Free Quote · Dubai, UAE
Pet Relocation Quote Dubai
Tell us the pet, the route and your moving date, and you will have a fixed figure and a realistic timeline within 24 hours. One number covering permits, crate, veterinary coordination, airline charges, clearance and delivery — not a range, and not a deposit followed by surprises.
No obligation, no spam. If your route or your pet's breed makes the move impossible in the month you wanted, we will tell you that instead of quoting for it.
Ninety seconds
What we need from you
Five things. Four of them you already know, and the fifth takes a tape measure and two minutes. Send what you have and we will chase the rest ourselves.
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The route
Origin city and destination city, not just countries. Whether a route is direct matters more to the price and to your pet than the distance does.
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The pet
Species, breed and approximate weight. Breed is not a formality — it decides which carriers will accept the animal at all, and for flat-faced breeds it decides the season too.
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Age and health
Date of birth, and anything a vet is currently treating. Puppies and kittens have a minimum age before they can fly; older animals sometimes need a fitness-to-fly assessment.
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Your moving date
Even approximately. We build every schedule backwards from this date, because the fixed waiting periods in the middle cannot be compressed by working faster.
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Four measurements
A — nose to base of tail. B — ground to elbow. C — width across the shoulders. D — ground to the top of the head or the ear tips, whichever is higher. All with the animal standing. These four numbers set the crate, and the crate sets most of the price.
The arithmetic
How a pet relocation quote is built
Here is the part almost nobody explains, and the reason two quotes for the same pet can differ by thousands of dirhams. Airlines do not charge for live animals by what the animal weighs. They charge on chargeable weight, which is the greater of two figures: the actual weight of animal plus crate, or the volumetric weight of the crate — the space it occupies in the aircraft.
Volumetric weight uses the IATA industry-standard divisor of 6,000: multiply the crate's length, width and height in centimetres, then divide by 6,000. The answer is in kilogrammes. A few carriers use 5,000 instead, which produces a higher figure for the identical crate — one reason a like-for-like comparison between quotes is harder than it looks.
Worked example — a medium dog
Charged on 64 kg — more than double the animal's real weight.
Worked example — a cat, and then two cats
Both charged on the same 22 kg. Under the IATA rules two compatible cats of up to 14 kg each may share one container — so on the freight line, the second cat is close to free.
This is why we ask for four measurements before we quote anything, and why an off-the-shelf crate bought a size too large is the most expensive mistake available to you. A crate must let the animal stand fully upright without its ears touching the roof, turn around completely and lie down naturally — and it should do that with nothing to spare. We specify it to the animal, not to a catalogue.
On top of the freight line sit the permits, the veterinary work, the clearance at both ends and the ground transport. Those are the predictable part. The crate is where a quote is won or lost.
The five variables that move the figure
1 — The destination protocol
Not the distance, the rulebook. A move to the UK needs weeks; the identical pet going to Australia needs six to seven months, a rabies antibody test, a fixed 180-day wait and quarantine on arrival. That is veterinary work, lab fees, permit fees and holding costs, all before the aircraft.
2 — Crate size
The dominant variable, for the reason set out above. It also decides which aircraft can carry the shipment: a giant-breed container built to the IATA CR82 specification does not fit every hold, which narrows the routings available and therefore the competitive pricing.
3 — Season
Summer costs more out of Dubai, for reasons of physics rather than margin. The section below sets out the numbers.
4 — Breed
A flat-faced breed restricted to one carrier on your route has no competitive pricing available. A breed the UAE or the destination restricts may need a different destination airport altogether. Both are cheaper to discover now than in six weeks.
5 — How much you keep
Essentials from AED 4,000 covers permits, cargo booking, crate and health certification, and leaves the clearance and the vet appointments with you. Managed from AED 8,000 takes both. White Glove from AED 15,000 adds a flight nanny, boarding and a settling-in visit.
And one that does not
Cabin versus cargo is not a lever here. Pets travel to and from the UAE as manifested cargo — no airline serving Dubai carries them in the passenger cabin, certified assistance animals aside. Anyone quoting you a cheap cabin seat for a dog out of DXB is quoting for something that does not exist.
