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Cat marking
neth
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
ugh incoming wall o text
So starting sometime early February one or both of my cats started marking. I have 2 cats, brother and sister from the same litter, that have lived together with me in the same house since they were 12 weeks old. They are now about to turn 3 years old. I've only ever caught the male cat (tigger) actively marking, he's been to the vet and nothing medically wrong. There hasn't been any changes in his litter/diet/surroundings at all near that time. There is an outdoor cat that comes around and might upset them, but it's been around for almost a year now and hasn't caused any issues prior to this.
The girl cat (Mushu) has seemed to be more prone to random play attacks on the male cat and I'm wondering if this is some sort of power struggle and it will work itself out or what. I have them separated at the moment because I don't really know what to do and it's getting to be at the point where things are getting ruined. When I keep Tigger in the finished basement during the day, there's nothing marked down there (now that I've cleaned it all I can tell) and he's happy to see me, purring and rubbing on me, but as soon as I let him upstairs the purring stops and he becomes jumpy, sniffing around, and eventually he finds something to mark even though I've gone over everything with a blacklight and enzyme cleaner to make sure there's nothing there. Lately I've been keeping them totally isolated so when he's upstairs, she's in a bedroom, but this doesn't seem to be helping curb this.
I've tried Feliway spray and diffusers to no success and I'm starting to be at a loss. Googling seems to come up with Feliway is magic everything gets fixed! but it's not working in this case and my vet hasn't been able to come up with any ideas so I'm hoping someone might have had a similar issue and figured out what to do! Help!
(obligatory picture)
So starting sometime early February one or both of my cats started marking. I have 2 cats, brother and sister from the same litter, that have lived together with me in the same house since they were 12 weeks old. They are now about to turn 3 years old. I've only ever caught the male cat (tigger) actively marking, he's been to the vet and nothing medically wrong. There hasn't been any changes in his litter/diet/surroundings at all near that time. There is an outdoor cat that comes around and might upset them, but it's been around for almost a year now and hasn't caused any issues prior to this.
The girl cat (Mushu) has seemed to be more prone to random play attacks on the male cat and I'm wondering if this is some sort of power struggle and it will work itself out or what. I have them separated at the moment because I don't really know what to do and it's getting to be at the point where things are getting ruined. When I keep Tigger in the finished basement during the day, there's nothing marked down there (now that I've cleaned it all I can tell) and he's happy to see me, purring and rubbing on me, but as soon as I let him upstairs the purring stops and he becomes jumpy, sniffing around, and eventually he finds something to mark even though I've gone over everything with a blacklight and enzyme cleaner to make sure there's nothing there. Lately I've been keeping them totally isolated so when he's upstairs, she's in a bedroom, but this doesn't seem to be helping curb this.
I've tried Feliway spray and diffusers to no success and I'm starting to be at a loss. Googling seems to come up with Feliway is magic everything gets fixed! but it's not working in this case and my vet hasn't been able to come up with any ideas so I'm hoping someone might have had a similar issue and figured out what to do! Help!
(obligatory picture)
neth on
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3 litter boxes, one on each floor, scooped daily, fresh litter every other week. and they use them to pee
Play attacks are just fun happenings between siblings, not causing him to be upset most likely. You can stop separating them. In fact, put them both in the basement like you were putting the male cat and see if he's marking. I doubt he will.
I'm thinking he may be lacking for attention. Having his sibling around is a good way to help with that. How often do you play with them?
This article has some good info: http://www.usask.ca/wcvm/herdmed/applied-ethology/behaviourproblems/urinemark.html
Is there anyway to distinguish between 2 cats marks? making sure she isn't marking would help at least let me limit it to something he is reacting too.