luchi

We've had a few quotes for our large dog and the best so far is £3K!! :scared: . So, wondering if we could do this ourselves. Does anyone know of anyone who has shipped a dog/cat themselves to save costs. Already thinking of shipping the furniture ourselves...saves loads on that.

Tiawamutu

I have heard people talking about this before, and would love to know how to do it myself, as we have 2 cats.

Tiawamutu

...would be interested in the furniture aspect too

Stitch

Me too, somebody's bound to have done it?

Cheers

Ginny

luchi

When we find more details..will let u know. It is possible, just need to research lots prior to making the DIY commitment.

Stitch

All the paperwork seems straightforward but just wasn't sure how doable. We did our own Visa Application sooooo.....

Cheers

Ginny

luchi

We've looked at the paperwork side of it a little bit and it seems straight forward. Have you done much research yet? It would be good to get advice from someone who's already been down that road....keep in touch with any info.

Stitch

Will be interested to hear from people. If we find anything out will let you know.

Cheers

Ginny

YoSemite

it's really quite easy to do (in theory!).......

buy an IATA approved contained which is the correct size for dog/cat. or contact a specialist company and have one built

get an AQIS Import permit (vaild for 6 months(??) from date of issue) and a DEFRA export permit.

contact your local vet to dicuss blood tests etc (list of which tests need to be done is on the AQIS permit)

contact BA/Qantas cargo for a quote (BA/qantas seem to be the most direct)

provisionally reserve a flight for animal and check with preferred quarantine station if they have space avilable.

if they dook book quarantine and confirm flight

within 30days of export have vet carry out tests

within 96 hours of export have final vet check done and certificate completed.

take dogs to cargo (as detailed on tickets). send with dogs:

aqis permit
defra permit
blood test results
full vaccination records


collect dogs at quarantine 30 days after arrival.



we looked into doing it ourselves but when trying to arrange shipping, our flights, selling car and property etc etc etc it was just becoming too much hassle.

i think the difference if we had done everything ourselves is only maybe a couple of hundred pounds, if that! at the end of the day i had to ask myself if the hassle was really worth it.... and it wasn't so i got a company to do it for me. also when you do it yourself you run the risk of missing something and then not having a lot of time to sort it out!!!!!

68MEVY

Hi,

We self shipped the dog and our furniture, or atleast we did as much as possible. It's been a while but if you do a search for self shipping dogs around 5 mths ago you should find the thread.

Now bear in mind we do have a large dog so your quotes may not of been this high.

With our dog, it was far more expensive to get the flight yourself. We were quoted GBP4000ish by quantas.

The cheapest quote we had form a pet shipper to do the lot for us was nearly GBP5000.


It's cheaper to do this part through a company as they bulk buy cargo places so they can provide the service cheaper. We used Animal Airlines based at Heathrow airport. Cost us GBP2079 (I think)
This included the flight H'row - Sydney, quarantine booking and confirmation, dog box, vet inspection at airport and transport to quarantine in Sydney.

We got the aqis permit ourselves - valid for 12 mths, can't remember cost but was GBP100ish.
DEFRA permit ordered over phone, cost 0. This was sent direct to our nomonated vets 10 days before departure.
Spoke to vet and booked necessary tests and jabs. All government approved vets have a list of what they must have.
All the bits and bobs, with the tests and such was only about GBP300

So in total was around GBP2500 plus a tank of petrol to get Cassie to Heathrow from Sheffield and a dog transporter this end to bring her up to us, this was $300, so at the time probably about GBP130.
To say our smallest quote was around 5 grand, we managed to nearly half it. It may of been yet more form filling but if you're like us and are emigrating skint, every penny adds up.

Marie

Stitch

Marie,

You're a star!

Thanks

Ginny

luchi

Wow...thanks for all the info....its really helpful. Just a thought, how big / what breed of dog did you get quotes to ship over?

68MEVY

Hi, Cassie is a gorgeous german shepherd. She's the right weight for her age (33kg i think) but is long so we had to have an extra large dog box.
I miss her tremendously. She's staying with my sis in law on the sunshine coast until we get our own place down here on the Gold Coast. But atleast I know she's being well looked after.

I forgot to mention that the quarantine costs! We paid these on top of whatever I said above, but it wasn't alot. You can get the breakdown of costs off the quarantine website.


Marie

YoSemite

2 english springer spaniels from edinburgh to sydney for just over £2500. that includes everything except vets fees and quarantine. For all the hassle it saved it was well worth it!

Greenhorn

there is some confusion over the leptospira vaccination. so do be careful.

Vets normally include the lepto jab as part of the booster vac.

however, on the AQIS website, it specifically instructs no lepto jab as this may boost the dog's antibodies to a level where it may fail the blood test for leptospirosis.

for those who have done it themselves,

q: have u taken another route ? instead of getting vaccinated first (as suggested by AQIS) , do the blood tests first, and then do the 6 in 1 vaccination after that.
Reason being that the dog will then not fail the blood test and still get protection from the Lepto vac. when they get over to Australia.