Kitty loves the smell of two weird things

My kitten, now 8-9 weeks old is living in my bedroom now. She prefers it up there, and I have her in there now also due to some other issues that are family related (no need to go into details). I've kitten-proofed the room and she has all her toys, food, litter box, a cat bed on the ground (although she prefers my bed), and a scratching strip (IScratch) in there for her.

Anyways, I've found that she goes NUTS for the smell of two things that are really weird.

The first is I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray. I spray this stuff on my popcorn like candy and she smells it from a good distance away and comes running. It's not the popcorn, it's the spray because when I put the bottle somewhere away from the popcorn, she tries to get to it. Weird.

The second is even more strange. She LOVES the smell of a firearm solvent called Hoppes #9. I'm not a hunter or anything like that, but I do compete in target shooting and when I'm done I have to clean the pistol and use Hoppes #9. She is very much attracted to the smell of this. Any ideas on why? I store it way up on a shelf where she can't get to it because it's toxic if she were to drink or taste it but she LOVES the smell.

These two things she loves. Catnip - not yet. Any ideas as to why she's attracted to these two things?

Hi,that is weird! My Tabitha is the same! At the moment she has a thing about my strawberry bubble bath,she will take out of the bathroom and hide it in her bed! And i have to keep my ventolin inhaler well out of the way from Daisy!She will try an lick the inside of it! Some smells i can work out why, usually,but yours im not sure!! The popcorn might well be something to do with whats in it. Mine likes butter/spreads ( i dont feed them it by the way!). A tradition is to put a little butter on their paws when they first go out so they can smell where they have walked to sort of find thier way back. Is this a new thing?

I don't know if it's new. She's only gotten exposed to the smell of these two things in the last few days while living in my bedroom.

The only thing that makes any sense about the Hoppes #9 is that a lot of people like the smell of it too. The butter spray though... I don't even smell anything, but apparently she does.

Even though its not butter it still has some kind of butter smell and taste, because cats love dairy, some of my cats have licked up straight butter if it falls on the floor. My Cat Cinnie has a strange thing also, I was using my pastel chalks for drawing and she laid on the sheet were all the different colored chalks are and rolled in it and rubbed her face in it before I could stop her. She was all colors of the rainbow. I had to clean her all up. Then as soon as she'd see me with the case of chalks she'd be over to me again. Needless to say if I use them I can't be around her.

Cats have an acute sense of smell,they can also "Taste" the air. I think the butter is,as has been said that it's a dairy product.Personally, i would look into what is in the cleaning product. I dont expect it will say poisionus to cats on it!! but i would keep it out of the room she is living in just to be safe.
Wish i could be of more help! I bet cinnie looked pretty though!

Well, I just checked around for the active ingredients in Hoppes #9.

30-40 Kerosene
30-40 Ethyl Alcohol
Less than 10 Xylene
Less than 10 Amyl Acetate
Less than 10 Ammonium Hydrochloride
Less than 10 Citronella

The thing that jumps out at me is the Ammonia in it, which might attract a cat. However, it doesn't take much study to realize the stuff would be bad for a kitten to eat.

The butter stuff is no mystery. I've seen cats eat all sort of stuff they didn't like, just to get the butter on it.

Have a look in the Health and Nutrition section, the chemicals you listed may not be there but there maybe some from the same family as it were. Im a nail tec and mix chemicals all day so i know a bit a little about them. Regardless i would still keep it out of the room. Hope that helps.

Hi, i have just looked up Xylene, Its is dangerous to cats. Inhalation can cause central nervous system damage, deppression and irritate their eyes. I Can try and find out the others if you would like, but for me that would scare me enough!!

