Hi everyone,

We're going abroad for a whopping 3 weeks and we will need to board the cats for that period. We have already contacted a number of local catteries to arrange visits to the premises to see which one we will go with but as a bit of a novice to this I wondered if anyone could offer advice on what to 'look for' in a cattery. When we adopted our boys they were in a fosterers 'run' outside and I know they were relatively content there, so I am not too worried about their adjustment to sharing closer living quarters than at present. What I don't know is what to look for in anything else! Any advice would really be appreciated.

We are hoping to visit the following potential catteries in case anyone has reviews of them:
Mink Farm (Woking)
Pinewood (Woking)
Suma Farm (Cobham)
Wey Farm (Chertsey)
Barrsbrook Cattery (Chertsey)

Thanks everyone!

Sorry I have no experience of catteries, but wanted to suggest you look into getting a house/cat sitter.
I use House Sitters & Sitting from Housecarers USA Australia Canada NZ UK worldwide . and have had some lovely sitters. This type of arrangement may not suit everyone but my cats are definitely happier in their own home than taken to a cattery.

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Nellie Paddy Mitzy Milo Peggy Murphy

Millie and Monty, the White Devils!

Do you have any friends, neighbours or collegues that could recommend a local cattery? Vets are also worth asking if they would recommend one.

I would look for:
Clean, not smelling overwelmingly of anything (either cat, pee or cleaners).
Secure (pens/runs well maintained)
Happy customers (by that i mean cats).
Ask lots of questions (usual routine, food, grooming, play, attention etc), answers should be easyily forthcoming.
They should want to ask about your cats routine, any medications, are they vaccinated, neutered, which vet you use, food etc.
Cats that are not used to dogs are usually better at a cats only cattery (lots have dogs & cats).
I would also go to visit within opening times, but without warning.
Staff should all be friendly, appear to know what they are talking about.
Remmeber it will never be like home but can be the next best thing.

Above all else trust your own judgment!

Enjoy your hols!

Have you looked at the FabCats website? They often have recommendations of catteries.

I board my boys at a cattery that is run by their breeder. It's a lovely place although quite far away from where I live.

One real positive is being able to go into the pen and settle the boys. When we pick them up we also get them from the pen. I've never seen it dirty and she even washes my boys blankets etc if they are there for a long time.

They can take all their own toys and food (as she doesn't stock brands from germany ) and everyone is really keen to see how the boys are going. I know that they get lots of attention as well as enjoy watching the chickens in the grassed area in the middle as we get updates via email

If you take a look here you can see the suggested guidelines from FAB.

Pinewood is excellent, we used to use it but it does get booked up so you need to book early at peak times.

Suma is very basic ( a little outdoor run and a small wooden box at the top of steps for sleeping in). We decided not to use that one although the owner is lovely.

We looked at another one, I forget the name of it, had a shop at the front, all the cats were indoors, it looked very nice. There were pens set around a little courtyard. We did book it but had to cancel as we didn't go away in the end.

Look for a place where you can turn up and view, not be kept to a strict time, that way you can see how they treat the cats. Check security too.

We used Cats Kastle (Cobham) the very first time we boarded, it was short notice. There were no sneeze barriers in place at the time, may have now. On collection the carrier which was left in the pen was drenched with pee, the litter tray was full of shredded paper which blew all over the place and a bowl of dry food was placed high up on a shelf. When we got home I have never seen him move so fast, he dashed outside and dug a hole in record time, really bad tummy :-( . Had never used a cattery before so didn't know, and supported them because they are a rescue. I am not saying don't use them because this was about 7 years ago and it may be much better now.They obviously love cats :-)

So, I would say, look for a FAB listed one first, and one with safety and health precautions in place. Where they are good with feeding what you want them to be fed, not what they want to feed, and don't mind you having a look around.

