Bringing cat food in my suitcase

Hi All,

I am leaving for Scotland in about 4 days , and I was wondering if I can bring some of the tinned cat food my cats eat in my suitcase..without getting into trouble with customs or having it confiscated? I might bring a ziplock baggie of their dry food too. I ask this because, a) we may not have time the day we arrive to go shopping for food for them, and b) my 2 cats are extremely picky and I worry that after their extended travel they may not eat something they aren't used to.

Will the tin & dry food have to be declared and will it be taken away?

Thanks!

I taped a baggie of food to my cat's crate because they were on a special diet and it was going to be a bit before I could get some for them in the UK. That was okay with the airline when I did it, but I think someone else tried that more recently and it didn't work. I didn't risk bringing it in my baggage. It's meat-based and those products are always a no-no when travelling internationally. Have you looked to see if you can find the food they like in the UK online? Could you have some shipped to your destination from a UK website so it arrives before you do?

We buy them Blue Buffalo grain-free wet food (tuna & salmon are the only ones they like  ), and I don't think that's sold in the UK. I assumed I couldn't ship it from here. I only want to bring about 3-5 3.5oz cans just to tide us over for a day or 2. I figured the meat content could possibly get me into trouble, which is why I wondering if anyone else had tried it?

And unfortunately we aren't moving into our flat until the day I arrive, so no one would be there to accept a package. If it wasn't for their pickyness I wouldn't worry about..I was just thinking of trying to give them something a bit familiar after their plane ordeal. 

You can risk it, but you might want to have a back up plan just in case.

Personally, I would bring it. Worst case scenario, they confiscate it. Best case, your kitties have their food to start out with. Having a back up plan is a good idea.

I was able to tape some to the top of the crate at the end of august.  United actually gave me a special seal-able pouch for it.  I didn't try to bring any in my suitcase.  I was very careful with what I packed as I didn't want to get stopped by customs and get stuff confiscated on my first entry on my visa.

I had bags of food taped to their crates as well. 

You will probably need to experiment with food for them.  My kitties were on Pro Plan in the US and they sell it here.  But it wasn't the same (visually could tell) and one of my cats kept vommitting over and over.  I thought it had to do with the flight but it was just the food and stopped as soon as I switched.

I brought like, tons and tons of cat food with me (I did have four cats!). I had my mother-in-law bring some to the UK with her (after she visited us in the US shortly before our move) as a kind of 'test run' and that worked as well. I obviously didn't have any trouble...but your mileage may vary.

If you're looking for high protein/low carb/grain free (similar to Blue Buffalo) - Orijen is quite good and sold online in the UK. They don't do any tinned food though. Applaws makes lovely high quality tinned/pouches of food - it's not a complete diet though so you can't feed just the tins/pouches.

Good luck :-)

Just as an FYI, I did bring about 7 cans of wet food, and a ziploc bag of dry food in my suitcase. Fat lot of good it did me though, as my cats aren't interested in eating any of it right now. Hopefully they'll recover from the traveling ordeal soon.

That is good that you were able to get the cat food over    Hopefully they will settle in soon and feel home    How was the trip over? Any problems with your paperwork? I hope it all went relatively stress free!

That is good that you were able to get the cat food over    Hopefully they will settle in soon and feel home    How was the trip over? Any problems with your paperwork? I hope it all went relatively stress free!

The trip over was highly stressful on me, and I think it was stressful on them as well. I flew United through Newark to Edinburgh. My flight to Newark was delayed by about 2 hours, but that didn't bother me since I had a 6hr layover in Newark. But it got crazy in Newark. There were storms up and down the eastern seaboard, which ended up causing a ground stop. Flights started to get backlogged, causing major delays and cancellations. My flight to EDI was originally scheduled for 8:10pm, but we kept getting delayed and didn't end up taking off until just after midnight.

During this time, there were multiple gate changes, and just bad info given by gate agents (they were doing the best they could tho). During this time I was getting more and more stressed that the flight wouldn't take off, or that my cats wouldn't make it on the plane, and I was worried I would wind up in Scotland but I would somehow have to reschedule the cats flight over and if it could be done before the health certificate expired.

Luckily the flight crew was waiting with all of us at the last gate and announced the updates which helped us all feel a bit better. I then went up to the captain and told him my cats would be on the plane and I was worried about them getting loaded due to the delays and gate changes. He reassured me he would confirm that they were. And he actually followed through on that - he personally came back to my seat to let me know they were boarded and I finally breathed a huge sigh of relief and relaxed for the flight.

Then at the ARC, we found out that apparently some paperwork had been removed from my one cat's crate. Our female cat's rabies & chip certificate had disappeared. Luckily, though, I had scanned and sent the paperwork to the ARC a few days before the flight to verify it was all in order. This was good enough for them to clear both the cats into our custody thankfully. Otherwise, we would have been delayed until they could have called my vet to verify the rabies and chip information.

Now my male cat has developed some kind of nervous affliction because he's over-grooming himself and causing some fur loss and scabs near his ears. I may have to find a way to get to the vet and see what they can do for him to get him to stop.

Oh my goodness!  What an ordeal you had.  I remember popping Xanax like candy when I had to travel with my cats (poor things are pretty seasoned travelers at this point) and I'm not a Xanax taker normally (my doctor gave me some the first time I was moving with the cats)!

How awesome that the Captain checked on the kitties to ease your worries!

I hope your kitty settles and stops the excessive licking.

Holy moly what a nightmare of a time you had Bluegrass Lass! Glad to hear that the Captain/crew were so helpful & that it worked out with the paperwork in the end, you must have just been so relieved to get off the plane and home with your cats after all that!

Good luck in finding a vet for your cats and hopefully they can help your poor kitty 

Bluegrasslass my kitty has been over grooming herself.  She had scabs up her spine and at the base of her tail.  Gave her flea drop medicine and they cleared up immediately.  We haven't seen any fleas but called the vet and they said it was.  Hopefully kitty is doing better now!