08/27/2026
Hey you! Do you have a cat who struggles to load into a crate?
So do we!
Here's both the problem and how we fixed it.
This is Teddy. Teddy enjoys physical contact expressly on her terms and only when she specifically invites it. She does NOT like to be picked up, held, or restrained. This means crating her manually is a fairly violent and stressful affair- try it and she'll yowl, scratch, and bite while trying to get away from you and from the carrier. It will be altogether a terrible experience for both Teddy and whichever poor soul had the misfortune of having to wrangle her.
This is not ideal, so we chose another approach.
Conveniently, Teddy is extremely food motivated. This gave us an easy in.
We started with dinner being fed outside of, but near an open carrier. Over time we moved it closer, then just inside the door, then farther back. Eventually she started to anticipate meals being given in the carrier, so at meal time she now goes into the crate to wait for her food.
This means we can get her crated up if we need to just by calling her as if it's time for a meal, letting her go in, giving her a few treats to reinforce it, and closing the door.
No fight. Now yowling. No injuries.
Does this mean she likes the crate now? Unfortunately, no. She still hates being closed in and immediately makes her opinion about being locked up known, but it is at least one fewer stressor in the times she needs to be put in a carrier, and that's better than where we started.
We do need to recondition it after every time we have to close her in, but it is worth the effort. For her, it takes exactly three days each time before we are back to normal with her going into the crate on her own to wait for her food.
Whenever possible, find ways to work with your cats instead of forcing them through it when they're stressed. Both you and your kitties will be grateful for it. 💜
