Most of us don’t take our cats to the vet as often as we should.
Why?
Because of the fear it causes them and the guilt it causes us.
However, that doesn’t have to be the case. You can help your cat feel much more secure and relaxed in their carrier, making vet visits and car rides less of an obstacle in caring for your furry family member.
Skip ahead
Why Cats Are Afraid of Their Carriers
Anytime you’re trying to understand your cat’s behavior, you have to remember that we didn’t domesticate cats the way we did dogs. They basically just walked in the door back in the day and stuck around. That’s how they became housecats.
This means they still have many of the same instincts, needs, and reactions to things that their wild ancestors would — the most important of which is survival.
What happens when you take a cat’s choice and control away and try to shove them into a tiny space with no escape? They think something along the lines of, “Holy crap, I’m going to die!” and react accordingly. It doesn’t help that we usually follow this scary experience with even more scary stuff, like a car ride and vet visit.
It’s all instinct. Your cat fights back against going in the carrier because they have every reason to think it’s dangerous and no reason to feel good about it. That’s what we need to change with a little training and desensitization.
Taking the Fear Out of Seeing the Carrier
If your carrier lives in a closet until about 5 minutes before your cat gets stuffed into it and you head to the vet, your cat knows to initiate defensive maneuvers as soon as they see it. That’s the first thing to work on.
Get the carrier out and leave it out. Open anything that can be opened (doors, zippers). Remove anything that can be removed (flaps, the top half of the carrier). Put a super cozy blanket in the base and make it a piece of cat furniture in your home.
Encourage your cat to investigate and hang out in the carrier. Do a daily treat drop or sprinkle some catnip or silvervine powder inside. You can spritz the blanket with Feliway pheromone spray (8–10 pumps) and have play sessions in and around the carrier. And reward your cat with praise, treats, and pets when they check it out or lay in it. Teach them that good things happen when they’re in the carrier, and make it a cozy place to relax.
Choosing the Best Carrier for Your Cat
The size, shape, and way the carrier opens plays a role in helping your cat feel safe and secure. Check out our list of different types of carriers to help you find the best option.
Prepping for Cat Carrier Training Sessions
In addition to making the carrier part of your cat’s everyday life, you’ll also need to do some dedicated training sessions with the carrier.
Get your cat’s favorite treat to use both as a reward and a lure to encourage them into the carrier. Ideally, you want something you can toss. Here are a few treats we love. Higher-value treats will make your cat more willing to participate, so it’s time to pull out the good stuff.
If your cat isn’t food-motivated, you can reward them with anything they enjoy. Verbal praise, a chin scratch, rubbing their cheeks with a brush, tossing a toy, etc. It’s a little less convenient than using treats but can do the trick.
You’ll also need a lure to get them into the carrier. Tossing a toy or sprinkling catnip may do the trick, or patting your hand inside the carrier and calling them. You may need to experiment to see what they’ll respond to.
Cat Carrier Training Sessions
These training sessions will be short. As long as your cat is interested, you can train. When they’re done, you’re done. It may be just a few minutes, which is plenty. A few minutes a day (or every other day), for a few weeks, may be all you need.
You’ll use baby steps to desensitize your cat slowly and positively to the carrier and show them that, in fact, lots of good stuff happens in that carrier. You may only get through a few baby steps in one session. For the next session, back up a step or two to start, and add a few more on to the end. Work like this until you’re through all the steps and your cat is loving their carrier.
If you have other cats, you’ll want to put them in another room with something fun to do while you work with one at a time.
Training Sessions
Throughout this process, it’s important not to push your cat past their comfort zone. If you want them to let their guard down, don’t give them a reason to put it up. Watch their body language and turn the intensity down if they show even tiny signs of nervousness, like leaving the area, trying to look smaller, hesitating to get in the carrier, turning their ears to the side or back, etc.
Step 1:
We’ll use treats as the lure and reward in this example. If your cat isn’t food motivated, just replace “treat” with whatever you found that works best for them (like their favorite toy).
-
Open all doors and flaps on the carrier and remove the top if it comes off. You want the carrier as open as possible.
-
Start by tossing or placing a treat as close to the carrier as your cat will accept. If they won’t eat the treat, they’re probably afraid of the carrier. So back it up. Put more distance between the treat and the carrier so your cat feels comfortable eating it. Do this a couple of times.
-
Then place the treat a tiny bit closer to the carrier and repeat a few times.
-
Keep moving the treat closer, then right at the entry of the carrier, then just inside the door, then at the middle of the carrier, then the back. Continue until your cat is happily stepping fully inside the open carrier to get their treat.
Step 2: 'Choose your own adventure'
Here’s where it gets a bit “choose your own adventure” depending on the type of carrier you have. Your cat is feeling good with the carrier as open as it can be. Now we want to turn up the intensity just a little by closing the carrier up by one level.
If you have a carrier with the top removed, you’ll now put the top back on but leave all doors open or off. If you have a carrier without a removable top but with multiple doors or flaps, you’ll close just one door or flap and leave the others open.