What is in the quote, and what is not
If you are holding a quote from somebody else, this is the list to check it against. The gaps are usually in the last three rows.
| Item | In a Foufoufly managed quote | Typical third-party cost if separate |
|---|---|---|
| MOCCAE import or export permit | Included | AED 200–400 |
| IATA-compliant crate, measured and fitted | Included | AED 300–1,200 by size |
| Cargo booking and air waybill | Included | Freight at chargeable weight |
| Export health certification | Included | Veterinary practice rates |
| Customs clearance, both ends | Included | Broker fees, route-dependent |
| Door-to-door collection and delivery | Included | Ground transport, both ends |
| Veterinary appointment scheduling | Included | — |
| Named coordinator for the whole move | Included | — |
| Rabies titre test, where required | At cost, quoted upfront | GBP 80–120 · USD 60–100 · AUD 150–220 |
| APHA endorsement (UK moves) | At cost, quoted upfront | GBP 80–150 |
| MOCCAE arrival inspection | At cost, quoted upfront | Approx AED 500 per dog · AED 250 per cat |
| Destination quarantine, where it applies | At cost, quoted upfront | Set by the authority — Australia charges per night |
Everything in the top group is one figure, fixed at the point you accept it. Everything in the bottom group is a third-party charge we cannot mark up or absorb — so we quote it openly, at cost, in the same document. You should be able to see which is which. If a quote you are holding does not separate them, ask why.
All prices in AED include 5% UAE VAT. Third-party charges are billed at cost. Terms apply.
Indicative only
What moves actually cost, by route
Real all-in bands from moves we have run, at the Managed tier, in AED. Your figure lands inside the band according to crate size, season and breed. Cats sit at the lower end, giant breeds at the upper.
| Route | Managed, all-in | What drives it |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom → Dubai | AED 12,000–18,000 | No titre test needed — a short, clean protocol |
| United States → Dubai | AED 13,000–20,000 | Longer sector, titre test from most states |
| France → Dubai | AED 12,000–18,000 | Low-risk origin, direct flights |
| Australia → Dubai | AED 18,000–26,000 | Long sector, limited live-animal capacity |
| Dubai → United Kingdom | AED 13,000–20,000 | UAE is a listed country — no antibody test |
| Dubai → Australia | AED 20,000–30,000 | 180-day wait, import permit, quarantine on arrival |
Not your route? We move pets worldwide — see pet relocation to Dubai and pet relocation from Dubai for the full picture in either direction. The line-by-line breakdown behind these bands is in our complete pet relocation cost guide, and the documentation behind the protocols is in our UAE pet import requirements guide.
Why the season changes the price
Carriers work to a live-animal acceptance threshold, widely set at no more than 29.5°C (85°F) and no less than 7.2°C (45°F) at any point on the itinerary — origin, any transit stop, and destination. For flat-faced breeds the ceiling drops further, to roughly 24–27°C, and some carriers replace it with an outright summer ban.
Now put Dubai's average highs beside that threshold:
| Month | Dubai average high | What it means for your move |
|---|---|---|
| June | 40°C | Night departures only, narrow windows |
| July | 41°C | Night departures only, flat-faced breeds usually embargoed |
| August | 41°C | Night departures only, flat-faced breeds usually embargoed |
| September | 39°C | Night departures, easing late in the month |
| October | 35°C | Wider choice, daytime still restricted |
| November | 30°C | Full routing choice returns |
Between June and September every pet leaving Dubai goes out at night, on a smaller set of flights, into finite live-animal capacity on each one. Confirmed space becomes the scarce thing rather than the freight rate, and booking late in a compressed window costs more than booking early into an open one. Live-animal cargo needs roughly seven to fourteen days' lead time as a floor, and in July that floor is optimistic.
The practical advice: if your move is flexible, October to April is cheaper, calmer and kinder to the animal. If it is not flexible, book as far ahead as you can and let us hold the space. We would rather tell you to wait six weeks than put a dog on a July afternoon departure.
What happens next
After you send the enquiry
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Within 24 hours — a real person replies
Not an autoresponder. Usually with two or three questions, because the first answer almost always changes something: a breed we need to check against a carrier list, or a date that collides with a waiting period.
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Eligibility confirmed before pricing
We check your pet against the destination's rules and each carrier's own restrictions on that route. If the move cannot happen the way you imagined it, you hear that first — before any figure and before any payment.
