Moving With Pets and Plants

Pets

Start with the crate, weeks early

An IATA-compliant crate the animal has never seen before is a frightening box. The same crate, left open in the house for two or three weeks with a blanket and the occasional treat inside, is a familiar place. This single step does more for a pet's travel experience than anything else.

Size it properly: the animal must be able to stand, turn around and lie down naturally. Airlines reject undersized crates outright.

Road or air?

Under about 500 km, road is usually kinder — no cargo hold, no airport handling, and you can stop. Beyond roughly 1,000 km, a short flight is often less stressful than two days in a vehicle. Between the two, it depends on the animal: an anxious dog may do better with a long drive and familiar people than with a hold.

Documentation

• Veterinary health certificate, issued close to the travel date
• Up-to-date vaccination records, particularly rabies
• Airline-specific forms, which vary and change
• Some states have additional requirements for animal movement

On the day

• Light meal about four hours before travel, not immediately before
• Water available up to departure
• Do not sedate without explicit veterinary advice — sedation at altitude is genuinely dangerous and most airlines prohibit it
• An unwashed piece of your clothing in the crate helps more than a toy
• Keep the pet in a quiet closed room while the movers work; open doors and strangers are how pets get lost on moving day

Pets never travel with household goods. A goods truck is not a safe environment for an animal, and no reputable mover will do it.

Plants

The rules

Several Indian states restrict the movement of plants and soil across their borders for agricultural quarantine reasons, and enforcement varies. Long interstate moves with plants are legally awkward and practically hard.

The practical reality

Plants do badly in a dark, hot truck for several days. For a long-distance move, the honest advice is to give away or sell most of your plants and take cuttings of the ones you care about. It is not what people want to hear, but it produces better outcomes than arriving with a truck of dead pots.

If you are moving locally

• Water two days before, not the day before — soggy soil is heavy and makes a mess
• Move heavy ceramic pots into plastic ones for the journey
• Transport them in your own vehicle, upright, in a box that stops them sliding
• They travel last on and first off
• Do not leave them in a closed car in the sun for even an hour

Cuttings travel better than plants

For sentimental plants going a long way, take cuttings, wrap the ends in damp tissue and a plastic bag, and carry them with you. It works far better than trying to move a mature plant across the country.