Traveling can be a real pain especially when you are doing this with your cat because as you most likely know cats hate riding in cars and being in their carrier.
It can be even worse if your cat is going number 2 in their carrier. The reason why cats do this is because when they are stressed out they can be more prone to going to the bathroom. So how do you fix this problem? There are many ways that you can do this.
How To Stop Your Cat From Pooping In The Carrier
Feed Early Before Driving: The obvious thing that causes the pooping is the food right? A good way to prevent them from going to the bathroom in the first place is to feed them 5 to 6 hours before you drive. This will make it less likely that they will go and you won’t have to clean anything up afterwards.
Give Them Less Food: You want to give them a light meal also. Just enough to hold them over until you are done going to wherever you are going. This goes for water as well. Less food mean less stool and urine to worry about.
Get A Large Cat Carrier: You can get a cat carrier that’s really large and put a litter box inside of it. The one that I use for this type of situation is the “Pet Fit For Life Collapsible/Portable Cat Cage/Condo (click here for the amazon link)“. I like this carrier a lot and its especially good for this particular situation because it comes with a litter box as well.
Pet Diapers: If you don’t want to spend money on a cat carrier you could put a pet diaper on them so they don’t get waste all over your car. They do cost money obviously but they are a lot less then a cat carrier.
The best ones that you can use are the “Pet Parents Washable Male & Female Dog Diapers (click here for the chewy.com link)“. They work quite well for this situation and you can also reuse them.
Make The Ride Stress Free: You want to make the ride as comfortable as possible for them. If they aren’t stressed they will be less likely to go to the bathroom everywhere.
How To Calm A Cat During Travel
There are many things that you can do to make it so your cat isn’t scared driving with you. In fact you can train your cat to even enjoy car rides in a lot of cases. Here is what I usually do if I need to calm my cat down during travel.
Train Them To Enjoy Car Rides: Training your cat to like car rides is probably the best way to avoid the pooping all together. If they aren’t nervous in the car with you then that means they won’t poop everywhere.
The best way to do this is gradually introduce them to your car and take short rides. After a while make the trips longer. Eventually they will get used to the car.
Train Them To Like The Carrier: One of the most important things that you need to do is train them to like the carrier. Cat hate car rides but they are also known to really hate carriers until they are trained to think otherwise.
The best way to do this is leave your carrier in your home and let them explore it on their own time. Close the door when they are inside and let them out after a short time. Repeat this over and over and raise the time they are in there longer.
Conclusion
Your cat pooping in their carrier can be a real problem especially because of the odor but if you follow all of these steps you shouldn’t have much of a problem anymore.
