Hello, We are new to the board and new to the Bengal breed. We just adopted two litter mates Prince and Paula. They are 12 weeks old. We picked them up on May 15th. They are well adjusted cuddly, very active, all around wonderful kittens.
The problem is we now need to make a 3 day trip to my mothers house, which is a 5 hour drive. We need help to decide.
Should we travel with them or should one us stay home? Has anyone travel with kittens before?

Your opinions would help,
Mary and Steve

Hello Mary and Steve and welcome to the forum. Congratulations on your new babies. Since they are very young kittens, take them with you. Of course, that means toting a litter box, food and bowls, water, etc and having a large carrier for them. I think it would be find for them to be in one suitably sized carrier. In fact, you may want to get a larger carrier that would accommodate a small litter box. They are not going to have a regular bathroom schedule, especially not both of them at the same time. A larger dog crate may do the trick as well. They may cry in the beginning, but should settle down on the traveling part.

Then, while at your mom's house, you must keep a watchful eye on them. If your mom has any pets, you need to keep yours separated from them, thus a larger crate may be more appropriate (I'd look for a collapsible one).

I think you would be happier having them with you than forcing one human to stay home and babysit (unless that human is one who does not want to go to the in-law's house. LOL).

Hopefully, all will go smoothly.

I had the same situation when Serafina and Gaga were kittens, except that it was a longer trip (both in terms of miles, and days stayed). I took them with me, and they did great. I put them in a very large cat carrier (largest I could find) and put their food and water in there. I draped a blanket over 3 sides of the carrier, so they had limited visibility out of it. I stopped a couple of times and let them out (but still in the car) and had a litterbox in the back seat. Neither of them would use the litterbox in the car, and were kind of spooked when out of the carrier in the car, and difficult to get back in. After 5 or 6 hours they got pretty cheesed off and started raising a ruckus, but they were good for that long. Once they got to a motel, or to my aunt and uncles house, they also did real well. They saw it as an adventure and wanted to explore both settings. They especially had fun at my aunt and uncle's because they had all hardwood floors so they would get up this huge head of steam, then "power slide" around corners chasing each other.

Anyway, your kittens may behave completely differently, but that's how mine did when I faced the same situation.

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The little monsters 3

I agree with brian and Sherry. Take them with you. This is a wonderful opportunity for early socialisation. I only have one cat but he has traveled all over the western US with us, starting with his first 5 hour ride home from the breeders.

IMHO, the more you expose them to at a young age, the easier they will adapt to new situations when older. With 2 kittens, I presume they would also learn to take comfort in the familiarity of each other and use this as a coping mechanism when exposed to strange situations.

Good luck! Enjoy the trip.

p.s. in all of our road trips, Quasar has never used the litter box, even though we offer it to him whenever we stop for a break. He has peed and pooed outside, however, on short walks, during breaks.

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~ Kyenta

Take them with you - it'll be an adventure for them.

My 2 are regular travellers - we have just got back in from a couple of weeks at my mum's place, a 2 hour drive, 14 hour ferry crossing then another hour's drive. Getting them used to it early should mean that they see it as just another new experience and that in future times it will be that much easier on them ( and therefore you ).

Am so jealous of all of your well travelled Bengals!

My Leo is a screamer, in the car, on the train and in an airplane. He started as soon as I picked him up from the breeder, drove 45 minutes to the airport and had a 45 minute flight... I thought he would get used to it eventually but he never did. We have flown from Italy to east coast USA and back about 6 times... I use sedation and once the kindly hostesses on the Spanish airlines (Iberia) allowed me to sit in the airplane bathroom almost the whole trip so he could be on my lap.

One of the American airlines I was traveling on told me during check in (hadn't sedated him yet as I like to wait till the last minute and give him as little as possible) eyed the howling carrier, looked me in the eye and said "you need to do something about that, we can't let you board otherwise". He was fine on leash in the airports. I always moved to areas with less people when possible to not cause too much of a stir.

Driving in a car is no better, so on advice from a friend I let him out of his carrier and allowed him to roam the whole car. Her thought was that he would find "his place and curl up and settle down". Well he had his back legs (claws out) on my thighs, his front paws (claws out) on my shoulders and his head dead center straight in front of me and he screamed with a wide open mouth in my face.... I was doing probably about 100 km down the Italian autostrada A1,, so it took a little time to slow, get over and wrangle him back in his carrier. I could see nothing and he would not let me look around him. So much for that good advice, lol.

He is fine once we arrive at destination and gets used to places quite quickly, but it is the getting there and back that is hell. He will be 6 soon and I don't think he will ever grow out of this.

I travel a great deal and this has to be the single most annoying thing.

Good luck with your trip!

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Kris from Florida
Leo is a neutered male with brown rosettes
Born 9 June 2010

Mine is not a good traveler either. Thankfully, his vet is 2 minutes down the road. Could never travel with him either! I have to listen to him howling in the house -- wanting to go for his daily walks. I can't imagine a screaming kitty in an airplane! Hubby wants to try the full-time RV thing -- but not with Raiden!