Questions for Cat Owners

can you tell me a bit about the process about taking your cats there? what is necessary. My sponsor is not "allowing" pets but i want to find a route around this, if possible.

I will be using a professional service called PetRelocation, but here are a couple of threads I came across earlier in my own research:

Pet Owners: A Mini Guide to Relocating

Formalities to Bringing Your Pet to Saudi Arabia

Hope that helps!

For future reference in case somebody else ever researches this topic: Purina Arabia responded that their prescription food is not available in Saudi Arabia. Bummer. I am wondering how other pet owners with dogs or cats on a prescription diet manage the situation... I will ask my US vet for recommendations.

Also still curious if anyone knows where to get larger cat trees and such, and still hoping for Khobar area cat/pet shop and vet recommendations. Thanks!

There is a woman in Saudi who helps with pet relocations. Her name is Joy Neumann and she has a facebook page called Pet Imports Saudi Arabia. Here's a direct link: facebook.com/pages/Pet-Imports-Saudi-Arabia/498597653600920

Again, I'm answering my own question just for future reference in case somebody else researches this topic: regarding large cat trees, I found the twitter account of a store called "Pets Houses" near (or in?) the Mall of Dhahran... they have photos that depict exactly the kind of tall climbing trees that I was looking for, plus plenty of other pet stuff. Will report in more detail if/when I get there.

@lahedes, no worries about pets here in saudi especially the feline kind. i have two at my house. there are many pet shops in riyadh, al khobar and other areas so do are the availability of vet doctors. you can purchase animal foods from the shops or arrange to order your specific cat food. Since you will be based in Alkhobar area, your nearest dependable vet clinics will be inside the Saudi Aramco compounds where you will find western supplies and medics.

cats are not allowed to roam the streets. that means you need to keep them inside your house/apartment, if you will be housed in the city. but if your accommodation is inside a residential compound, chances are you can let your cats go out climb trees.

you need to have vet card for each cat you bring. it's kind of a passport for the cats that you will show to the airline staff and airport authorities. the card will bear the cats photo, name/breed, vaccines taken, date vaccines taken etc signed by your vet. your vetmed knows these things when you tell him that you're going to take out the outside the country.

hope these info helps.

Dear All,

thanks for all the helpful feedback and information. This post is just for future reference if anybody else researches this topic.

(1) I found prescription diet urinary-related food at "Pet Houses" which has two locations in Dhahran (one near Ikea across from the Mall of Dhahran, the other [bigger one] at King Faisal Rd & Tariq Bin Ziyad St); the brand is Royal Canin and the dry food pieces are a little bigger and harder than Purina. They are probably also available elsewhere.

(2) Those stores also have plenty of cat trees and scratching posts, although not of the extra-large size that I was looking for. Nevertheless, good assortment. There are also other pet stores in this area, such as "Purrfect Pets" (on King Fahd Rd near King Saud Rd); this place also has an attached clinic and helps with pet import. There are plenty of veterinarians in the area; simply asking around gave me half a dozen leads. I'm looking for a home vet (i.e. one that travels to your place) and the ones at "Purrfect Pets" seem to be doing that.

(3) I ended up using "Air Animal" for the pet relocation and have no complaints whatsoever. The total door-to-door premium-service relocation costs for two cats from Brooklyn, NYC, was a little under $6,000 (as advertised on their website). Since I was already in the Kingdom, the cats shipped as CARGO, which is a slightly different process from taking them with you in the cabin. The cats flew with Lufthansa which has a pet lounge in Frankfurt - so during their layover they were cleaned up, put into larger cages, and photos were taken and sent to me by email (which I didn't know until I got them). I went to Dammam airport for their arrival (required even if it's door-to-door service) and it was a little unnerving to see your cats in a big warehouse with speeding forklifts and tons of pallets around, but they were healthy and unharmed. Their plane arrived at midnight and it took a few hours to get them through customs, but I had expected that. Overall, $6,000 wasn't cheap, but well worth it because it was a seamless process and I did not have to deal with anything at all except for getting them their vaccinations (minimum 30 days before travel, and only from USDA-certified vet!) and microchips ahead of time.

Thanks again to user "Texas Rose" with whom I had communicated a few times and to user "mannyd" for his insights.