Cat Boarding Red Flags: 12 Warning Signs of a Bad Cattery in NZ

Most catteries in New Zealand are run by people who genuinely love cats. They've invested their savings, redesigned their properties, and built their lives around providing quality care. We see this every day at PawSpot.

But not every cattery deserves your trust.

New Zealand's pet boarding industry has a regulation problem. There's no licensing requirement, no mandatory inspections, and — as the SPCA has publicly stated — boarding establishments are "not currently subject to routine inspection." The industry self-regulates, which means the difference between the best and worst facilities is enormous.

Over a recent two-year period, the SPCA received 56 complaints about pet care facilities in New Zealand — roughly one a fortnight. Complaints included dirty premises, inadequate security, lack of veterinary care for sick animals, and insufficient staff. And those are just the ones that were formally reported.

Knowing what to look for protects your cat. Here are 12 red flags that should make you walk away.

Quick Answer

The biggest warning signs are: refusing to let you visit before booking, strong ammonia or urine smell, cats from different households sharing airspace, no vaccination requirements, and staff who can't answer basic questions about their care routines. If a cattery triggers even two or three of these, keep looking.

1. They Won't Let You Visit Before Booking

A cattery that's proud of its facilities will want you to see them

This is the single biggest red flag — and the easiest to spot because it happens before you even get through the door.

Every reputable cattery in New Zealand welcomes pre-booking visits. They want you to see the units, meet the staff, and ask questions. It's how they build trust, and it's how they assess whether your cat is a good fit for their facility.

A cattery that discourages visits, makes excuses about timing, or only offers photos on their website is hiding something. Maybe the facility doesn't match the marketing. Maybe it's overcrowded. Maybe it's just not clean enough to show a prospective customer.

Whatever the reason, if you can't see where your cat will sleep before you hand them over, don't hand them over. Our cattery inspection guide covers exactly what to look for when you do visit.

2. The Smell Hits You Before You're Through the Door

A cattery that houses multiple cats will never smell like a florist. But there's a world of difference between "faintly of cat" and "ammonia and stale urine."

Strong odours indicate inadequate cleaning, poor ventilation, or both. Ammonia from accumulated urine is more than just unpleasant — it's a respiratory irritant that can cause breathing problems in cats, especially in enclosed spaces with poor airflow.

A well-maintained cattery should smell neutral to mildly of cleaning products. Litter trays should be clean, bedding should be fresh, and the overall impression should be "tidy" not "overwhelming."

If the smell makes you wrinkle your nose, imagine your cat living in it for a week.

3. Cats from Different Households Can Touch or Sneeze on Each Other

Disease control is fundamental to safe cat boarding. The baseline standard — outlined in the Code of Welfare: Temporary Housing of Companion Animals — is that cats from different households should never be able to make direct physical contact, and they should be protected from airborne disease transmission.

In practical terms, this means:

• Individual units with solid dividers (not just wire mesh between neighbours)
• Sneeze barriers — physical barriers that prevent respiratory droplets from travelling between units
• Separate food bowls, litter trays, and bedding for each cat
• Staff changing gloves or washing hands between handling cats from different households

If you visit a cattery and see cats from different families in an open communal area, or units separated only by wire mesh with no sneeze guards, that's a facility where one cat with an upper respiratory infection can spread it to every other cat in the building within days.

4. They Don't Ask About Vaccinations

Every reputable cattery in NZ requires proof of current F3 vaccination — covering feline parvovirus, calicivirus, and herpesvirus. This isn't bureaucracy. It's the basic line of defence against infectious disease in a multi-cat environment.

A cattery that doesn't ask for vaccination certificates — or that waves the requirement aside with "oh, it'll be fine" — is telling you something important about how seriously they take biosecurity. If they're relaxed about the most fundamental health safeguard, what else are they cutting corners on?

Some catteries also require flea and worm treatment before admission. This is good practice, not an inconvenience.

5. Staff Can't Answer Basic Care Questions

Competent staff should confidently explain their daily routines, feeding protocols, and emergency procedures

When you visit or call a cattery, ask a few simple questions:

• "What's your daily routine for the cats?"
• "What happens if my cat stops eating?"
• "What do you do if a cat gets sick overnight?"
• "How many cats does each staff member care for?"

The answers should be specific, confident, and detailed. A good cattery has clear protocols for these situations — they've thought about them, trained for them, and dealt with them before.

If the response is vague ("oh, we keep an eye on things"), dismissive ("that doesn't really happen"), or uncertain ("I'd have to check"), those are signs the facility lacks proper care systems.

