Exporting a Kitten
From Malaysia
Mainesory is in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Whether a kitten can reach you is decided almost entirely by your own country's rules for importing cats, not by us. Some accept a cat of Malaysian origin on a straightforward health certificate. Some require months of rabies antibody testing and a spell in quarantine. A small number do not permit it at all — if yours is one of them, we will tell you straight. This page sets out where each destination stands, so that you can judge for yourself before speaking to us.
Destinations at a Glance
The times below are the minimums the regulations impose — the waiting periods are fixed by law, not by how fast we work. Import rules change, so we re-check your country's requirements at the time of enquiry rather than relying on this table alone. The European Union row applies to all 27 member states: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
One caveat that applies almost everywhere
Nearly every short timeline published for pet travel describes the non-commercial regime — a person moving their own cat. Buying a kitten is a commercial import in most countries, which adds an import permit, sometimes a registered importer or a commercial registration in the destination, cargo-only carriage, and clearance through an approved border post. Switzerland, Norway, Russia, Kazakhstan and Laos all run explicitly separate commercial regimes. We plan for the commercial route, because that is what a purchase is.
| Destination | Status | Regulatory minimum | What it involves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Europe | |||
| United Kingdom | Workable | Regulatory minimum: ~6 weeks | No rabies titre test — Malaysia is a listed country. Peninsular Malaysia adds a Nipah virus certificate. A sale is a commercial import, so the cat clears a Border Control Post. |
| European Union | Workable | Regulatory minimum: ~6 weeks | One rule for all 27 member states, named in the note below the table. No rabies titre test. Rabies vaccine from 12 weeks of age, then a 21-day wait. Peninsular Malaysia adds a Nipah virus certificate. |
| Switzerland | Workable | Regulatory minimum: ~3 weeks | Switzerland classes Malaysia as a low-rabies-risk country, so no titre test and no import permit for a private move. Microchip before the rabies vaccine, then a 21-day wait. |
| Norway | Workable | Regulatory minimum: ~3 weeks | Norway applies the EU pet-travel rules and Malaysia is listed, so no antibody test. Microchip, rabies vaccine, 21-day wait, and notice to Mattilsynet at least 48 hours before arrival. A sale falls under EEA commercial import law. |
| Türkiye | Long preparation | Regulatory minimum: ~4 months | A rabies titre test with no country exemptions: blood drawn at least 30 days after vaccination at an EU-approved laboratory, then entry no earlier than three months after the sampling date. That clock cannot be shortened. |
| Russia | Long preparation | Regulatory minimum: ~2 months | No titre test, and rabies plus panleukopenia vaccination no later than 20 days before dispatch. But a sale is not a personal movement, so it needs a Rosselkhoznadzor import permit and 21 days quarantine at each end. There are no direct pet-cargo routes from Kuala Lumpur. |
| The Americas | |||
| United States (mainland) | Workable | Regulatory minimum: ~4 weeks | No federal rabies requirement for cats — the CDC's 2024 rule covers dogs only. Some states ask for a rabies certificate, so we check yours. Hawaii and Guam are separate regimes with much longer timelines; see Oceania & Pacific below. |
| Canada | Workable | Regulatory minimum: ~4 weeks | A rabies vaccination certificate from a licensed vet. No titre test and no quarantine. A commercial consignment needs a veterinary health certificate in addition. |
| Mexico | Workable | Regulatory minimum: ~4 weeks | The health certificate is issued on arrival at the inspection point. Rabies vaccine required from three months of age, health certificate within 10 days, parasite treatment within six months. No titre, no quarantine, no advance permit. |
| Costa Rica | Workable | Regulatory minimum: ~4 weeks | Microchip with the number on the certificate, current rabies vaccination, clinical exam within two weeks and deworming within 15 days of arrival. A kitten arriving as cargo rather than accompanied needs a prior import permit. |
| Panama | Workable | Regulatory minimum: ~4 weeks | A phytozoosanitary licence plus an export health certificate that must be apostilled or legalised at a Panamanian mission and is valid 30 days. Three to five working days' notice. A home-quarantine fee may apply on arrival. |
| Colombia | Workable | Regulatory minimum: ~3 weeks | No import document needed for cats. A first rabies vaccination must be at least 21 days before shipment, plus panleukopenia. Home quarantine of 15 days applies only if the health certificate is missing or expired. |
