How to Lower the Stress Levels in Your Pet When Moving House

October 7, 2012 By admin

Some families stay in one location their whole lifetime while there are even some that haven’t moved for generations. There are also many more families that at one point or another in their cycle will decide that it’s the right time to move on, whether with the kids when they’re younger or later on in life when they have grown up and moved out.

Moving house can be an extremely stressful time for your pets. You thought it was bad for you; at least you have an understanding of what is going on! They don’t understand why you’re moving house, the place that they have grown up in is their territory and they have become accustomed to it. Even though these pets have been domesticated they are very territorial and they would have already marked out their barriers and have set ways of going through each day. Moving house is going to mean new smells, new areas, and maybe other animals nearby to contend with.

Image Credit: meiio

Here are some tips on how you can lower the stress levels in your pet when you decide to move house:

Firstly, you are going to need to setup their area first to make sure that they are comfortable and they have somewhere familiar to go to. This means if you have a cat or a dog that you set up their bed and put their toys and whatever smells they are used to around them. Straightaway this will give have a calming effect on them.

If you have a cat then one of the products that are recommended is Feliway. This is a plug-in diffuser that will emulate the pheromone that cats naturally produce when they are happy. These pheromones will have an automatic calming effect on them and it will ensure that they adapt to their new environment well. You may also want to keep them inside for a couple of days to stop them from running away.

For those who have dogs it is a little bit different because they may feel stressed and start barking aimlessly during the day and even at night. Moving house may cause them to litter the new carpet in your home as this may be a way of them trying to mark out their territory. Adaptil has specially created dog pheromones that will immediately have a calming effect on your dog.

Zylkene is a small capsule that is administered once a day and can be given over a long period of time to either cats or dogs. This means that on top of the scents that you are putting throughout your home you are calming them from the inside as well.

These are just a few tips on how you can reduce any stress levels in your pet when you are moving house.