Smells that cats hate

It is not that difficult to list the smells that cats hate because there are well publicised lists. However, although I have not tested these smells with my cat, I’d bet my bottom dollar that a lot of them are not hated by cats. Some cats might be slightly repelled by them and some cats won’t be bothered at all by them.

My advice is not to waste your time investigating smells which repel cats. That may sound depressing for people who dislike cats. But please don’t harm cats even if they come onto your land because it’ll almost certainly be a crime. Below is a link to a page which is pertinent.

RELATED: 2 devices I would try first to keep cats out of your backyard plus alternatives

I am guessing that people who search for this phrase are doing so to repel their cat from entering certain areas of their home or as a negative training aid. Also, some neighbours might be thinking of these products to stop neighbouring cats entering their property. There are a lot of neighbors who want to stop domestic cats peeing and defecating on their flower beds. My message to these people is that these smells probably won’t work – sorry.

Lion dung?

Silent Roar Natural Fertiliser & Cat Deterrent 500G on Amazon is a combined fertilizer and cat deterrent. Does it work? Well, the reviews are not wonderful but neither are they totally depressing. I’d say that is does not work but please try it and report back on this site.

Talk to neighbors?

My personal preference is not to use smells that repulse but all sorts of things including smells that attract, as these are better training aids (positive reinforcement). I don’t train at all – I just accept the cat as a cat. Things that I don’t I accept along with the much longer list of things that I like a lot. However, I make sure my neighbors are not upset if my cat visits their garden. I believe cat owners take that responsibility.

List

Well, my research indicates that the smells that cats hate are as follows. I can’t vouch for the veracity of this information. It is probably unscientific. These are not to be used in squirt bottles – I would not use squirt bottles at all in fact – see don’t punish your cat):

• citrus (orange, lemon smells etc. Perhaps this translates into putting down skins of these fruits
• cayenne pepper
• coffee grounds
• pipe tobacco
• eucalyptus oil
• peppermint oil
• lavender oil
• lemon grass oil
• citronella oil
• mustard oil
• capsaicin pepper and oil of mustard are the ingredients in Havahart’s Cat Repellent. It has a lemon smell.
• lemon scented air freshener
• cedar chips
• rosemary
• rue
• cinnamon
• lavender.

As mentioned, some of these might work but some will not. It depends on the cat. Sometimes the scent of another cat will deter a cat but it depends on the cat again.

Smells that cat like include the scent of their caregiver if they are emotionally connected to their cat and good cat caretakers. Also, cat food contains chemicals that improve its smell. Smell is important to a cat. A cat’s sense of smell is 20 times better than the sense of smell of humans (see the cat’s nose).

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Smells That Cats Hate to Cat Facts

Contributions from visitors. Thanks.

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May 25, 2012 Rating Why I Hate Cats NEW by: Harry This is a duplication, therefore deleted.

May 25, 2012 Rating Why I Hate Cats NEW by: Harry hey, i want to see if people agree with me here, who here really hates cats? do, they are selfish little Fu**ers (scuse my french) i hate them because they are downriht pathetic, when they dont get what they want, they scratch (if acting cute and cuddly dosen’t work) they take up valuable space and they don’t give 2 damns about you they only stay for the food, so i ask you please cat lovers, please kick your cat right out of the door and watch it come back, you will probably take it back in but it will always go back to its old ways, so nail shut your cat flap and kick your cat right out of the door to the dogs

May 08, 2012 Rating discouraging cats from my grounds NEW by: Glenn Your love of cat’s is yours. !!!!!!!!!!I don’t appreciate the smell of cat poo !!I,m sure even you don’t like the smell in the rug of your car, in the interance of your home.I see cat’s as nice looking animal’s, but thats as far as it goes……Glenn

May 08, 2012 Rating discouraging cats from my grounds NEW by: Glenn Your love of cat’s is yours. !!!!!!!!!!I don’t appreciate the smell of cat poo !!I,m sure even you don’t like the smell in the rug of your car, in the interance of your home.I see cat’s as nice looking animal’s, but thats as far as it goes……Glenn

Nov 15, 2011 Rating people with foul language by: Anonymous If your cat could talk, they would use better language than you. Kids of all ages read what you write on this site. Shame Shame on you .

Sep 14, 2011 Rating Foul language by: Michael (admin LMAO – please desist from using foul language and please make polite comments. Anymore comments that are not polite will be deleted and you will be banned.Anyone else wishing to follow LMAO’s style of writing will suffer the same fate.

