How We Took Our 2 Cats on a Road Trip!

We have 2 cats, and 3 kids. So our SUV would be pretty crowded. I was worried how can we take our 2 cats and take care of them during a 15+ hours road trip (the road trip actually took longer)! Anyways, let's cut to the chase, here's how we did it!

Traveling with Cats Checklist

Here's everything you need to do, to take your cats on a road trip!

Feed them first

First and foremost, few hours before getting into the car, we offered the food, water and put them into their litter boxes in case they needed to go!

Stock on their favorite food

We have stocked on their favorite dry and wet food. My experience is that wet squeezable treats are the best type of food to use when feeding your cats on the road (obviously you'll need to stop). This is the type of treats we recommend for the road trip, easy to feed it to them and won't cause a mess. Just open it, and start pushing it out bit by bit as they lick it. You can find them here.

Prepare their carriers

Make sure you have their carriers ready and lined with a soft blanket. Ideally you would have a hard carrier. These are our carriers:

Organize your car trunk

Now prepare and put all your luggage in the car trunk, and then put the cat carriers either in such a way that they can see each other, or at least next to each other. Just make sure you put them last, so that it's easy for you to get to them when you stop for breaks on your road trip. This is how we put them in our car:

Try a calming cat spray

Now, there's something I learned about only recently that can help cam cats during road trips and other stressful times, it's the calming cat sprays. I read plenty of reviews on them and there are many great spray brands, checkout this list here to help you choose. You may want to spray some of this into the inside of their travel carriers or the blankets you used to line the carriers with.

Pack their litter box

Next is mission impossible or packing their litter box. There are so many ways you can have a litter box with you on the road. Ideally you should not attempt to buy a new one right before the road trip, and if you need to, make sure they use it a few times before the road trip.

There are many commercial travel litter box products available on the market. But what I recommend is to find a plastic box with a good lid so that you can have their sand in that box closed and secured during the trip without causing any mess, and when you stop for a break, you can just remove the lid, offer them the litter box.

We're basically looking for a plastic box, that is a bit bigger than the size of a shoe box. For us, we came up with this idea pretty late, so we took their usual litter box and covered it well during the trip. You can also use a disposable plastic box, if you find the right size.

Your litter box is the last thing you pack before starting your ride.

Pack wipes and other cleaning necessities

Pack wipes and tissue paper. In case of any accidents, you'll  definitely need those.

Plan to stop after 2-3 hours from when you start your drive

You're all ready and packed. Once you start the road trip, your cats may start meowing. I recommend you stop after 2-3 hours to feed them some of the wet treats. You don't need to take them out of their carriers at this point. If you're stopping for more than 15 minutes, you can take them out and let them move inside the car a bit. Please note that you cannot leave the cats inside a closed car unattended.

Offer them their litter box every once in a while

Try to offer them their litter box once every 4-6 hours. Set an alarm on  your phone so you don't forget.

That's about it. Happy road tripping with our feline friends!

Taking your cat on a road trip checklist

Road Trips > Beginner Guide > Road Trip with Cats

About the Author

Sara T. is a traveler that has been traveling around the world for over 7 years! She's lived in 3 continents and traveled to 6 different countries and road trips have always been part of her stories!