could pick him up, on the day of the move I fed him a few calming treats and put him in the carrier.  I used a small dog carrier because it is bigger than cat carriers and easier to get them in the door without them spreading their legs out and blocking you.  I put a sheet over the carrier for the drive.  He took it amazingly well.  Some plaintive meowing towards the end of the drive was his only issue.  I shut him in a safe room and the first night was pretty rough.  He cried and kept throwing himself at the windows.  Fortunately it was a basement room and they were high, small windows so he couldn't get at them very well.  I let him out after a few days because his buddy cat (the neighbor's cat that he abandoned and I took with me) was out and about in the house and he wanted to be with him.  For about two weeks there was a lot of hiding in the day and running around and meowing at night.  He accidently got out once after we had been there a month but came right back in when he realized he didn't know where the heck he was.  It has been a little over a year now and he has adjusted to be a very nice indoor cat although he is still pretty frightened of other people and won't let anyone else touch him.

Any new updates?  I hope everything works out for you.

I shut the sliding door on them when they were inside the other day because it was about 45 degrees out and my heat was cranking. They were none too happy so I reopened the door after a few minutes. I have 4 more weeks (2 of which I'll sadly be traveling) to keep working on them til move day. They constantly watch now to make sure that I'm not between them and the door. Smart kitties but I wish they knew what hopefully is best for them. Thanks so much for asking. In a month I'll be PANICKING.