greentea3

Hi everyone,

I tried searching to see if anyone had emigrated with a cat but could find nothing so I would like to know has anyone? and how much does it cost, how far in advance do you have to book and what happened the other end (in Canada quarantine) with the cat?


Lots of questions but I want to make sure my cats are going to be alright!

vegasrockstar

Hi

We brought our 2 cats with us last June. We made sure we flew with Air Canada - who were great (treated the cats like royalty!) - and I'm sure the cost was only about 400 or 500 pounds for the flights from Heathrow to Calgary with them flying in the cargo hold.

Make sure you book at least 2 weeks before the flight.

Just make sure that they get all the innoculations before they go (no quarantine required if they have had their rabies shots) plus are checked to be it to fly within a few days of the flight, along with an approved pet crate and you'll be fine.

At the other end it can take a while to get to the cats as you have to do all your own immigration stuff and then no-one could find our cats for half an hour(!) but eventually we got them back (they were hiding underneath the blankets we had put in the base of the container).

It is stressful for both you and the cats but they forgive you eventually!

My wife dealt with the preparations more than I did so I don't have exact details but hopefully I have given you even to be getting on with.

Lisa_W

There is a wiki page on bringing pets into Canada:

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Transporting_Pets-Canada

Cost us just over 600 pounds to bring two cats from Manchester to Calgary two years ago.

There is no quarantine at this end. Might be worth getting rabies vaccs and the blood test done, if you have time before you move out here. Again, you don't need to have the Rabies vacc to come here, but if things did not work out and you decided to go back to the UK, your cats would have to go in to quarantine, if they had not had the vaccination and then the follow-up blood test and then a six month gap befor they re-entered the UK.

Lisa

greentea3

Thank you both for your replies!

So no quarantine the other end - brilliant!

lancashirebird

Also be aware that some landlords dont take pets, i know a couple that are landing and using the local cattery whilst they can find the right place, alittle expensive, but depends on where you are heading too....

Good Luck
LB

dudlek

Hi

Just arrived in NB 3.5 weeks ago. Arranged for a shipping company to take the cats 2 weeks before we moved here to keep them out of harms way whilst removals co packed us up. After we arrived here we shipped them a couple of days later so we could visit tem here whilst we were in rental acomm ( awaiting furniture shipment).
Only comments I would make:
1. Shippers are more expensive than doing it yourself but you have to kennel them, arrange shipment with airline, then take to airport in approved crates, do paperwork (vets stuff before hand) collect at other end and then find a kennels to house them unless you move in immediately. Much much cheaper to it yourself BUT a little more hassle - I got a shipper as I have hands full wth 3 young children.

2. Check kennels on arrival - I found ours houses cats in very small box kennels - moved them after a week. Service was good, space small.
HTH

dudlek

oh and our cats needed no innoculations as no rabies in UK Comment from kennels too "if Air Canada will take them w/o rabies jab, so will we" BUT ours are old ( 16yrs ) and not returning to UK.