Under the Code of Welfare, staff at boarding facilities must be "competent and properly trained to deliver standardised care" and know when to seek veterinary advice. If the people caring for your cat can't articulate their own processes, they probably don't have robust ones.

6. The Facility Is Cramped or Overcrowded

Cats need space. Not luxury-suite space necessarily, but enough room to move, stretch, access food and water separately from their litter tray, and ideally have a raised platform to perch on.

Warning signs of overcrowding:

• Units that are barely bigger than the cat inside them
• Food bowls placed right next to litter trays
• No vertical space — nothing for cats to climb on or hide under
• More cats visible than the facility seems designed to hold
• Staff who seem rushed, frazzled, or unable to spend time with individual cats

One cattery owner told us that even spending ten minutes with each cat quickly adds up to over an hour and a half at capacity. If a facility seems to have more cats than staff can reasonably monitor, the care quality will inevitably suffer.

7. No Isolation Area for Sick Cats

This is a non-negotiable. Every boarding facility should have a separate area — physically isolated from the main boarding units — where a cat showing signs of illness can be housed until they're assessed by a vet.

Without isolation, a cat that develops symptoms of an upper respiratory infection, ringworm, or gastrointestinal illness is sitting among healthy cats, potentially spreading disease.

Ask specifically: "Do you have an isolation area?" and "What's your protocol when a cat gets sick?" If the answer is unclear or the area doesn't exist, this facility doesn't meet basic welfare standards.

We've covered what happens when cats get sick at a cattery in detail — it's worth reading so you know what proper protocols look like.

8. No Written Contract or Terms and Conditions

A professional cattery will have you sign a boarding agreement before your cat's stay. This typically covers:

• Emergency veterinary authorisation
• Feeding and medication instructions
• Pickup and drop-off arrangements
• Liability terms
• Cancellation and payment policies

A cattery that operates on a handshake and a cash payment is one where there's no accountability if something goes wrong. And according to Consumer NZ, if things do go wrong, having a written agreement is essential for pursuing any claim.

No paperwork means no trail, which means no recourse.

9. They Discourage You From Bringing Your Cat's Own Food

Good catteries welcome — and encourage — owners to bring their cat's regular food

Dietary consistency matters enormously for boarded cats. A sudden change in food can cause digestive upset at the best of times — in a stressed cat in an unfamiliar environment, it's a recipe for vomiting, diarrhoea, and further appetite loss.

Good catteries actively encourage owners to bring their cat's regular food. If a cattery insists on using only their own food and won't accommodate your cat's existing diet, that's a sign they're prioritising convenience over your cat's welfare.

The exception is if a cattery offers premium food as an option alongside BYO — that's fine and fairly common. The red flag is when they refuse to work with what your cat actually eats.

10. Online Reviews Tell a Consistent Negative Story

A single bad review doesn't necessarily mean much. People have bad days, miscommunications happen, and sometimes expectations are unrealistic.

But patterns matter. If multiple reviews mention the same issues — cats returned unwell, poor communication, facility not matching the photos, cats escaping, unexplained injuries — pay attention. Three or four people describing the same problem is a pattern, not a coincidence.

Check Google reviews, Facebook, and community forums. Look at the cattery's responses to negative reviews too — a professional operation will address complaints calmly and constructively. Defensive, dismissive, or aggressive responses to criticism are their own kind of red flag.

11. They're Suspiciously Cheap

Cat boarding in NZ typically costs $20-35 per night for a standard single-cat unit. If a cattery is charging significantly below market rate — say, $10-12 per night — ask yourself how they're making the numbers work.

Lower prices can mean:

• More cats per staff member (less individual attention)
• Less frequent cleaning
• Cheaper food and supplies
• No vet relationship for emergencies
• Minimal facility maintenance

There are genuinely affordable catteries that provide excellent care by keeping overheads low. But a price that's dramatically below the local average usually means corners are being cut somewhere. Quality care costs money to deliver.

12. Your Gut Says No

This one isn't scientific, but it's real. If something feels off when you visit — the staff seem disinterested, the cats seem agitated, the facility feels neglected, or you just can't put your finger on why you're uncomfortable — trust that instinct.

You're about to leave a living creature in someone else's care. If you wouldn't be comfortable spending a night there yourself, your cat shouldn't either.

What NZ Law Actually Requires

It's worth understanding how limited the regulatory framework is, so you know what you're relying on when you choose a cattery.