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Thanks so much everyone. The cats/dogs thing was something I realised yesterday and decided it would probably be best for them to be in a cats-only place as they are not used to the constant barking and even if they were, who wants to put up with that if they don't have to? hehe.

I also did some googling and found out about the FAB stuff so I am definitely interested in Pinewood. I have it narrowed down to Pinewood, Suma Farm and Barrsbrook as they are all cats-only (or cats and small animals only I believe). Fortunately all of them have availability for the period we need so we should be okay with whomever we pick.

I will take all of your words of advice into mind and we should hopefully find a suitable home away from home for our lovely boys.

In response to a few other things:
We are both 'transplants' to the area, I'm from the US and my husband is from northern Scotland. We don't have any family in the area and our closest 'friends' are mostly colleagues, none of whom live anywhere near us. I have asked for recommendations from a colleague of mine but her father always catsits for her so she's never used a cattery.

We cannot advertise for a 'catsitter' as we rent our property and it would not be legal for us to allow any other 'tenants' to occupy/visit the premises, especially when we are not around! It would be very convenient for the kitties but it's just not an option for us I'm afraid!

Thank you to everyone for your words of wisdom, I really do appreciate it!

Thanks again everyone for your advice.

Although we haven't chosen a cattery just yet and we haven't had our boys stay there, I did want to give a brief review of what we saw.

In particular I wanted to mention Suma Farm. While the girl who showed us around was obviously a huge cat lover, I was overwhelmed by the bad odour of the location in general and shocked by a few things in particular. First, the 'sneeze guard' does not go all the way to the top and as cats can climb the wiring it is quite useless indeed. Second, while I appreciate the weather was exceptionally cold on the day we visited (still below freezing even during the day), the girl showed us an 'in-use' run which featured a frozen bowl of water. So the cat that was in there did not have access to water. (We were also surprised she showed us a run with a cat inside of it when she'd already shown us an empty one.) It was just before noon when we visited and I am aware they were open all morning so the first thing I would have anticipated is them removing the ice and refilling all of their bowls with warm fresh water or keeping the water in the heated shelter areas. Anyway, thought it was worth mentioning. We definitely would not use this cattery after our visit.

Barrsbrook appears to have been taken over by someone new in September (she mentioned this to us) and they are in the process of refurbishing it with much better wiring on the cages and I think this will soon be a top-notch facility. I was very pleased with everything we saw and they have the added bonus of keeping chickens in the centre of the runs (a C-shape with loads of space in the middle) which will keep cats entertained.

Pinewood is exquisite and we really liked them though the owner was snotty to us (insisting we'd be 'back in 10 minutes' as soon as we looked at any other cattery). Manager and staff were perfectly pleasant. Only downside we saw (and quite literally the ONLY one) was that the view from many of the 'regular' runs is not very interesting. Only the really big suites had a direct view of a small woodland area where wild animals would visit, the rest had a view of either the office, other runs, or the front garden that leads straight to the road though I'm sure the front garden view would still be interesting on all but the coldest of days.

Best part about visiting all the facilities was seeing all of the beautiful cats! All shapes and sizes, all varieties, some noisy some quiet, and all wonderfully adorable!

Spid recommended one to me in Chertsey, but I am at work and its saved in my favourites at home!

If she doesnt post on here before I get home (about 5.30ish) I will let you know which one it was later.

I am guessing we live pretty close to each other from the catteries you have mentioned

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Good luck with your choice! We recently boarded our two in a cattery for the first time and I was PETRIFIED that they'd think we'd abandoned them, but according to the owners they settled really well, were friendly and lovely, and then when we got them home they were clearly excited to be home but didn't show any signs of having been distressed at all. They were also in lovely condition and had obviously been groomed.

The idea of having someone come to stay at my house is a bit weird. We're quite private people and I just can't imagine I'd enjoy the thought of it, however nice the housesitters were! So I'm thrilled we found a good cattery. I hope you do too.

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Bonnie and the gang xxx