Shipping a cat should be a stress-free experience for both you and your pet.
When it comes time for a move or an extended vacation, you may wonder what to do with your cat. Leaving a pet behind proves to be too hard for many pet owners. Instead, the option of shipping your cat to your destination becomes a more palatable solution. While shipping things like luggage and packages is an easy venture, shipping pets requires much more planning and care. Pet relocation can be done via air travel, with some airlines offering either cabin or cargo shipping. Third-party shippers also handle pet shipping.
Instructions
1. Check the airline's or pet shipper's cat-shipping policy. The company may institute shipping stipulations on pets, requiring crates of a certain size; food and water dishes; special stickers indicating live animals within the crate; and other airline-specific requirements. Delta Airlines, United Airlines, American Airlines and several others ship pets for a fee, which often depends upon the weight of your cat combined with the weight of the shipping crate.
2. Call the airline or cat shipper and schedule a shipping date for your cat. You will be asked the weight of your cat, the size of the crate and the names of the people dropping off and picking up your pet upon arrival. Have this information on hand to make the phone call go smoothly.
3. Allow your cat to become acquainted with the shipping crate. This will help keep your cat's nerves in check on the day of the big move. Sit the crate on the floor and allow your cat to roam in and out of it, smell it and sleep in it. You may want to put a few treats in it so that your cat associates the crate with food.
4. Obtain a health certificate and, if necessary, vaccination updates for your cat. The health certificate must be dated within 10 days of your cat's departure. Health certificates can be obtained from veterinarians and serve to verify that your cat is healthy enough to travel. You will also need vaccination records if your cat is up to date on shots. If it is not current on vaccinations, it will need to be inoculated.
5. Bring your cat to its travel destination at least one hour in advance of departure time. This allows the airline time to weigh and properly store your cat. If you are using a third-party pet shipper, the company may pick your pet up rather than you dropping it off. With airline travel, you pay at the time you check your cat in, based on the combined weight of the cat and the carrier. Third-party shippers often charge a flat fee based upon pet type or length of travel.
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