Preparing a Cat for Boarding or a Sitter: What Actually Matters

Quick answer

What a cat loses when you go away is not mainly you. It is its territory, and that is what the preparation has to compensate for.

Cats attach to territory as much as to people. A cat left in its own home with a visiting sitter is usually less stressed than the same cat moved to a cattery, and that single fact decides most of this article.

The preparation that actually matters is not a nice blanket. It is carrier training done weeks in advance, keeping the food identical, writing the medication down instead of explaining it at the door, and making sure whoever has your cat knows that a cat which stops eating is a veterinary problem rather than a fussy one.

• Decide between a home sitter and a cattery based on the cat, not on cost. Solo indoor cats generally do better at home.
• Start carrier training weeks ahead, not the morning of the drop-off. This is the highest-value thing on the list.
• Do not change the food before or during boarding. A new diet plus a new environment is how cats stop eating.
• Book the vaccinations early. Ask the cattery how far in advance they must have been given, because a late booster means a refused booking.
• Leave written instructions, written veterinary authorisation with a spending limit, and a phone number that will be answered.

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A cat that eats nothing for around two days is a medical emergency, not a sulk.

Cats mobilise body fat rapidly when intake stops, and the liver can be overwhelmed by it. The result is hepatic lipidosis, which is life threatening and which develops fastest in overweight cats. Boarding stress is one of the most common triggers. Tell your cattery or sitter in writing that if your cat has not eaten for 48 hours they must contact a vet rather than wait for your return, and make sure they have the authority and the means to do it.
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:::danger
Stress is a direct trigger for urinary disease in cats, and a blocked bladder kills within about a day.

Feline idiopathic cystitis flares with any change in routine, and in male cats it can progress to a complete urethral obstruction. If your cat is straining in the tray, crying, going in and out repeatedly, or producing only drops, that is an emergency the same hour, whether it happens at the cattery, at the sitter's, or in the first week after coming home.
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Decide in 60 seconds

Choosing between a cattery and a sitter

Why home is usually easier on the cat.

The scent marks, the routes, the hiding places and the sleeping spots are all still there. The cat keeps its territory and loses only the company, and for most cats that is the smaller loss.

When a cattery is the better answer.

When the cat needs medical care beyond what a visitor can provide, when the stay is long, when nobody can visit reliably twice a day, when the cat escapes or is a persistent door-dasher, or when the house is being renovated or left unheated.

What a good cattery looks like when you visit.

Visit before you book. Look for individual units where cats from different households cannot touch each other, with a solid barrier or a gap between runs rather than mesh alone.

Each unit should have height to climb to, a hiding place to withdraw into, the litter tray at a distance from the food and water, and enough space for the cat to move rather than turn around.

Ask how they handle a cat that stops eating, what their veterinary arrangement is, whether staff are on site overnight, and how they deal with medication. The answers tell you more than the decor.

What to check in a sitter.

How often they visit and for how long, whether they are insured, whether they can medicate, what they will do if the cat is missing or unwell, and whether they will send you a photograph and a short note about food eaten and tray used at each visit.

Preparation that starts weeks ahead

A carrier that has been part of the furniture for a month is somewhere the cat walks into by itself. A carrier that appears the morning of the trip is a trap.

Carrier training.

Leave the carrier out permanently, door off or tied open, with a familiar blanket inside. Feed a few treats or a portion of a meal in it every day. Over a few weeks the cat starts sleeping in it.

Choose a carrier that opens from the top as well as the front. It lets a vet or cattery examine and lift the cat without dragging it out, which matters more than any other feature.

Vaccination timing.

Ask the cattery which vaccinations they require and how long before arrival they must have been given, then book with your practice with time to spare. Cats that go outdoors are often required to have feline leukaemia cover as well as the core vaccines.

Parasite treatment.

Get flea and worming treatment up to date before the stay, not after. This is a condition of most catteries and it protects your cat from picking anything up.

Health check.

If the cat is elderly, has a long-term condition, or has been off colour, see your vet before you go rather than leaving that decision to a stranger.

Do not change anything else.

Not the food, not the litter, not the tray type, not the routine. The fortnight before boarding is the worst possible time to introduce a new diet.

Microchip details.

Check the registered address and phone number are current. A cat that escapes from a sitter's care is found by a scanner, and an out-of-date record is the reason cats are not reunited.

What to send with the cat

Its own food, in its own packaging, with the daily amount written on it.

Send more than you think you need. Running out mid-stay forces a food change at the worst moment.

Unwashed bedding.

A blanket or a worn t-shirt that smells of home and of you. Do not wash it first. The smell is the point.