Jul 25, 2011 Rating may 2011… assumptions are 90% wrong… by: Anonymous As to the one below who assumes that these are to be use to punish our feline family…maybe you shouldn’t make assumptions as to why people are using this information.Very good site for ideas to help repel cats…I am hopeful that these scents will work in my situation… meaning I need them to just keep my cats off a certain couch in the living room and to deter them from using the carpet, by an old rocking chair.I will post what has worked and what did not…

May 08, 2011 Rating site by: GG If people who suppose to love animals respond on this site keep cursing,it is very disheartening. I will not ever come to this site again. I will tell everyone I know not to ever visit this site. I was just looking for information about cats. If you think abusing any kind of animal because of its behavior you are a very sad & mean individual(especially throwing it against a wall)you should not even have children.

Apr 22, 2011 Rating Coffee grounds by: Anonymous All cats are different…but mine love, love LOVES coffe grounds. If I spill grounds, she rolls in it…I give her a sachet of beans as a toy instead of catnip and she rubs/chews/purrs like no one’s business.

Apr 18, 2011 Rating DONT PUNISH YOUR CAT – YOU IDIOT by: Anonymous I was looking for something that would stop nexr doors cat pooing in my garden, i just cut my lawn and went through a nice dollop of smmmelly pooh, then I saw dont punish your cat. Listen Love I have no intention of punishing my cat I don’t have a cat……….I WANNA …… KILL THE CAT THAT KEEPS FOULING MY GARDEN.On the other hand I love pussy but HATE THE ……. CAT YOU ……. I have deleted offensive words…Michael (Admin)

Apr 05, 2011 Rating Well thanks by: Anonymous My Kid came onto this site looking for smells cats hate, and found all you abuse, and now runs around the house telling people to “….. themselves” and such.This is a family friendly site, go flame each other somewhere else. I have deleted offensive words…Michael (Admin)

Mar 23, 2011 Rating LMAO by: Anonymous i agree with everyone else. cats do need some sort of punishment. if you get a cat thats just not catchin on no matter what you do i would suggest 150 yards not 80. I got rid of a cat (ok it “somehow” ran out the door behimd me “on accident” and i “couldn’t catch it” because it kept clawing at the couch and nothing would work. i even kicked the little …… across the room bounced off the wall pretty hard (landed about 2 feet from the wall) and the little bastard went right back to the couch!It will be my ass before something less than a foot tall on 4 paws runs my house and wrecks my …. if it was buying me a new couch every week i would have kept it. I have deleted offensive words…Michael (Admin)

Mar 21, 2011 Rating Question: by: Anonymous If none of the products you recommend are tested on animals.. how would they test if they work?

Mar 12, 2011 Rating don’t think the worse by: NICE KITTY I am just trying to stop our outdoor cat from using the front step of our house as her personal litter box. I am also trying to stop the neighborhood of feline residents from using our front flower bed as the hotel california

Feb 12, 2011 Rating No punishment? Complete Bullshit by: Anonymous Are your …. kidding me? Don’t punish your cats? Yeah I’m just going to let my cat spray all over the house, tear up what ever it likes even tho I pay for everything an I pay the bills in this dam house but yeah sure I’ll let it do what ever it wants….NOT!. There has to be a line between right an wrong an what ever animal it is needs love an caring but also discipline. That article about not punishing cats is complete …… You can let your cat …. all over your house and on your face but that’s not happening in my house. I have deleted offensive words…Michael (Admin)

Dec 21, 2010 Rating No punishment, reinforcement, or conditioning? Nonesense. by: Meag Yea right. Does your cat help you with rent or mortgage? Does it cook for you? I dont think so. It is important to treat cats with love and care, as with any animal but by no means will a cat run my house or make its own decisions. Cats or any other animals must be conditioned,whether reinforcement or punishment (whatever works) in order to have structure in your home. And if a cat was that “poor” from having to lick vinegar off its coat, perhaps it would decide to stop licking it. I indeed use a spray bottle filled with water to tell my cats no, and guess what?… The sight of it keeps my cats out of trouble. So If you’re like me, and you believe in caring for your pets without assigning them “heads of the household”, a spray bottle works just fine. And your cats will still love you. Afterall, you feed and nurture them.

