Cats aren’t only creatures of habit, but they also still keep much of their wild instinct. And this affects different aspects of their lives, including adjusting to new spaces.
Before they change homes with their cats or adopt a new kitten, most cat owners wonder how long it takes to adjust to a new home. The short answer is it varies.
The adjustment time can vary because cats aren’t all the same. Usually, happy and healthy cats adjust to new homes in about 1-2 weeks.
However, some cats, especially those with trauma, need more time to feel comfortable in a new home. If your new cat or resident cat hasn’t adapted after a month, you should consult your local vet or expert ethologist for advice.
In this article, I will discuss this topic in great detail. I will also share valuable tips for making your new kitten or adult cat feel more comfortable in their new home, so let’s jump in.
How Long For a Cat to Adjust to a New Home?
The adjustment time differs for every cat because they’re all unique. It also depends on different factors such as the following.
Age
If you’re changing homes with a newly adopted cat, remember that they’re adjusting to new spaces and life.
The good news? They adapt much faster than older felines because they’re not yet attached to their current home.
Older cats need a longer adjustment time as they’re already used to their home, so moving somewhere new can be confusing.
Socialization
If your cat isn’t very social, they won’t accept changes well.
Moving can be a big deal for poorly socialized kittens. Hence they need more time to adjust to a new environment.
Moreover, it would help if you asked your vet for recommendations for solving their behavioral issues as soon as possible.
Trauma
As I stated, cats with traumatic experiences will take longer to adapt to new spaces, so keep that in mind if you’ve adopted a traumatized kitten.
Environment
If you’re moving from a country home to a city apartment, you’re not only changing a home but also the environment. And this can be very stressful for your feline.
If your cat has previously had access to the outdoors but is no longer allowed to go outside, this can make them confused and sad.
Generally, I advise never to do this unless you have to. Also, noise and amenities in the new environment can affect your feline’s adjustment time.
Family
If you have new pets in the new home or new people, this can prolong the adapting time for your feline.
Some cats will not get along with other pets or people, no longer how long they live together. However, most will adapt over time (1-2 weeks).
Do Cats Get Stressed When They Move to a New Home?
Cats get stressed when they change homes because they’re territorial creatures so any change can cause stress.
Whether changing states or moving nearby with renovations, cats need control over their territory because when they feel like they’re not in control of their surroundings, they become anxious.
Remember that changing homes isn’t easy for cats because they get attached to their territory. They mark rooms, furniture, and even their favorite humans with their scent to claim their territory and possessions.
Marking everything around them makes them feel safe and secure. So, even moving furniture, adding new furniture, or redecorating can cause stress for your cat.
However, you can still do certain things to make the moving process easier for your feline and prevent abnormal behavior in the new environment, like hiding scratching, urine spraying, and other stress-related behaviors.
Make Preparations
Whether you move across the country or change one rented home for another, you can take basic steps to make the moving process less scary for your feline.
For instance, maintain your feline’s routine while preparing for your move. Keep the same playtime, mealtime, and bedtime.
Moreover, display the moving boxes and their carrier days or weeks ahead, so they don’t catch your feline by surprise.
Lastly, ensure your pet is microchipped and registered online in case they get lost.
Make Moving Day Less Stressful
On the final day in your old home, put your cat into a room without anything but food and water bowls, a litter tray, a bed, and something under which they can hide.
Also, place their cat carrier in the room and open the cage door.
Notify your movers of the location of your feline, so they don’t accidentally open the door and let your feline escape. That way, you will keep your feline safe and prevent strangers and boxes from making them feel anxious and confused.
I also suggest doing the same when you move into your new home. Select one area where your cat can rest and recover from the moving process while you unload your things and sort out the rest of the house.
If you don’t have a free room where your feline can chill while you figure things out, you can put them in your bathroom with the door shut.
Ensure they have their litter box, food and water bowls, and bed in the bathroom to help them feel less anxious about anything happening outside.
Prepare Your New Home For Your Cat’s Arrival
If possible, plug in a diffuser in your new home before your cat’s arrival. Your feline will feel more comfortable and less stressed when arriving at new places.
I highly suggest setting one up before renovating the site or changing the furniture, even if you’re staying at the same property.
The calming diffuser lasts for weeks and helps cats adjust to their new environment. It releases a drug-free and odorless vapor that resembles the pheromones that cats release when they feel safe and secure in their home.
So, by installing a calming diffuser beforehand, you’re ensuring your cat that they can relax in their new space.
The device can help reduce stress-related actions such as scratching or spraying urine. You can find this product at local pet supply stores or online.
Moreover, scatter around their favorite toys and familiar-scented blankets or towels to decrease their stress upon arrival.