Hi, i have looked up the others for you anyway, The Ethyl family (based on animal information) can cause: prroblems with the nervous system, fatigue,nausea and may cause potential fatal fluid in the lungs. The Acetate can cause changes to the blood chemistry. Kerosene may cause tumours. The ammonium i can't find at the mo. The citronella, should be ok, im not too sure as we put a type of this on our horse to keep flies off,but im not sure about cats. However,it could be this that is attracting your cat as the smell of this can be sort of fruity and nice smelling depending on the chemical make up of it. Hope this can help you . Caitsith

Thanks for the info guys.

I knew it had to be bad for her so I'm keeping it far away from where she can get to it.

I just thought it was bizarre that she was so attracted to it.

My cat Mr Jinx, loves the smell of mint flavored stuff, he eats the cream from the mint oreos. When I brush my teeth and use mouthwash, he sniffs my breath. I dont know why.

my cat nipper loves the smell of BFs deodorant...he will come over and sniff BFs armpits and then we caught him finding BFs worn shirts and licking by the armpits lmao...we would yell at him cause it cant be good and now we keep the shirts where he cant get too.

Glad to be of help. Maybe the best thing is to use the product outside if possible,as the problems i have listed are caused by her inhalling it.

One of my cats, Molly, loves the smell of my "minty fresh breath" after I brush my teeth. She will sit on the sink and wait for me to get done, then kiss me until I have to push her away. She will also open the toothpaste, so now we have to keep that in a drawer!

She also loves, and I mean is mad about, Soft Scrub with bleach. When I wash the sinks or tub, she will climb up my back to get to my hands. It is something about the smell of it on my hands. She then turns evil - garabbing my hands, then biting and chewing them. She acts like she's been on catnip only worse.

I have to wash my hands several times after cleaning and then put on lotion or she's all over me. She's actually chased me down to smell my hands, then swatted me afterwards. And she's the gentlest and calmest of our cats. It doesn't bother any of the others.

Not surprised about the attraction to minty things -- catnip is in the mint family.

I feed the birds and squirrels and if I accidently leave a few peanuts out( the kind with shells) Brady will be on them in a second. I found the remains of a shelled peanut under the table the other day. why would a cat like peanuts?

My RB cat Bugsy would run from any room in the house to the smell of any melon lol

Lots of interesting obsessions!

Mine are obsessed with stinky socks...ew!

Daphne has a thing for my toothpaste, deodorant, but especially my leave-in hair conditioner. She will chase after me to get to it I think it is the mint smell in these things.

I agree the citronella is probably attracting your girl. You could buy a cheap citronella candle to see if she reacts the same way.

Sebastian simply loves the way I smell. He used to sleep in my upper underthings

Hoppes No. 9 is an odd one, in my experience.

Cleaning is a weekly procedure for me, after my routine Sunday aft. of breaking clay targets.

My three cats often follow me around the house and "supervise" cleaning. They show great interest in the operation.

One was very interested in the cleaning patch, saturated with Hoppes. I showed it to her but did not let her get real close because I know what is in it but wanted to satisfy the curiousity; she caught the sent and pulled a face and backed off.

There is no more interest in Hoppes although cleaning is still "interestig" and they often are there to observe.

No one gets near the cleaning chemicals, part of my job involves health and safety and I am very aware of chemical hazards.

There is no telling what sents will interest some cats.

One day, a potatoe rolled out of an open bag, onto the kitchen floor.

Taz (20 pound neutered ginger tabby tom) and Morgan (10 pound female B&W DSH) approached it cautiously from opposite directions as if it was "not of this world", beamed in from space.

Morgan got there first and was vigorously sniffing it, the sent was VERY interesting, I guess. However, apparently, the sent was too good to share because when Taz got there, she hit him on top of the head several times (and they are normally "buds").

The next time they encountered a potatoe, there was zero interest in it; there is no telling what will grab their attention, sometimes, IMHO.

Originally Posted by ScottF

My cat Mr Jinx, loves the smell of mint flavored stuff, he eats the cream from the mint oreos. When I brush my teeth and use mouthwash, he sniffs my breath. I dont know why.

Click to expand...

This one's not hard. Catnip is a mint.