Visiting Male Cat Leaves Trade Mark

[Holmbrae]

Help!!! My cats boyfriend keeps calling. We have a cat flap and he just arrives eats the food and settles down for a nap in the afternoon. He is a very nice big tom cat but I have noticed he is leaving his trade mark around the livingroom area back of couch/radiator etc. what can I do to stop this. I know I can lock the flap but then my cat is locked out.

[meltoadhall]

get him neutered? or change the cat flap to a magnetic one that is activated by your cats collar

[sambro]

Is he a stray? If not, do you know who he belongs to? He could already have been neutered. A lot of neutered cats will still spray. Especially if they had already started this behaviour before being neutered. i have even seen next doors FEMALE who I know has been spayed, spraying in my garden. I have 3 cats myself at present. Also, are you sure it is the visitor who is leaving his mark , and not your own cat reacting to an intruder. It is possible.
The cheapest option would be to get a magnetic catflap. But if your cat does not wear a collar, it would not work.
I wont use collars, since a friends cat hung himself with his ( accidentally of course - I don't mean he comitted suicide) lol. I have them microchipped.
Anyway I am rambling, I could talk all day about cats.
I hope you manage to sort out your problem

[iheartruby]

Hi Holmbrae
My neutered female cat does this indoors if she sees another cat in the garden - it's territory marking. Your tom is making the living room his. I'd like to offer a solution but I've had to put up with this for a few years - even after having a behaviourist in! The best advice I can give is to clean the area thouroughly as they will top up any traces of their scent that they can smell so it has to be cleaned properly with an enzyme based cleaner such as PetFresh.
Good luck

[antiguru]

You need to scare him off. Animals work in packs, a strict hierarchy, and you�re higher up the pile than your own cat. Your visitor is dominating your cat. At the moment you�re inaction is making him feel welcome. Reorder the pack!

[markja]

as antiguru said. you need to make him know you are more dominant/ the boss/scarey.
ages ago a tom decided he liked our house and sprayed every where . tried scaring him off but he just came back all the time. in the end i put the flap on - in, but not out. closed all the doors in the house and went out for an hour. on my return i armed myself with a rolled up newspaper and heavy duty gloves. let my self in quickly without letting him out. chased him up and down the hall whacking the cr*p out of him ( not hard but enough to make it a very unpleasant experience. ) after a couple of minutes i opened the front door and whoooosh he was gone. never came back , problem cured.

[iheartruby]

seriously - scaring your cat will make this situation worse - it will make him insecure and he'll do it all the more. Don't frighten him!

[iheartruby]

also, cat's don't work in packs. although a dog may have a hierarchy in the home, cats don't operate in that way - they are independant. that advice re letting him know you're the boss would work for a dog but not a cat and will certainly not stop him from spraying.

[iheartruby]

sincere apologies - i thought you said it was your BF's cat, not your cat's BF! Sorry all! I was giving advice based on the cat living with you, MUST get new glasses.

[whiffey]

markja, that reminds me too !! A neighbour's tomcat used to get through the magnetic cat door by bouncing the flap sufficiently to hook a paw under it and lift it outwards. It would then spray all around the kitchen.

I did the same as you, trapped it in the house and beat two tons out of it with a rolled up Autosport. The poor thing actually shat itself, but it was worth it because it never came back.