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The fixed quote and the timeline together
One figure, and the schedule built backwards from your moving date with the fixed waiting periods marked. You can see immediately whether the date works. See our pet relocation process for what each stage involves.
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You decide, with no pressure
No obligation and no deposit to get the quote. If you are comparing us against another shipper, the table above is the checklist — we would rather you chose us with your eyes open than wondered later what was missing.
Experience
Why our quote is a fixed figure
Five hundred relocations, zero rejections. We hold direct cargo accounts with Emirates SkyCargo, Etihad Cargo, Qatar Airways Cargo, IAG Cargo, Lufthansa Cargo and AFKLMP Cargo, so the freight line in your quote is a rate we can actually book — not an estimate from a third party who will revise it later.
A range is what you get when the shipper has not done the eligibility work yet. We do that work before quoting, which is why the number does not move afterwards. The only items that can change are the third-party charges in the lower half of the table above, and those are quoted at cost from the start.
A recent quote
A family moving from Dubai to Melbourne came to us holding a competitor's quote around a third cheaper than ours. It had no line for the 180-day antibody wait, no BICON permit fee and no quarantine nights at Mickleham — roughly a third of the real cost of that move, left off the page. We quoted the whole thing, including the parts we do not earn from, and they could finally compare like with like. Their dog flew in March and cleared quarantine in ten days because the identity verification was done correctly before the blood draw.
Sam Jamal founded Foufoufly after seeing how opaque this process is from the owner's side. The practice is IPATA-aligned and every shipment is crated to the IATA Live Animals Regulations, with permits filed against the current published requirements from MOCCAE and the destination authority. More about the team.
Moving as cargo is the norm here rather than the exception — pet shipping Dubai explains how the cargo side works end to end.
FAQ
Pet relocation quotes — frequently asked questions
How quickly will I get my quote?
Within 24 hours, from a person rather than an autoresponder. If your route needs a carrier to confirm something — live-animal capacity on a specific flight, or acceptance of a restricted breed — we will tell you that in the first reply and come back with the figure once we have the answer.
Why do you need my pet's measurements to quote?
Because airlines charge live animals on chargeable weight, which is the greater of the actual weight and the volumetric weight of the crate — the crate's length, width and height in centimetres divided by 6,000. A medium dog crate of 91 × 61 × 69 cm works out at roughly 64 kg volumetric against about 30 kg actual, so the crate is charged, not the dog. Without the measurements, any figure is a guess.
Is the quote fixed, or will it change later?
Fixed. One figure covering permits, crate, cargo booking, health certification, clearance both ends, veterinary scheduling and door-to-door transport. Third-party charges that we cannot absorb — the rabies titre test, an APHA endorsement, the MOCCAE arrival inspection, destination quarantine nights — are quoted at cost in the same document, so you can see which is which from the start.
How much does pet relocation from Dubai cost?
At the Managed tier, typically AED 13,000–20,000 to the UK and AED 20,000–30,000 to Australia, with inbound routes from AED 12,000. Our tiers start at AED 4,000 for Essentials, AED 8,000 for Managed and AED 15,000 for White Glove. Cats sit at the lower end of every band, giant breeds at the upper. The line-by-line breakdown is in our complete pet relocation cost guide.
Is it cheaper to move my pet in summer or winter?
Winter, and by a clear margin. Carriers will not accept live animals when temperatures along the itinerary exceed about 29.5°C, and Dubai averages 39–41°C from June to September. Every summer move therefore goes out at night, on fewer flights, into finite capacity — so confirmed space becomes scarce and the price rises. October to April is cheaper, calmer and kinder to the animal.
Do I have to pay anything to get a quote?
No. The quote and the timeline are free and carry no obligation, and we do not ask for a deposit to produce them. If your pet's breed or your chosen month makes the move unworkable, we will tell you that rather than quote for it.
Get your fixed quote
The pet, the route, the date — and four measurements if you have them. A real figure and a real timeline within 24 hours. No spam, no obligation.
hello@foufoufly.com · +971 50 451 0918
Subject to eligibility. Terms apply. All prices in AED, inclusive of 5% UAE VAT. Third-party charges billed at cost.