| Brazil | Workable | Regulatory minimum: ~3 weeks | The microchip must be implanted before or on the same day as the rabies vaccination, and a newly vaccinated cat may only leave 21 days after the shot. Clinical exam within 10 days. No titre, no quarantine, no permit. |
| Argentina | Workable | Regulatory minimum: ~3 weeks | A first rabies vaccination at least 21 days before entry, health certificate within 10 days and parasite treatment within 15 days. A microchip is not required. No titre, no quarantine. |
| Chile | Workable | Regulatory minimum: ~4 weeks | Permanent identification — a microchip or tattoo — has been mandatory since July 2026 and must appear on the certificate, along with a current rabies vaccination, clinical exam and deworming. No titre, no permit. |
| Middle East & Africa | |||
| South Africa | Workable | Regulatory minimum: ~4 weeks | The most straightforward destination on this table. A veterinary import permit, rabies vaccination between 30 days and 12 months before export, and a clinical exam within 10 days. No titre test and no quarantine for cats. |
| Oman | Long preparation | Regulatory minimum: ~4 months | A veterinary import permit, a rabies antibody test drawn 21 to 30 days after vaccination whose result must be at least three months old at export, and a minimum age of four months. |
| Mauritius | Long preparation | Regulatory minimum: ~4 months | An import permit applied for 45 days ahead, a rabies antibody test four weeks after vaccination with a further three-month wait, then five days or one month of quarantine on arrival. Cats must be sterilised unless a signed pedigree certificate names the sire and dam. |
| Asia | |||
| Thailand | Workable | Regulatory minimum: ~4 weeks | DLD import permit. Rabies vaccine at least 21 days before arrival. No titre test, no routine quarantine. |
| Philippines | Workable | Regulatory minimum: ~4 weeks | SPSIC clearance from the Bureau of Animal Industry. Rabies vaccine at least 14 days before travel. Microchip required. |
| Laos | Long preparation | Regulatory minimum: ~6 weeks | No titre test, but an animal imported for a business purpose requires an import permit applied for at least 15 days before arrival. A kitten sale falls in that category. |
| Sri Lanka | Long preparation | Regulatory minimum: ~2 months | An import permit at least two weeks ahead and rabies vaccination between 30 days and 10 months before departure. Every imported animal is subject to a statutory 30-day quarantine, normally served at the owner's premises under a surveillance agreement. |
| Kazakhstan | Long preparation | Regulatory minimum: ~2 months | Two animals moved privately need no permit, but a sale is a commercial shipment: import permit, 21 days quarantine and ringworm testing by culture or PCR during it. |
| Hong Kong | Long preparation | Regulatory minimum: 12 months+ | The paperwork is satisfiable in about four months, but the territory's licensed cat quarantine centre has 14 places and the published wait runs to roughly a year. Realistic only if you can wait that long. |
| China | Long preparation | Regulatory minimum: ~4 months | Thirty days quarantine unless a titre test from a customs-designated laboratory is supplied. One pet per person, and entry only at ports with isolation facilities. |
| Japan | Long preparation | Regulatory minimum: ~10 months | Two rabies vaccinations, a titre test at a designated lab, then a mandatory 180-day wait from the blood draw, plus 40 days advance notice to the Animal Quarantine Service. |
| South Korea | Long preparation | Regulatory minimum: ~3 months | Rabies titre test, plus a Malaysia-specific Nipah certificate and lab test. Without that certificate quarantine is extended by 21 days. |
| Oceania & Pacific | |||
| Hawaii (USA) | Long preparation | Regulatory minimum: ~10 weeks | Hawaii runs its own regime, not the mainland one. Two rabies vaccinations at least 30 days apart in the cat's lifetime, an approved antibody test, and a 30-day wait that starts when the laboratory receives the sample. Everything correct means release at the airport; anything missing means up to 120 days quarantine. A kitten is about six months old by the time this is done. |
| Guam (USA) | Long preparation | Regulatory minimum: ~6 months | Guam's five-day fast track is open only to animals originating in the mainland United States, so it is closed to us. The remaining route is a 120-day countdown that begins when the laboratory receives the antibody sample; any days not served before departure are served in a paid kennel on Guam. An entry permit is required before travel. |
Only destinations we have verified against an official government source are listed here. If your country is not on the table, ask us — either we have not checked it yet, or its rules do not allow a cat from Malaysia. We will find out and tell you which.
How the Process Works
Tell us where you are
Before anything else. Whether a kitten can travel to you is decided by your country's rules, not by us, and that answer changes everything that follows.
