Moving home can be a tricky or stressful time if you haven’t prepared for the many different scenarios and tasks ahead. Aside from getting all of your belongings to your new home, you may have some pets that are coming along with you, meaning you need to make some provisions for your small house mates to ensure a smooth start to life at their new home.
How difficult it will be for your pets to immediately settle depends on a number of things, including the distance you are travelling, the difference in environment and what integral changes are there inside the house.
The first thing you should check is how up to date your pet is in regards to jabs, vaccines and medical information. You can’t be too sure when and where the closest vet is to your new home, meaning you should have your pet prepared in regards to their health as much as possible.
Before you agree to move to your new home and get underway with household removals, you should understand how ‘pet friendly’ the new place is going to be. This could mean anything from the landlord’s rules on keeping pets, all the way to how secure the garden is – and how it fits with your pet’s daily habits and routines. For example, are you situated by a busy road and own an adventurous cat? These are a few things you should consider.
When releasing your pet into your new home, you should have made the environment as familiar as you can to that of your old home. This includes laying out a place for your pet(s) to sleep, play and eat in that will give him or her immediate comfort in the new surroundings.
Depending on your type of pet, you will have to consider them when transporting them from A to B. May it be a small cat, dog or large horse, you’ll need to make arrangements that get them to the new house as quickly and comfortable as possible to avoid subjecting them to extra stress.
It is widely agreed that when you have changed the environment in which your pet will live in, you should ease them in by limiting their access outdoors. For example, if you have moved your outdoor cat from one neighbourhood to another, you should keep them indoors for the first few days, slowly building up their access outside so that they can comfortably get to grips with the new area. Regarding this point, you should also consider updating your pet’s ID tags ensuring that they can be identified should they go missing. From knowing your pets chip details to ensuring their name tag is clearly visible, you should make these preparations.
Moving home isn’t just stressful for you, but also for your pet. You should spend some time together amidst the madness to offer each other affection to ease the strain that may have been put on each party.