If your cats are anything like ours, they absolutely hate being in a car. They panic and shrink to the floor, trying so hard to turn into nothing, You can tell how extremely uncomfortable and anxious they are. But there’s a simple solution, at least for shorter trips, and that solution is CBD.
Yes, you can successfully use CBD for cats traveling to help calm their anxiety.
Depending on the extent of the travel, this can be a fantastic solution to help ease your cat into the idea of travel. Who knows, maybe you will have a little traveling cat after a few years. But let’s start small. The best use we’ve seen for CBD and travel is for a short trip to the vet.
Tips For Car Travel With Cats
If you need to go from point A to point B with your cat, you’re probably hoping its a quick trip. We’ve had to Uber with our cats before, and they sure love screaming while they are in their cage. It’s a completely unpleasant experience for everyone in the car, mostly your cat though.
Giving your cat CBD before the trip can help everyone calm down more. It will help your cat to relax, and will last for about four hours.
Proper CBD Dosage For A Cat In A Car
We would recommend giving your cat a medium or high dose of CBD at least 30 minutes before travel, to allow sufficient time for it to kick in.
A medium to high dose, for a typical cat, is around 3-5mg. You can see our full guide on dosage here to get a better understanding of how much to use for your cat.
Making A Safe Space For Them
CBD will help calm your cat for vehicle travel, but sometimes it’s not enough. When you put a cat in a cage they feel fear. And when you’re in transit they feel fear. Sometimes CBD alone will not do it.
We recommend creating a safe space for them. If you know your cat won’t be adventuring around your car, you can lay out their favorite blanket and a toy or two for them in the backseat so they can feel some comfort. Pair that with some CBD and you should be in good shape. Just be sure to give them lots of pets whenever you can to hep reassure them everything is okay.
For longer travel, this gets harder. You need to consider bathroom breaks for your cat, so bringing a disposable litter box is advised. You will also need to ensure you are breaking to allow them to drink water.
Extended travel with cats requires a lot of planning, but at least for short trips, CBD oil is a great way to break those anxiety barriers down for your cat.
Tips For Air Travel With Cats
If you are embarking on a longer trip via plane, CBD can still be an effective helper for your cat. In fact, We would not recommend traveling without CBD.
On top of the car ride to the airport, you will need to go through security with your cat, and idle around an airport to get loaded onto a plane where you will be separated.
All these things are huge traumas for your cat. And flights are never that quick, so you need to be extra prepared and precise with your CBD dosage to minimize the negatives.
Proper CBD Dosage For A Cat On A Flight
The best recommendation we can give for flying is to give your cat a medium dosage 30 minutes before you head to the airport. We would reapply this before heading onto the plane as well.
You don’t need to worry about your cat overdosing, and this is an extreme situation, so it’s okay to err on the higher side if it allows your cat to relax.
Can I Bring CBD Oil To The Airport?
CBD is completely legal in all 50 states, so you can absolutely bring your cats CBD to the airport with you, and you should. Be ready to give it to them during the flight if they start to get anxious again.
We would recommend that you leave your CBD in its original packaging in case there is any confusion with the TSA. They generally are not worried about such things, but it’s better to be safe than sorry, and the original packaging will better show the contents of the CBD, mainly that it’s not THC.
Conclusion
As you may have guessed, CBD is a powerful way to give yourself the freedom to travel with your cat. It will help them to relax and get more used to traveling, so you guys can go on more trips together. Be sure to bring your CBD along for the ride (or flight) in case you need to give them some more, and remember that CBD is not lethal and will only help your cat to relax before and during their travel.