If you have a carrier with just a single door or flap, you’re going to skip ahead to Step 4.
- With your carrier a little more “closed up,” you’ll repeat Step 1 above. Start with the treat outside the carrier and gradually work up to your cat stepping inside fully to get their treat.
Step 3: Increase the 'stakes'
We’re ready for another “level up.” You guessed it. If there’s something else that you can close on your carrier, do that now and repeat Step 1 again. Continue this process until you get to the final door or flap.
Step 4: Add time
Those of you who didn’t have all the doors and flaps to play with, you’re rejoining the party now. It’s time for the last door/flap.
-
With the door/flap open, drop a few treats to lure your cat fully inside the carrier and hold their attention for a few seconds. Now close the door/flap for just a second. Open it up and let your cat come out if they want to.
-
Toss another couple of treats in. This time, close the door/flap for a few seconds. Open it up and let your cat out.
-
You’ll repeat this process, gradually increasing the length of time the door is closed. You can also increase the number of treats or drop treats in through other small openings to keep your cat happy and engaged.
-
Watch your cat's body language. This is the point where your cat could feel trapped and that’s what we want to avoid. If they’re immediately nervous or want out when you close the door, they’re not ready for this step yet. Back it up and spend more time on the previous steps. And take smaller baby steps so you aren’t pushing them too far too fast.
Step 5: Add-ons
You can take this carrier training process as far as you’d like — having them in the carrier for multiple minutes, moving them while in the carrier, opening the front door, taking them outside in the carrier, to the car, driving in the car, etc.
Just use the same concept of baby steps, rewarding each step forward, backing up and turning the intensity down if they show even tiny signs of discomfort. In fact, we talk in more detail about getting your cat comfortable in the car in our article on traveling with cats.
There are various ways to help your cat feel comfortable in their carrier. Here’s a great video that incorporates the idea of teaching your cat to go to a mat first and then transitioning the mat into the carrier.
Getting Your Scared Cat Into Their Carrier in a Pinch
There are various reasons you may need to get a cat into a carrier when they haven’t been trained to feel comfortable with it. Here are some tips to make that process easier on both of you:
-
Get the carrier out ahead of time, make it cozy with a blanket, and place treats and/or catnip inside the carrier and in the area. Spray it with pheromone spray about 15 minutes before you need to leave.
-
Think about your body language. If you walk in the room calmly and sit down as you normally would to give your cat pets or treats, they won’t suspect you’re up to no good.
If you walk in the room like you’re about to wrestle an alligator and assume the position of a defensive linebacker ready to tackle your cat, they’re going to get the heck out of there or go down fighting. Calm yourself to calm your cat. -
If your carrier has a top entry option, use it. It’s easier to lower a cat into the carrier than to push them in the front.
-
Give the cat as much choice and control as possible. Can you lure them with something they love, like catnip, a little piece of tuna (packed in water, not oil), or cheese? Even if you can only encourage them to get near the carrier, it’s a step in the right direction.
-
When your cat is relaxed, gently pick them up (treats in hand), set them down in the carrier, drop a few treats, and close the door. Do this calmly but quickly.
-
For more nervous cats or those who may use their claws, use a towel. Have it next to you as you’re petting and treating your cat. As they’re eating a treat or getting a pet, gently drape the towel over them. You can scoop them up in the towel so you have more control over their legs. Set the cat in the carrier, still wrapped in the towel if the carrier is large enough. Drop some extra treats inside and close the door. They’ll come out of the towel on their own or may choose to stay bundled up if it feels more secure.
Here's a helpful video showing the use of a towel. For extra nervous cats, you can wrap them more securely.
Cats With Extreme Carrier Fear
If your cat is truly scared of the carrier and positive desensitization isn’t working (or you don’t have time to go through that training before they need to be in the carrier), talk to your vet in advance about whether a calming medication would be helpful. They can prescribe something you’d give before the appointment to help your cat relax. This isn’t meant to replace proper training.
If your cat is medicated, it can be harder for your veterinarian to make certain diagnoses. But if it’s a choice between your cat being terrified and building more negative associations with the entire experience vs. them feeling more relaxed with medication, it’s worth trying the meds.
Here are some more tips on how to make the vet visit less stressful for your cat.
With just a little time and training, you can turn a scary, stressful event into something your cat feels safe and secure doing. Trust us, it’s worth it!
Wash Your Cat's Carrier After a Veterinary Visit
There are two schools of thought on whether you should clean the carrier after each use, especially after going to the vet.
One suggests that cleaning away the "vet smell" (which we know can cause stress) will help your cat feel more comfortable in the carrier next time.
On the other hand, leaving the vet smell gives you an opportunity to change the "smell memories" into something your cat is comfortable with. You do that by leaving the smell and pairing it with good things, like a cozy blanket, treats, and catnip as described above.
So no need to clean unless there's a mess, like urine, or your cat is extremely fearful of the vet smell and you're not able to work through the steps above right now.
