Has anyone heard of CALM DOWN for cats?

My wife and I are the proud owners of four almost former ferals. I say almost because one of the cats is still very afraid of me, he never forgave me for trapping him and taking him to get neutured almost 3 months ago, in the process he bit me sending me to the hospital.....anyways we are finally moving out of the tiny apartment we first brought the cats into almost 4 months ago and moving to a big house only 3 miles away.

I know that moving to a new home is really hard on any cats, and I have a feeling that these cats will feel the effects more than most. When I was buying a feliaway type product spray to make the new house more inviting I saw a bottle of CALM DOWN FOR CATS at the pet store, it advertizes a natural way to calm down your cats when there is a big change or a lot of stress into their lives. It is a liquid you put into their water. Has anyone used this? is it safe? any success?

Please also send good vibes to me in trapping the cat again, I won't put myself in a position or in reach to get bit again, he has been making such progress and is finally no longer hiding under the bed, I know this move will send us ten steps backwards, its difficult because his three brothers are all almost lap cats now.

I won't give up on him! any advice would also be helpfull. Thanks.

You can buy Rescue Remedy at whole foods, or a natural market of sorts, and add a bit to their water to help them calm down... I would go with feliway diffuser instead - put one in the room they spend the most amount of time, and another in the living room... It lasts about a month, and you can buy at Amazon.com for a pretty reasonable price...
Good Luck!

After a quick search on google, I suspect it is some kin of the Rescue Remedy Boxer mentions. Anyway, it is essence of some flowers diluted in alcohol. Like these Dr Bachs remedies are - Rescue Remedy one of these.


One word of warning: It is written you can give it directly. Nay. The remedy-dilution is 13% alcohol...
Thus, it should be diluted in water.

you might want to put them all (if they get along with each other) in a
spare bedroom when you move.

Let them settle down and get used to the new sights looking out of the
window and the new smells in the spare room. Keep them in there for
a couple of weeks with all their needs ....litterboxes, food, water, beds, toys.

Once things have settled down you can leave the spare room door open a
couple of inches to see if they decide to come out on their own. This way
they won't be so overwhelmed which may push them back to being semi feral.

If the trap doesn't work in catching the cat a better way may be to start
putting his food in a carrier. Get him used to having to go inside a carrier
every day for his food while you sit near by. Put a rug in the carrier.

Then the day before all the commotion starts get him in the carrier.
If you have really big one like for dogs you can stick a small litterbox in it
for him.

I caught several cats that way.

Good luck and thanks for taking in so many. Especially the feral ones.
They're always the ones no one wants but boy when they come around
most of them end up being love bugs !

I used the CALM DOWN liquid, and I took others advice and got a feliway difuuser. I followed tghe directions for both and my cats act like they are super drugged in my new house.

I guess I am lucky that my cats are acting very mellow and not the other way around. My safe room couldn't hold the cats for long, after only a few hours they wanted out and darted out when I opened the door. They explored and already found the stairs to be great fun!

Even the mean cat who likes to hide night and day came out all night to play and have treats.

I am going to stop using the CALM DOWN now they are in the house and move the Diffuser from outside their room to the hallway even for just a few hours.

Thanks again for everyone's advice.

I am so glad I read your post! I just ordered some on Amazon and will plug it in so that my younger cat calms down. He has hissed at the feral through the door and done that growl. Perhaps this will mellow him.
Thanks again

We take in feral cats and get them fixed and find them homes. We have two former feral cats we found at separate times and decided to keep and now we took in  two almost former feral kittens  *the two older ones we took in years ago are both fixed, the two kittens we just took in we are taking to be fixed next week. The female kitten is in heat and driving us insane so we are using the calm down for the first time idk how much its gonna help especially with her being in heat but I hope it calms them when we take them to be fixed I tried the calming collar and it didn't do squat :-(  Wish me luck :-D

SmokePeachAngel said:

We take in feral cats and get them fixed and find them homes. We have two former feral cats we found at separate times and decided to keep and now we took in  two almost former feral kittens  *the two older ones we took in years ago are both fixed, the two kittens we just took in we are taking to be fixed next week. The female kitten is in heat and driving us insane so we are using the calm down for the first time idk how much its gonna help especially with her being in heat but I hope it calms them when we take them to be fixed I tried the calming collar and it didn't do squat :-(  Wish me luck :-D

