A Michael Broad Blog
The infographic summarises and the text expands on the topic of the scent glands of the domestic cat. I hope it is useful to visitors. Cat behaviour is often seen in marking with scent when the product of the glands is deposited on us, other cats and on objects. The depositing of scent on …
I think this is quite a complicated question and I’ll try and tell you why. I’m mainly thinking of the full-time indoor cat scenario where there might be half a dozen cats living in the owner’s home. From the cats’ perspective, the house will be divided up into six ‘home ranges’ which overlap in …
This is a short post because the answer to the question is, I believe, obvious. Although my reason might not be the correct one every time but it’ll be the most common reason. When a cat’s owner is away from their home it is often for quite a long time from the cat’s perspective, …
This is a hugely debated topic on the internet and has been for years so nothing new here except this is a free-to-use infographic covering the main points. For me the last point in the infographic is the most important. When the family cat destroys a favorite armchair, I understand the consternation. It is …
Fear in a cat can be ‘trained in’ by bad experiences. This infographic is about ‘training out’ that acquired fear (fear developed through experience) through a sensitive, graded and progressive approach to desensitizing the fearful and anxious cat. It is training the brain to accept what once frightened them. The points I want to …
Middening in cats is the depositing of faeces in prominent places as an alternative form of scent marking. The others are urine spraying, squat marking with urine (to be distingusihed from cystitis) and scratching. Scratching leaves both a visual signal because the surface is damaged and an olfactory message because there are scent glands …
Often the reason why cats join you in the bathroom is because through the scent of your faeces and urine you have advertised your presence and metaphorically given them a calling card and an invitation to come. The word ‘bathroom’ in America euphemistically means a toilet. You could rephrase the question, ‘Why do cats …
No, cat spraying is not the same as urinating. They have different purposes. The purpose of urinating is to eliminate waste from the cat’s body while the purpose of cat spraying is far more intricate but very specific. Cat spraying is scent-marking but what does territorial scent marking signify and what signals does it …