Lastly, many triggers can cause anxiety in cats, like louder noises and having a new pet or person in the home. Therefore, try to help your cat gradually experience each change.
Extra Planning For Moving States
Whether moving with your cat long distance or across the country, you should plan more and take extra precautions.
For instance, if you plan to travel on a plane with your cat, you should pick between flying together in the cabin and checking your pet into the plane’s cargo space.
If you can have your cat in the cabin, check your airline’s requirements. Make sure your cat’s carrier and weight meet their specifications.
Moreover, ensure you have the necessary documents and travel supplies like their vaccination certificates, a harness in case you have to remove your feline from the pet carrier for the X-ray screening, etc.
If you plan to travel by car, purchase a suitable carrier that you can quickly secure to the seat and keep your feline from moving during the trip.
Lastly, you can purchase a calming collar for your feline that emits pheromones, fits around their neck, and easily releases if they get entangled. That way, your kitty will feel less anxious during the trip.
You can even spray their carrier, blanket, and toys with a spray and scratch control spray to ensure they feel calm at all times.
Extra tip: Take short trips before the moving day to help your cat adapt to your car. Also, pack travel supplies like portable food and water bows, a harness, and a small litter box.
Keep Your Outdoor Cats Inside For a Few Days
If you’re moving with outdoor cats, remember the following extra tips for the moving day. For starters, get the latest vaccination documents and register the microchip of each cat online.
Also, help your outdoor felines adapt to their car-safe carrier by leaving it outside for a couple of days with their favorite blankets, toys, and treats inside.
Moreover, when you reach your final destination, keep your felines indoors for a few days or weeks. They will likely be scared by all the new sounds and sights and need time to adapt. Otherwise, they might run away.
It would be best to move your cats and their homes outside simultaneously. I highly suggest staying outside with your felines first and bringing them back in every night for a few weeks.
Helping outdoor cats adjust to their new environments can be time-consuming, but keeping them safe is worth the time.
Multiple Cats Need Their Spaces
If you’re moving with multiple cats, you need to ensure they don’t get so anxious or stressed that they start fighting each other.
To prevent this, they quickly set up plenty of places they can mark and “claim” their own such as a cat tree, window perches, cat beds, cat home, litter box, bowls for food and water, etc.
It would be best if you also plugged in a multi-cat diffuser to help your cats feel safer in their new home. The calming diffuser will release a drug-free, odorless vapor that resembles the natural pheromones cats release when they feel safe.
Lastly, maintain their routine as much as possible, including playtime, mealtime, and bedtime.
How Long Does it Take For a Cat to Get Used to a New Home?
Younger cats adapt quickly to new homes and environments. They only need about 2-3 days to feel safe and comfortable in the new homes.
On the other hand, adult cats have a more difficult time adjusting to new homes, as they’ve already attached themselves to their old environment.
A healthy and happy cat adjusts to a new home in about 1-2 weeks. With the tips above, you can drastically decrease your cat’s time to adapt to their new home or establish a connection with new pets or people.
How to Help a Cat Adjust to a New Home
Once you arrive in your new home with your baby or adult cat, you can do certain things such as surrounding them with familiar toys or blankets, providing hiding spaces, a stable routine, etc. Let’s discuss all the points I just mentioned in detail.
Give Your Feline Their Own Space
Provide a safe base where your cat can hide, chill, and adapt. You can make your guest room or any other spare room your cat’s permanent or temporary space.
I highly suggest choosing a room that’s not too busy. If you have a traumatized cat or cat that’s anxious by nature, ensure they have a quiet space where they can stay and adapt to their new home.
Some happy and friendly felines can feel better in the living room if they enjoy your presence. However, even they will still want a private space in a new location where they can sometimes hide and chill alone.
Surround Your Cat With Familiar Things
In the cat’s room of your new home, place your cat’s favorite blanket, toys, bed, and other familiar items, so they feel safer. You can also put things that smell like you as you’re likely their favorite person.
For instance, you can put a shirt in their room that smells like you and their previous home, as cats rely heavily on their nose to determine if they’re safe in a new place.
Stick to Their Old Routine For Everything
Moving isn’t just replacing houses. It’s a whole process involving many errands such as unpacking, sorting, cleaning, etc.
And moving with animals makes the whole thing even harder, but that doesn’t mean you get to neglect your cat or drop their old habits and routine.
During the adjustment period, you should maintain a stable routine for your kitten in terms of playing, feeding, sleeping, and cuddling.
Also, give your cat extra TLC as extra care can help your cat adapt to the new home more efficiently.
Slowly Introduce Your Cat to New Areas of the Home
Last but not least, gradually introduce your pet to new rooms and home areas while cuddling and engaging in activities such as watching TV, reading, etc.
