Male Cat Spraying

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Male Cat Spraying

by Michael
(London)

Cat territorial confrontation, copyright Sheila Steele (Creative Commons)

Male cat spraying is a very useful form of communication, both short and long term, for a cat.

There's lots of information on the internet about how to stop cats doing what, in fact, comes naturally to them, namely, spraying.

It is firstly useful to remind ourselves that neutering your cat will reduce spraying. Neutering should be a standard process.

It may also help to remind ourselves that urine spraying is a problem for humans but not for cats. A lot of sites talk about spraying as a problem. We need to understand our cat's behavior and work with it rather than against it.

We don't try and change out girlfriend's behavior and if we do we'll fail and lose her (and vica-versa). We accept the behavior of others provided it is reasonable.

To a cat, urine spraying is more than reasonable, it is an essential and highly useful form of non-vocal communication that we, as humans, can't match.

Of course urine spraying is communication through scent. Cats have great noses and use their sense of smell more than we do.

Spraying on a prominent object will leave a long term form of communication that both tells a cat that another cat is about and when he was about. In other words it provides a record (as good as a written record) of another cat's movements.

We are still not sure as to all the functions of leaving scent through spraying. But here are some:

deterring another cat onto his territory

enhancing the cat's confidence of being in a particular area

urine scent is particular to each cat so provides a marker as to who is around

sprayed urine has a different scent to "normal" urine

fresh spray sends a "red stop light" signal to keep out or face confrontation

old spray scent provides a "green go light" that other cats can enter the area without confrontation

female spraying can give indications to a tom cat as to her sexual receptiveness

In addition when feces are left unburied it indicates the cat is not subservient and is boss cat, while burying feces (more normally encountered for humans) indicates that the cat is subservient (to the human carer).

Lets remind ourselves that we need not think of a cat's normal behavior as a problem or bad; just different (and sometimes better) than our behavior and we should try and fit in.

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Male Cat Spraying

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Jun 16, 2009
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Video - How to Stop Cat Spraying
by: Michael

Here is a BBC video (with an advert at the beginning, beware) about how to stop cat spraying:

Jan 20, 2009
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Not quite spraying
by: Anonymous

I am not sure but cats like to leave scent on our furniture and ourselves (brushing against us for example). What you are describing seems to be a form of this. I makes him feel more comfortable. I don't get the impression that he is stressed but he may be a bit for some reason or another. He may be a nervous boy. You might try this product and see what happens. It is for aggression. Your cat is not aggressive but the same underlying condition may be present, stress.

Aggression Formula by PetAlive - Natural Remedy for Stressed and Aggressive Pets

I am not a vet. This product may not be available in the UK. If it helps it would indicate that stress is the underlying source of the problem.

Jan 20, 2009
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not quite spraying
by: Anonymous

Hi All

My 7 year old neutered male cat has started to leave a musk scent on me and bedding so its not quite spraying, I wonder why this is and if this will ever stop - he is very healthy. He sometimes 'flicks' his tail with no spray appearing but later when he jumps up into my lap he is quite 'smelly'.....this is no doubt frustrating for me and him as our cuddles are now non exsistent. please can someone advise.

Dec 16, 2008
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Stopping male cat spraying
by: Anonymous

I personally have never suffered from the difficulties of dealing with male cat spraying. Nor, for that matter, female cat spraying.

The experts say spaying a female cat and neutering a male cat will help a lot to reduce spraying. That must be the first automatic thing to do, unless one is a breeder and want male stud cats. But male studs are usually kept outside in cages/enclosures for the very reason that their behavior makes them difficult for a human to live with (i.e. the spraying being a major element).

That said a male cat will spray more when stressed. I am not an expert, but a relaxed cat, comfortable with his surroundings is much less likely to spray. We should check out what we are doing when we deal with this. Are there other cats around, intruding, for example? Are we away a lot? These sorts of things can cause stresses in a cat.

I guess, that if we are doing everything correctly and our male cat still sprays there may be psychological issues (for the cat). This would mean seeing a vet. We should be cautious though as there will be natural variation between cats.

Do cats spray less with age? I am not sure. But commonsense tells me, yes. Middle age for a cat (a decent and healthy moggie) is about 8 years of age so I'd have thought there would be less spraying at and beyond that age but would welcome input and advice from an "expert".

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Dec 16, 2008
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Submitted by: Anonymous

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I personally have never suffered from the difficulties of dealing with male cat spraying. Nor, for that matter, female cat spraying. The experts say spaying a female cat and neutering a male cat will help a lot to reduce spraying. That must be the first automatic thing to do, unless one is a breeder and want male stud cats. But male studs are usually kept outside in cages/enclosures for the very reason that their behavior makes them difficult for a human to live with (i.e. the spraying being a major element). That said a male cat will spray more when stressed. I am not an expert, but a relaxed cat, comfortable with his surroundings is much less likely to spray. We should check out what we are doing when we deal with this. Are there other cats around, intruding, for example? Are we away a lot? These sorts of things can cause stresses in a cat. I guess, that if we are doing everything correctly and our male cat still sprays there may be psychological issues (for the cat). This would mean seeing a vet. We should be cautious though as there will be natural variation between cats. Do cats spray less with age? I am not sure. But commonsense tells me, yes. Middle age for a cat (a decent and healthy moggie) is about 8 years of age so I'd have thought there would be less spraying at and beyond that age but would welcome input and advice from an "expert".

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Dec 15, 2008
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male cats sprayinng
by: Anonymous

Can you please tell me how long does it take for my cats to stop spraying

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