Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know they cant be left out but has anyone taken them to a friends house or tried the leash thing? I have a chinchilla and when I get together with my family my kids want to bring him and so I take him in a small cage and he gets passed around from one hand to the other and is such a mush.. So if I visited my sister for example I might want to take the cats with me.. not a good idea or possible? Just thinking ahead.. ALOT as you can tell from all my posts

Thanks for all the information..

My advice is not to take them out of their comfort zone unless you plan on staying for an extended period of time and their are extenuating circumstances...for example, when we go out of town (max 3 days), I leave them home alone, I leave plenty of food and water and my litter box is self cleaning, but one year for Thanksgiving Fin and Alastair were on meds which needed to be administered 2x per day, so we brought all of them to my in-laws and kept them with their litterbox in the room we were staying in...except Bentley gets full run of their home because he is familiar with it from when they kept him a week for us once and he is socialized with their dogs...Fin and Ali did not like their dogs and I didn't feel like spending my holiday acclimating my cats to their home...I have nothing against boarding them at the vet when need be, but with three of them it gets expensive...plus my dogs do not kennel well, so I now have an in-house pet sitter who takes care of all of them for me.

Just bringing them to a friends for an afternoon can stress them out...especially a kitten. Unlike dogs who socialize quicker and more effectively if you bring them with you wherever you go...cats do better when the environment is stable and people come to them...

yep, i agree.. they do like their comfort zone. when i go to my parents house during xmas, i bring them since i'm there for 5 days. but one hides in the bed sheets (it's funny to see a lump that purrs) and the other runs around like a nut, and his ears turn hot from being over active. it takes them a few days to settle down and start enjoying the bigger house. and i would add they don't particularly care for the car ride.
and the rest of the times, i have a cat sitter who comes to my house when i can't take them with me. i find it less expensive than boarding and they are able to relax in their own house.

my previous cat, Kleo, i took her out on a leash in my parents lawn. she would hiss at first about being tied up but got used to the leash.
but my tonk, i don't think that will work. he starts screaming just when we step outside, and he's in his bag. i think its too much for him.

Any luck getting the kitten/cat yet?

I got to school and rent an apartment, but "home" is an island off the coast that requires a ferry ride to get to. Sina does this rider rather easily, although she does sometimes spend time complaining about being locked in. We have compromised and since she has a halter and leash (which she always wears during travel just to be safe) I let her sit on my lap for some of the ride (as long as she is holding still and not trying to go off exploring). She is actually pretty good about letting people pet and say hi to her, but I do have to limit how many people come up to her at a time because she gets overwhelmed. Of course, at 10 months Sina is still young, and has been doing this since she was about 4 months. She is fine with it, but my other cat (a devon rex who was a rescue) is so terrified that I leave her home unless it is unavoidable.

It must be nice taking her on the ferry and being able to hold her on your lap. I can imagine alot of people want to touch her. What was your experience with the rescue? I check the petfinders page and consider that too. Im just afraid that I wont really know the temperment and I have kids so you never know. My friend got a siamese rescue and the first days in the house it got scared and bit her husband and he had to go to emergency as his arm swelled..

My devon, Lea, is a rescue but it was a sort of strange situation. My mom is on the e-mail list for one of the rescues and a group of six kittens needed an immediate foster home and we were close by. The kittens were six months old and the breeder wanted to have them put to sleep, but agreed to let the vet contact the rescue. So we took care of them until they found homes, but my mom and I each kept one. We think none of the kittens were properly socialized and they were obviously badly bred (five of them had very sparse coats with lots of bald patches). Lea is pretty shy as a result, which isn't really "normal" devon personality.

A note on your friend being bit by the siamese- Any new cat, whether from a breeder or a shelter is apt to be scared. Sina spent all day the first day hiding under the bed. Then a few weeks later when I brought her to my mom's house for the first time she ended up biting me. Now that was ENTIRELY my fault, becuase I wanted to introduce her to the dogs (collies who are very good with our cats) and she got frightened and tried to get out of my arms, and bit me when I wouldn't let her (I didn't want her to get down on the floor where the dogs were and get even more freaked out). Like I said, totally my fault- but it still happened.

Okay.. good to know about that biting incident. Its been a long long time since I had a cat. That might of freaked me out if I had gotten bitten. Has Sina since been okay around your moms dogs?

Sina is absolutely fine with the dogs now. There is almost always an adjustment period when introducing two animals, even if they are the same species. She just needed to learn that while the dogs are big and loud, they won't hurt her.

I remember when we brought Alastair home...he absolutely hated my greyhounds, and Bentley absolutely hated him...I called the breeder in tears...she had said not to worry they would all figure it out...and they did...

New cat/kitten adjustment periods are the worst...but it is so worth it in the end...