Signs Your New Cat Is Adjusting
Seeing felines adjust to their new homes and getting comfortable puts every owner at ease. You can tell if your cat is slowly adapting to the new home by the following signs.
Confident and Friendly Cats
The first sign that your cat is slowly adjusting to the new area is their overall positive body language.
Suppose your cat walks around the home more confidently, feeling less intimidated by new furniture and visibly loving the new area. In that case, you can rest assured knowing they’re slowly adjusting to the new home.
Appetite
Your cat’s appetite can also reveal if they’re feeling comfortable in the new home or not. Moving doesn’t only impact your cat’s mental but physical health as well.
In the first few days, until your feline adapts to the new environment, they can eat or drink more or less.
Their meal times can also become erratic, so it’s essential to maintain their previous routine for mealtime, playtime, and bedtime.
Once your feline feels safer in the new home, their appetite will probably normalize, so watch out for this sign.
Activity Levels
Stress can make cats act bizarrely in the first days or weeks after moving into a new home. So, it would help if you observed your feline’s activity levels to determine how they’re feeling.
Remember that your cat can become lazy or prefer staying alone in one room where you’ve set up their bed, litter box, food and water bowls, favorite toys, etc.
They can also lose their interest in playtime, but don’t worry. These aren’t abnormal behaviors. On the contrary, they’re natural responses to stress in cats.
Some cats can act oppositely. They can become more aggressive and meow loudly, demanding to go outside.
Once your cat starts acting normal again, you can rest assured that they’re adapting to the new home.
Important note: Don’t let your kitty outside unsupervised for the first days or weeks after moving because they can escape. Instead, keep your feline amused indoors or walk it outside on a leash.
They’re Acting Curious
In the first days after moving, your cat can act anxious instead of curious. However, they will start exploring the new home once they start adjusting.
They Don’t Mind Being Alone
Some kittens display clingy behavior in the first days after moving into a new home as they feel scared, and their owners make them feel safe and comforted.
However, once your cat adapts to the new home, they won’t mind staying alone for hours without feeling anxious, uncomfortable, or scared by new furniture.
Reduced Vocalization
Some cats can become more aggressive and vocal during daytime and nighttime in a new home because they feel scared and anxious.
However, their meowing will return to normal once they realize it’s a safe space.
Less Behavioral Problems
Stressed cats act in strange ways. They can hump inanimate objects such as pillows and blankets, scratch things, and act aggressively toward other pets or their owners.
A clear indication of your feline adjusting to the new home is when these behaviors reduce and eventually stop.
Territorial Behavior and Marking
Another great indication that your feline is adjusting to the new environment is when they start rubbing their face, cheeks, and body over furniture and curtains.
Cats act like this when they want to mark objects with their scent. Therefore, if your cat rubs against everything in the new home, they’re becoming comfortable.
Cat Meowing First Night in New Home: Here’s Why!
Most cats meow during the first night in a new home because they feel intimidated. Moving means losing territory in your cat’s mind, so they feel scared.
Some felines adapt to the new home faster than others. Those that adapt slowly can change their behavior temporarily until they fully adjust, so you must be patient.
If your cat meows the first night in the new environment, they need your attention to feel safe but don’t worry, as this change in vocalization doesn’t last long.
Why Is My Cat Meowing At Night in a New House?
The reasons behind meowing at night could be behavioral and medical. Behavioral ones include insufficient playing time, loneliness, lack of attention, etc.
If your cat is meowing in the new house every night, ensure the cause isn’t medical. Medical conditions that can cause your feline to meow loudly at night include kidney disease, hypertension, thyroid disease, or bladder discomfort.
So, schedule a vet appointment immediately and ensure there’s nothing wrong with your feline medically.
Moreover, cats with hearing or vision loss can get anxious at night and meow loudly while trying to enter their owners’ bedrooms.
If this is the case with your kitten, ask your vet for advice.
If the reason isn’t medical, don’t worry. The meowing will probably stop over a short period, and your feline will return to normal.
Final Tips
Adjustments can take time, so don’t get angry at your cat if they’re adjusting slowly. Don’t try to force their adjustment. Let your cat adjust in their own time.
Pay attention, stick to their old schedule, and things will improve eventually.
Let your feline get used to one space in the home at a time and start introducing the outside if possible. If there’s a patio, garden, or yard, let your feline outside but don’t leave as they can escape or wander off.
The first time you let your feline outside, do it on a weekend when you’re home at all times or before mealtime.
If you’re worried they will wander off, take them outside on a harness.
Lastly, being aware of the above changes and applying the adjustment tips I listed in this article can help your feline quickly and easily adjust to the new home.
*image by Valerii_Honcharuk/depositphotos