800 miles with 4 pigs, a gerbil and a 9 month old...and a wife

[Hooray4Ashley]

Sorry...Just saw you were moving from Daytona.

 

[Lakota]

Have you thought of renting an RV for transporting everyone? Then you could put the guinea pigs in the back part in their carriers; just be sure to rig a way to prevent the carriers from moving around so much.

This is off-topic, but your title made me laugh.

 

[animalhouse]

Good luck! I have 3 dogs 3 cats 2 pigs and a fish tank! So I know how hard it could be! I am also near Tampa!

 

[corie dora]

We're moving from Florida back to my mom's house in Virginia.

Ok, I'm new here, and am not even from the USA....

But going from Florida to Virginia is not a 3 day trip. This whole thread seems moot to me.

I've woken up in West Virginia (which is farther from FLA than VA) had a lengthy breakkie, got on the road, and been in Boca Raton sometime in the afternoon.

It only takes a day and a half to get to Florida from Ontario, and that's including having a good sleep at some point.

I don't see why you can't make the trip twice in the day. Its not like you're moving across the country.

Surely you can leave your pets for just one night. Bring just the dogs with the fam, then go back the next day for the small pets. Leave the AC on in the old house. Or board them for one night.

This is not rocket science.

 

[piggly wiggly]

I don't think you needed to be so harsh, corie dora. He is doing this trip with a 9 month old baby, that means alot of stops, for feeding, diaper changes, hotel stops for the babyto sleep comfortably etc. And I don't know about you, but I would not like to drive to Florida non stop, especially with kids, it usually takes us 3-4 days to get there, depending how much time we spend in the City we stopped to sleep at.

 

[Mexicopenny]

Well I traveled with my Parents and 3 siblings from Southern New Jersey to central Mexico(the country) with two vans ,a car top carrier, a extra large trailer, 5 angora rabbits ,and then 1 guinea pig. My mom drove the whole way with all the animals in her car. It was a 6 day trip and I think it was about 27,000 miles.
My mom said that your wife should buck up a bit. 800 miles can be pushed into a one day trip , but that would be pritty grueling. For my guinea pig I put him in one of those " My first pet " homes and he did pritty well. Since our trip took so long I also bought one of those guinea pig runs for when we stayed at friends houses.Well thats all about our experience. Traveling with guinea pigs was not really hard for us, so i hope it will be even easier for you.

 

[diane]

Not sure if this is possible or not, but is there anyway before you make the big move if your mom could meet you half way and you could hand over some of the pets? This would make it less stressful I would think on all parties involved. But like I said I don't know if having your mother or a friend meet you is even a possiblilty. Whatever you do good luck.

 

[corie dora]

I don't think you needed to be so harsh, corie dora. He is doing this trip with a 9 month old baby, that means alot of stops, for feeding, diaper changes, hotel stops for the babyto sleep comfortably etc. And I don't know about you, but I would not like to drive to Florida non stop, especially with kids, it usually takes us 3-4 days to get there, depending how much time we spend in the City we stopped to sleep at.

I'm sorry I came across that way. Its not my intent. It just doesn't make sense to me, as I've done that drive before, several times, and it doesn't seem that long or far to me.

800 miles, going 70 mph on an interstate is only 11 hours. Factor in a half hour break for diapers and snacks every 4 hours or so, and its still just a 13 hour trip. Add on another hour or two for the unexpected poopy diaper at the side of the interstate, tending to your pets, bouncing baby and whatever else might pop up and its still completely within the realm of one day, without even stretching yourself beyond normal waking hours, something parents usually do most days anyhow. Maybe I'm just super mom myself, but it really doesn't seem an insurmountable feat.

Sometimes when we're faced with a new situation, we look at mole hills as mountains, perhaps this is the case?

I also have a child myself, and have done a fair amount of travelling with him. In my experience, any long car trips after 6 mos but before the age of one year were much much easier than after that, so they might as well 'enjoy' it now, cause it only goes down hill for the next few years! There's often more sleeping than anything at this age. That doesn't mean that Mom isn't totally exempt from playing peekaboo, shaking rattles, making faces and awkwardly leaning over the seat to bf in motion, but the frequency of those things is SO much less than it will be this time next year. Imagine doing that trip with a two year old who just wants to run, and can't for the life of him/her understand why you want them in the car seat. Its not pleasant.

Everybody has their limits as to what they can do. For some people, I suppose a half hour car ride would be it for them. It just seems that there are so many different solutions, and so many scenarios as to what can be done with pets during a move...there have been many many excellent suggestions here.

I'm interested to know if the original poster will take any of these suggestions.

 

[LobsterOverlord]

Ok, we made it. We planned it as a three day trip in case we had to deal with a fussy baby or other issues. It's actually a 16 hour trip even going at full speed because you have mountains, other cars, construcition and of course, not every state has a 70 MPH speedlimit... (55 through some areas of NC and GA).

Took about 16 with stops. We did do it over two days. The piggies were great. We used the little carriers that we had for them, gave them lots of veggies doused in water to help keep them cool. The temp never got over 70, so the A/C in the truck did well enough to keep them (and us) cool. THere were no problems with the move for the 4 of them. THanks for all the tips, info, and help on this.


All are well and as for stops, we limited them to when the baby was awake. If Max was asleep, we kept on driving right past the rest stops unless we needed them. He did amazing on the ride up.

Now I have to rebuild the cages still

John M>

 

[VoodooJoint]

Glad you all made it in one piece.

 

[nismosmama]

That is awesome, I'm glad you all made it there in one piece . Sounds like everything worked out just fine. I think we as humans are inclined to overthink stuff sometimes, hehe, when it really is pretty simple , sounds like your original plan was just fine.