Settling an indoor cat into a new home abroad — how long did it take?

Four days under the bed is completely normal — please don't panic. Ours hid for nearly a week. What helped: confining her to ONE quiet room first with all her stuff, rather than the whole strange flat, so she had a small safe base to expand from.

Bring the old, unwashed bedding and toys — do NOT wash them before the move. The familiar smell in a strange place is hugely reassuring to a cat. Mine calmed noticeably once her own scent was around her.

A calming pheromone diffuser plugged in the room genuinely seemed to help ours. And patience — let her come to you, resist the urge to pull her out for cuddles. On her timeline, not yours, is the whole game.

OP here — the 'one room first, don't wash the bedding, pheromone diffuser' combo is exactly the reassurance I needed. She poked her nose out this morning for the first time. Thank you, I'd convinced myself I'd traumatised her.

Keep her routine as identical as possible — same food, same feeding times, same litter. Everything else in her world changed, so the things you CAN keep constant do a lot of quiet work to settle her.

Ours took a good three weeks to be fully herself again, so give it time before you worry. If she's eating, drinking and using the litter tray even while hiding, she's coping — those are the signs that matter, not whether she's visible.

Register with a local vet early even before you think you need one, just so you have someone to call if the stress causes her to stop eating for too long. We didn't, then scrambled — better to have it lined up.

If she's an escape risk once she's braver, double-check window screens and get her microchip details updated to your new address/country straight away. A newly-relocated cat that bolts is much harder to recover.