Its own litter, if the cattery allows it.

Litter texture is a common reason cats refuse a tray, and refusing the tray in a small unit causes further stress.

Familiar toys and a scratching surface.

Nothing with string, ribbon or loose parts, and nothing that could be swallowed while unsupervised.

Written instructions.

Feeding amounts and times, medication with dose and timing, litter preferences, temperament notes, what the cat does when it is unwell, and what your cat's normal appetite looks like.

Medication in its original packaging.

Count the doses out so the number remaining tells everyone whether they have been given. Never send loose tablets in an envelope.

Written veterinary authorisation.

Your practice's name and number, your permission for them to release records and to treat, and a spending limit that is high enough to be useful. Also name a second contact who can make decisions if you are unreachable.

Contact details that will actually work abroad.

Include a number you will answer, and the time zone you will be in.

Preventing the two problems that matter

Ask the cattery or sitter to record what the cat drinks as well as what it eats. Reduced water intake in a stressed cat feeds straight into urinary disease.

Appetite.

Ask for the amount eaten to be recorded at every meal, not just noted as "ate something". A cat picking at a small proportion of its usual intake for several days is heading toward trouble even if it has not stopped completely.

Wet food helps here, because it carries water and because it is more tempting to a stressed cat.

Hydration and the litter tray.

Ask for the tray to be checked for urine at every visit or every clean. A cat that has produced no urine, or that is straining, needs a vet immediately rather than at the end of the day.

Stress reduction.

Synthetic feline facial pheromone products are widely used in catteries and are safe to try, though how much difference they make varies between cats. A covered hiding place and a high shelf are more reliably useful.

Sedation.

Do not sedate a cat for boarding on your own initiative. Never use leftover medication from another animal or anything intended for people. If your cat travels very badly, ask your own vet in advance whether a prescribed anti-anxiety medication given before the journey is appropriate, and trial it once at home before the real trip.

Coming home

Expect a couple of unsettled days. Put the carrier down in a quiet room, open the door, and let the cat come out in its own time rather than tipping it out.

Offer a small amount of the usual food and fresh water. Do not fuss, follow, or lift the cat around the house showing it that everything is still there.

Watch the litter tray for the first 48 hours specifically for straining, small frequent attempts, or blood. The days after a stay are a classic window for a urinary flare.

Watch for sneezing, runny eyes or a snuffly nose over the following week. Latent herpesvirus reactivates under stress, and a cat that has had cat flu before may show it again.

If you have more than one cat, expect trouble at the reunion.

Cats recognise each other by scent. A cat coming home smelling of a cattery can be treated as an intruder by the cat that stayed at home, sometimes violently, and owners are baffled because the two have lived together for years.

Keep them separated at first, swap bedding between them, and let the returning cat re-scent itself around the house before they meet. Feed them on either side of a closed door and reintroduce over a day or two rather than in one moment in a hallway.

What never to do

Never switch to a new food in the fortnight before boarding, or send a different food than the cat is used to. Diet change plus environment change is the reliable recipe for a cat that will not eat.

Never send a cat away without written veterinary authorisation and a spending limit. A cattery that cannot get consent may lose hours it does not have.

Never sedate a cat with anything not prescribed for that cat, and never with a human medication.

Never assume a cat that is not eating will start when it gets hungry enough. In this species that assumption is dangerous.

Never board a cat that is unwell, has recently had surgery, or has an untreated chronic problem without talking to your own vet first.

Never separate a bonded pair for the convenience of the booking.

Never let two cats meet immediately after one comes home from boarding without accounting for the scent change.

Never leave a cat alone at home for a weekend with a large bowl of food and a tray. Cats hide illness, and nobody is there to notice a blocked bladder, a fall, or an empty water bowl.

When to get help

A well-prepared cat comes home, checks the house, eats, and is back on its usual routine within a couple of days.

Instruct your cattery or sitter to seek veterinary care immediately for straining in the litter tray with little or no urine, laboured or open-mouth breathing, collapse, repeated vomiting, or a cat that cannot be found.

Instruct them to seek veterinary care the same day for a cat that has eaten nothing for 48 hours, has stopped drinking, is hiding and will not come out at all, or has developed discharge from the eyes or nose with reduced appetite.

Book your own appointment after your return if the cat is still not eating normally after two or three days, is sneezing persistently, is straining in the tray, or has lost noticeable weight.

Speak to your vet before booking at all if your cat is diabetic, has kidney disease, has had a urinary blockage before, is on daily medication, or is frail. There are stays that are not worth taking, and that is a conversation to have in advance rather than afterwards.