With the onset of spring, it is increasingly possible to hear the fighting and marriage songs of felines, as well as to notice the unpleasant odorous smears on the doors of private houses and even apartments in the entrance. Thus, the strongest males mark their territory, indicating who the boss really is. Our article will tell about what to do to prevent cats from marking the front door.
Alpha male or terrible revenge?
Many people unknowingly believe that the neighbors, and sometimes their own four-legged tailed ones, show in a similar way their inflexible character. Or revenge for punishment in the form of sneakers, brooms, buckets of cold water, etc.
Everything is much more complicated and depends on the nature of the furry creatures. People know about the high olfactory abilities of dogs, while underestimating cats. And their world is exactly the same consists of smells that play the role of media, alarms and instant messengers.
On the body of the cat there are many glands that produce pheromones.
Feline tags are concentrated portions of urine with pheromones, and not only males, but also females can differentiate the territory. Marking a place, the animal thereby sets a kind of barrier for other animals and a reminder for himself that he should be very attentive. There may be several reasons for this.
- The territory marks the alpha malewanting to show others who is in charge of the flock. No matter how cute and domestic these animals may seem, the ancient instincts laid down by mother nature will always be stronger.
- This is a manifestation of the cat's sexual activity. If your cat is in heat, potential “suitors” will not fail to inform about their existence.
- Cats also experience stressful conditions. This can be connected with the repair, the emergence of a new pet in the house or in the neighborhood.
- Another anxiety factor is appearance in the family of the baby.
- Disease.
Experts believe that both single factors and their combination can cause an unpleasant phenomenon. In some cases, the animal starts to mark for a specific reason, and the owners, without understanding, constantly punish him for it. As a result, the intensity of the tags only increases as the cat begins to get very nervous.
What to do in such cases? The most important thing is not to punish if it is a pet. He will not understand the reasons and continue his work. Consider several possible ways to solve the odorous problem.
How to wean a cat?
The best option, if it is not a cat-maker, is to castrate it. When the level of sex hormones decreases, the search for a partner will cease to disturb the animal, and anxiety beyond the boundaries of its own territory will not be so clearly expressed. There is one important point - The procedure should be performed before puberty of a kitten, at about seven months of age. There are many cases where neutered cats continued to tag. This indicates that the operation was performed late, when the pet has already tasted the fruits of cat love.
If you have a purebred pedigree cat, castration is not considered. There is another way, at first glance, funny. However, it uses a direct impact on the psychology of the animal.
To begin with, in natural conditions in large prides only the main male marks the territory, everyone else is allowed to dwell on it. Take a look at your life together with the eyes of a cat: you take care of it, bring food, clean the tray, play and entertain. According to the mustache, this is a demonstration of the behavior of the lower being at the pride, weak and without rights. And so he is in charge. And it will put tags where it sees fit.
You can try to radically change this situation and show that the main person in the pack is still a person. Starting a similar education is from an early age, then the likelihood of foul-smelling tags will tend to zero.
- If the pet has been caught hot you should take him by the scruff of the neck and lift him to eye level; support a large animal from below with his second hand. So all the mother cats carry their young. An adult individual can be raised only by a very strong contender, it is intuitive to any cat.
- Getting loud and fiercely hisswithout looking away from the animal and accompanying it with light blows with the tips of the fingers on the face. Remember how cats fight? Waving paws alternately on both sides. In the same way you should strike your blows.
- Do not look away until the cat holds the tail and squeals. Only then can we assume that he admitted defeat.
- To consolidate the rights of the "main cat" label should be removed and put your own. Here it is not necessary to be like animals at all, it is enough to put a piece of clothing with a pronounced smell of a winner (perfume, lotion, deodorant) on top or near it. You can simply treat the surface with your perfume.
If necessary, the procedure should be repeated to fix the result. The method is fairly easy to implement with a pet. But what if the front door is marked by strangers, neighbors cats? Scare away the tail is not so easy. If you are not ready to selflessly guard your door day and night, you can try one of the proposed tools.
In pet stores sold various products with a specially formulated compositionwhich does not harm cats and at the same time scares them according to the manufacturer's assurances.
However, the practice and feedback from people who are faced with a problem show that very often the purchase of such drugs is a waste of money.
It is well known that cats are very sensitive to odors. For example, they do not like the smell of citrus. With a small amendment, we note that there are representatives of the feline, who citruses adore and quite successfully eat lemons, eating tangerines. This method is nonetheless available and just need to try it. Another option is Sprinkle this place with red pepper, mustard powder, rub with a damp onion, process with iodine solution.
Another way that is found on the forums - labeling with foil label, which will work on the principle of garden scarecrow. Option budget, but not all cats will be frightened, it is likely, even decide that this is another toy.
Adherents of more radical methods advise smear the place with chlorine-containing detergents and even with formidron solution.
However, bleach only increases the smell of urine, moreover, many cats are not indifferent to this fragrance. So you can get a completely opposite effect.
In order to get rid of acrid smell, you can use:
- UV flashlight to calculate the label - if you can not find the exact place of the jet on the surface, for example, behind the battery;
- vinegar;
- "Cocktail" of water with vodka in a ratio of 1: 1;
- concentrated solution of potassium permanganate;
- lemon juice - on leather and fabric surfaces is better to use in a diluted form;
- baking soda + hydrogen peroxide;
- professional spray or granules against the smell of cat urine.
Good luck in dealing with unpleasant odors!
For information on how to get rid of cat tags, see the following video.