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Hi . Wishing you good luck and a big thanks for caring so much for ferals. Just wanted to ket you know that you replied to a thread that is two years old. Don't worry about that though as it happens all the time. If you would like, you could start a new thread on the subject :nod:.. Glad to have you back and posting !! Good Luck :cross:

StefanZ said:

After a quick search on google, I suspect it is some kin of the Rescue Remedy Boxer mentions. Anyway, it is essence of some flowers diluted in alcohol. Like these Dr Bachs remedies are - Rescue Remedy one of these.


One word of warning: It is written you can give it directly. Nay. The remedy-dilution is 13% alcohol...
Thus, it should be diluted in water.

Click to expand...

Ooops!  I saw now numbers of 13% procent got written down!  I dont know how it happened.  It should be 40% procent.  As the alcohol in question typically is konjak or brandy.

And that is why it should of course be diluted good and well before giving to cats.  Preferably some drops into his water.

Although to your husband you may perhaps give as it is.  

SmokePeachAngel said:

. The female kitten is in heat and driving us insane so we are using the calm down for the first time idk how much its gonna help especially with her being in heat but I hope it calms them when we take them to be fixed I tried the calming collar and it didn't do squat :-(  Wish me luck :-D

Click to expand...

I dont think these calming remedies works on females in heat. I have never heard experienced breeders talk about this solutions.  Although I had heard them talk about some others solutions which I prefer not to forward.

Although, if you do have some fertile tom who gets too stressed by a female in heat nearby and begans to pee everywhere - for them these calming down tricks  MAY work.   

As it is, with your female you must stand through it, and make an appointment with your vet when the heat is over.

Good luck!  

IT WORKED FOR A WHILE THEN BECAME USLESS BUT IT SERVED ITS PURPOSE WE HAVE DECIDED TO KEEP THE TWO STRAYS WE LOST OUR SMOKEY SO WE WENT FROM 2 TO 4 TO 3  BUT WE CONTINUE TO TAKE IN AND FIND HOMES FOR STRAYS AND WE HAVE TWO MOMMAS THAT ARE NURSING BABIES THEY BOTH HAD THEIR LITTER ON MAY 12TH

I have been using this for about 3 years, my 1st feral cat sent me to the hospital many times for cat bites. One time the infection was so bad had to go every day for 7 days for intravenous antibiotics. Since I use the calm down had not the problem.

Hello @owner 4 cats and welcome to TCS!

This is a pretty old thread, but it's great that you added your experience.

We'd love you to introduce yourself and your cats here, if you would like to.

I started using CalmDown for my two cats and it has helped allot, they have both stopped their perpetual licking and their hair is finally starting to grow back, they are much improved, i also got the plug-in Feleway for Multi-cat household...much better, much calmer. Good Luck.

We brought hoe a ferral cat from the shelter two weeks ago. He was hiding a lot but was starting to come around after a week or so.  Then we had a set back when he came out of the room where we kept him seperated and we had trouble getting him back.  He really regressed to hiding from us and not getting anywhere close.  The calm down was recommended by petsmart and after using it really made a difference.  He is still pretty jumpy but has really bonded with my wife its still touch and go with me. I think it works pretty good and  I would recommend the calm down for your cats.

I do see this is a very old thread but if it helps someone else,  I have used Rescue Remedy as a topical on one old cat with some dementia and deaf cat howl going on.  Just one drop on the top of her head at bedtime calmed her down enough we could all sleep without the howling.  I believe transdermal absorption of alcohol in humans is negligible but could not find studies on cats.  I did find a study on transdermal absorption of fentanyl where alcohol was the carrier for the drug and the alcholol dried on the skin.  The study didn't worry about the alcohol.

A warning if you ever try Rescue Remedy on your dog.  It comes in a candy form that contains xylitol,   Xylitol in very small amounts can be deadly to dogs and cats.  Cats are not likely to eat the candy but the warning applies to them too.  Don't give pets the candy form.