New male cat in the house and spraying?

Hi..I'm new here and have kitty questions. I will give you a short history!

I lost my 17 year old cat Feb 08 and it was a hard loss. I'd had him since he was 6 weeks.


I finally decided it was time to have cats in my life again. So almost 3 weeks ago my 15 year old daughter and I decided to go to the county shelter to find kitties to bring home. I fell in love with a female 3 year old long haired tortoise shell. We brought her home 2 weeks ago. The first 3-4 days she did nothing but hide. Now she has warmed up to us and hangs out all over the house. Her name is Ruby and we jokingly call her Queen Ruby.

I few days ago I met a woman and her son who had several cats they were trying to find homes for. They had been evicted and were now living in a "no cat" apartment. So my daughter fell for Sawyer a 10 month old kitty. He is a big cat and has extra toes on his front paws. A very affectionate cat. But he was not neutered yet and planned to do that on Thursday (yesterday)so she called me about 3 and wanted to know if I could get him after work. I said sure.

I figured since Ruby had only been here a short time they would somehow mesh quicker. Sawyer came into our house with a great big curiosity. He was nothing like Ruby. He was all over and did not try to hide at all. Last night we caught him spraying 3 times. I quickly got the natures miracle out and that took the smell away. We were a bit worried because we thought he would not spray after getting neutered.

I woke up this morning and went out into the living room (we sleep with doors shout) and there was no smell at all. So Sawyer walks up to the scratching post and his tail vibrates like he is spraying. So I go over there and touch it and there is nothing on it. A little while in my office he does it again, and again nothing comes out. Its now been several hours and no smell or spraying.

Is it normal for them to spray right after being neutered and now the day after nothing comes out?

Just a side note....they are great hiders...I can't find him anywhere and there is no way to get out of the house. Weird.

That's really sweet of you to take him in!

Actually, it takes about a month for the hormones to leave their system, so that hormonal instinct to spray isn't necessarily out of his system yet. "Dry" spraying - don't know the answer to that one, but I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with having been neutered yesterday. Was anything happening that would have made him excited or happy? Because a number of kittys vibrate their tails (looks like dry spraying) when they're either one of those! A feral that friendlied up CONSTANTLY vibrated his tail - it was the cutest thing! - often just when we came outside and he was happy to see us.

Just keep that enzyme cleaner around, because he may still spray a little. If he does, you may also want to consider purchasing some Feliway and buying the Cat Attract additive and sprinkling some on top of the litter in the boxes. It will also help if you have three boxes (the rule of thumb is to have one more litter box than you have cats).

Laurie

Thank You Laurie.

I think he may have been excited in his new digs. The place he sprayed was the drapes over the glass sliding door. He may have looked outside and seen wild rabbits, squirrels or even my horses and he was marking new territory.

It's 1:00 pm here and no spraying. I am happy.

At 10 months old (and we need pics - too many of us LOVE polydactyls (the extra toes!)), when the hormones cycle out of his system it shouldn't be a worry at all. He isn't old enough, really, to have the behavior be ingrained. It can be an issue with older males that were never neutered.

Good to hear there hasn't been another incident! Hope it stays that way.

Laurie