We check the current rules
We read your country's requirements as they stand today and send them to you in writing, together with an honest view of the timeline. Regulations in this area change, so we check every time rather than relying on what was true last year.
Health work and documents
Microchip first, then rabies vaccination — that order matters, because a vaccination recorded before a microchip is invalid almost everywhere and has to be repeated. Then core vaccinations, a titre test if your country requires one, and the veterinary health certificate from the Department of Veterinary Services.
Booking, crate and travel day
A licensed pet relocation agent handles the export permit, the airline booking and the IATA-compliant crate, sized for a Maine Coon rather than an average cat. Flights are chosen for the shortest routing and the coolest departure slot available.
Arrival and clearance
Your agent or your own government's inspection service receives the cat. Where quarantine applies, the place must be booked in advance — sometimes long in advance — and we plan backwards from that date.
What We Will and Will Not Do
Kitten-shipping fraud is common enough that buyer-education pages now treat any breeder offering delivery as a warning sign, and the second demand for money almost always arrives at the shipping stage. That is a fair thing to be wary of. So here is what we commit to, in terms you can hold us to.
No kitten travels before 12 to 14 weeks of age, or before its vaccination course is finished — whatever a destination's legal minimum happens to allow.
You apply for your own import permit, through your own government. We will never ask you to pay us for one.
We do not start paperwork, and do not take a reservation, until your country's rules have been checked and sent to you in writing.
We will tell you no. If your country's rules make a placement unrealistic, we say so instead of taking a deposit and hoping.
Every cost is quoted before anything is booked. Nothing appears later — no surprise crate surcharge, no refundable insurance, no customs fee payable to us.
We do not accept Western Union, MoneyGram, gift cards or cryptocurrency, in any circumstances. Anyone requesting those in our name is not us.
We will get on a live video call with the kitten before you commit to anything. Ask, and we will name the date on camera.
What the Cost Is Made Of
We quote per destination rather than publishing a figure, because air freight and quarantine move the total too much for a single number to mean anything. What we can do is show you every line that exists, so nothing on your invoice is a surprise:
- 01MAQIS export permit and inspection
- 02Veterinary examination and export health certificate from the Department of Veterinary Services
- 03ISO microchip and its implantation
- 04Rabies and core vaccinations
- 05Rabies titre (RNATT) blood test, where the destination requires one
- 06Nipah virus certificate and laboratory test, where the destination requires one
- 07IATA-compliant travel crate, sized for a Maine Coon
- 08Air freight, which is the largest single line and the one that moves most
- 09Fee for the licensed pet relocation agent
- 10Destination-side costs: your import permit, border inspection, and quarantine board where it applies
The final group is paid to your own government or its facilities, not to us. We never collect customs duties, import permits or quarantine fees on your behalf.
Common Questions
Everything we have verified against an official government source is in the table above, and it covers more than fifty countries once the European Union row is expanded. The United Kingdom, the EU, Switzerland, Norway, South Africa, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, Thailand and the Philippines are workable on a normal timeline. Türkiye, Russia, Oman, Mauritius, Laos, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, China, Japan, South Korea, Hawaii and Guam are possible but need months of preparation. If your country is not listed, ask — either we have not checked it yet, or its rules do not allow a cat from Malaysia, and we will tell you which.
From roughly four weeks for destinations that need no rabies titre test, to around ten months for Japan, to about a year for Hong Kong because of its quarantine waiting list. The times shown are the minimums the regulations impose, not an estimate of how quickly we work — the waiting periods are fixed by law and cannot be shortened.
We quote per destination, because the figure is driven by air freight and by whether your country requires a titre test or quarantine — those two things can double it. We will not give you a number before we have checked your country's rules, and we itemise everything before anything is booked. What the cost is made up of is listed on this page.
Not out of Malaysia in practice. Malaysia Airlines does not allow pets in the cabin and AirAsia does not carry them at all, so a kitten travels either as manifested cargo or as checked baggage if you fly here to collect. Flying in and accompanying the kitten home is often the calmer option, and for some destinations it is also the simpler one legally.
Then we say so at the first conversation, before any money changes hands. We would rather lose the sale than take a deposit for a placement that cannot legally happen. If the rules change later, we are happy to be contacted again.
Ask About Your Country
Tell us where you are and we will tell you honestly whether it is workable, roughly how long it would take, and what it would involve. If the answer is no, you will hear that too.