What exists:

• The Code of Welfare: Temporary Housing of Companion Animals sets minimum standards for food, shelter, health monitoring, and staff competency
• The Animal Welfare Act 1999 provides the overarching legal framework
• The SPCA can investigate complaints

What doesn't exist:

• No licensing requirement to operate a cattery
• No mandatory registration in most council areas (only Wellington requires it)
• No routine inspections — facilities are typically only visited after a complaint
• No governing body since the NZ Boarding Kennel and Cattery Association disbanded in 2007

The SPCA advocates for all boarding establishments to be independently inspected and regulated. Until that happens, the responsibility for vetting a cattery falls entirely on you.

This isn't meant to be alarming — it's meant to be empowering. You can't rely on a regulatory body to have checked a cattery before you book. So check it yourself.

What to Do If Something Goes Wrong

Knowing your rights means you can act quickly if your cat's care falls short

If your cat is returned from a cattery injured, unwell, or you discover the care wasn't as promised:

1. Document everything. Photograph your cat's condition at pickup. Save all communications — texts, emails, booking confirmations. Get a vet assessment as soon as possible if your cat seems unwell or injured.

2. Contact the cattery. Raise the issue directly, in writing. Explain what happened and what outcome you expect (refund, compensation for vet bills, etc.).

3. Know your rights. Under the Consumer Guarantees Act, services must be carried out with reasonable care and skill. If a cattery has failed to provide the level of care a reasonable person would expect, you can request compensation including:

• A refund or partial refund of boarding fees
• Reimbursement for veterinary costs
• Compensation for reasonably foreseeable consequential losses

4. Escalate if needed. If the cattery won't engage:

• File a complaint with the SPCA if it's an animal welfare concern
• Report to your local council if the cattery operates in an area requiring registration
• Contact MPI for serious welfare code breaches
• Take the matter to the Disputes Tribunal for claims up to $30,000

5. Leave an honest review. Your experience — good or bad — helps other cat owners make informed decisions.

The Green Flags: What Good Looks Like

To balance this out, here's what you should see at a cattery worth trusting:

• Open invitation to visit before booking, no appointment games
• Clean, neutral-smelling facility with visible cleaning routines
• Individual units with sneeze barriers between cats from different households
• Vaccination requirements enforced — no exceptions without good reason
• Staff who ask detailed questions about your cat's diet, behaviour, and health
• Written boarding agreement covering emergencies, feeding, and liability
• Visible enrichment — platforms, hiding spots, toys, natural light
• Clear emergency vet relationship — they should be able to name their vet
• Willingness to accommodate your cat's food and routine
• Consistent positive reviews with professional responses to any criticism

For a complete checklist, see our cattery inspection guide and our guide on choosing the right cattery.

FAQ

Is there a licensing requirement for catteries in New Zealand?

No. There's no national licensing requirement to operate a cattery in NZ. Catteries must comply with the Code of Welfare: Temporary Housing of Companion Animals, but routine inspections aren't mandated. Only Wellington City Council currently requires catteries to register.

How many complaints does the SPCA receive about boarding facilities?

Over a recent two-year period, the SPCA received 56 complaints about pet care facilities — approximately one complaint per fortnight. Issues included dirty premises, inadequate security, lack of veterinary care, and insufficient staffing.

What should I do if my cat comes home sick or injured from a cattery?

Document your cat's condition with photos, get a vet assessment, and contact the cattery in writing. Under the Consumer Guarantees Act, you can claim a refund and compensation for vet costs if the cattery failed to provide reasonable care. Escalate to the SPCA for welfare concerns or the Disputes Tribunal for unresolved claims.

Are cheap catteries always bad?

Not necessarily — some well-run catteries keep prices low through efficient operations. But prices significantly below the local average (under $15 per night when the norm is $20-35) should prompt questions about staffing levels, cleaning frequency, and care quality.

What vaccinations should a cattery require?

At minimum, a current F3 vaccination covering feline parvovirus, calicivirus, and herpesvirus, administered at least two weeks before boarding. Many also require flea and worm treatment. A cattery that doesn't ask for vaccination proof at all is a major red flag.

Can I report a cattery to anyone in NZ?

Yes. Report animal welfare concerns to the SPCA, welfare code breaches to MPI, and consumer complaints to your local council. For financial claims, the Disputes Tribunal handles matters up to $30,000.

Summary

• Always visit before booking — a cattery that refuses visits is hiding something
• Trust your nose — strong ammonia or urine smell means inadequate cleaning
• Check disease control — solid dividers, sneeze barriers, and isolation areas are non-negotiable
• Vaccination requirements are a baseline — no cattery should skip them
• Test the staff — ask about daily routines and emergency protocols
• Read reviews for patterns — one complaint is noise, three about the same issue is a signal
• Get everything in writing — no contract means no recourse
• Know your rights — the Consumer Guarantees Act covers boarding services
• NZ has minimal regulation — the responsibility for vetting a cattery falls on you