Dec 19, 2010 Rating Are you kidding??? by: Anonymous Really? Maybe we should get a cat therapist and find out if maybe it has some deep seeded issues from its past. Abusive father, mothers neglect, or maybe it was even molested by some close family member. In my opinion it’s just an overgrown rat. Oh yea, that was sarcastic if you couldn’t tell.

Aug 07, 2010 Rating Poopy cat by: Ruth Joan there is always a reason why cats mess outside the litter tray.The first thing to think about is the cats health, but if a vet check shows no physical problems then it’s most likely stress causing it. Another reason is of course if the cat is declawed,the pain of digging in litter after the operation to amputate the toe ends, haunts them all their life and causes them to use softer places. You need to find out why your cat is stressed.Is she bored? Is anyone upsetting her in your home or outside ?Do you have a dog bothering her ? Is there a cat hanging around and spraying outside your house,that is a threat and the cat indoors will mark all his/her territory to warn them off coming in.Once a cat has marked a place or an object, they will keep going back topping up their scent.You need to get some biological washing liquid,put some in hot water and wash everything and everywhere your cat has messed.That takes every trace of smell away. So identify the cause of her stress, put that right,wash everywhere as I’ve said and hopefully your problem will be solved.Anonymous it is NOT acceptable to scruff a cat or a kitten as punishment, it is NOT acceptable to do it at all unless the cat is completely unmanagable.I don’t know which vets you patronise but ours certainly don’t always pick a cat up by the scruff ! Nor have any I worked for apart from for thier own sake if there was no other way to handle them.

Aug 06, 2010 Rating Poopy Cat! by: Joan How can I accept my cat the way she is when she uses anything that resembles a “box” to pee & poop in. She has a perfectly nice, clean litter box that she does use. Her favorite right now is the fireplace. Not acceptable. She has ruined so many things – we have an antique wooden box we toss our shoes in when we come. Now every pair of shoes had been repeatedly peed on! Cat’s don’t respond to discipline like dogs so I don’t know how to get her to stop this behavior.

Mar 22, 2010 Rating Ruth by: Anonymous I agree definitely don’t spray cats with vinegar or even water, they will hate you for it and continue the same bad behavior when you are absent. However cats need discipline unless they are just completely docile. Nearly all cats respond to being scruffed, but just remember to support the rest of their body once they are adults, the goal isn’t to choke them but to grip them behind the neck as their mothers did. You can even pick up a cat that doesn’t know you, or even subdue a feral cat like this. It doesn’t hurt the cat. Vets (unless they like getting scratched in the face) will always pick up a cat by the scruff.

Mar 22, 2010 Rating rope smell by: Anonymous My cat is disgusted by the smell of new rope – the gasoline like smell. She’s absolutely terrified of it to the point where she won’t get within 10 feet and just about mauled me the first time she came in contact with rope I was holding.

Mar 17, 2010 Rating Odoban by: Ruth I’ve checked and Odoban isn’t tested on animals, so it’s going to be a good product to recommend to people asking how to keep their cats away from things with cloth like your antique radio. It’s very handy to know, so thanks Bob.

Mar 15, 2010 Rating Smells by: Bob I use a product called Odo-Ban for disinfecting/cleaning and it can also be used as a fabric refresher. I noticed that my cats seem to stay away from wherever I spray it, they don’t like the smell (it has a eucalyptus scent). When one of my cats scratched at the fabric over the speakers on my antique radio, I decided to try it. So I sprayed the cloth with the Odo-Ban, and they haven’t touched it since. It didn’t damage the radio, and will definitely not harm the cats, as they won’t go near it.

Mar 15, 2010 Rating Cats and smells by: Ruth Cats hate the smell of vinegar too. It makes me so annoyed when people ‘advise’ squirting cats with any liquids when they ‘misbehave’ It doesn’t work, it’s unkind and the cat becomes nervous around you. I’ve seen time after time ‘advice’ to squirt them with vinegar and water, not a thought to the poor cat having to lick that or any other horrible (to them) liquid off their fur. We don’t use anything which has been tested on animals, but I bought an Astonish (wonderful firm, they make all sorts of cleaning and washing stuff, not tested on animals) window cleaning spray, not realising it contained vineger. After I’d cleaned the window the cats come and go by with it,Walter wouldn’t come in that way. Once the penny dropped and I looked on the spray, yes it contained vineger.As soon as I washed the window with with soapy water he started using it again.But now and again he still checks the smell ! We are like you Michael and never ever punish our cats,we accept them as they are. After all, they accept us just as we are don’t they !