Do cats needs sunlight

anni7

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My cat Tabby who is 6 years old - 7 late this year doesn't get any sun.
He usually did but he likes to mark and we had to stop his access to a sunny study for a bit.
He is not desexed but we were told it isn't necessarily going to stop spraying.
We have a definitely desexed male cat 3 years old as well and we got him just recently so Tabby spraying happened before him.
He sprays too but only when he lived outside. This cat named Jack is now also a strictly indoor cat.
The other cat we have Snowy is Tabby's litter brother and doesn't mark and has never in his life !! sprayed on vertical surfaces and he also is intact.
So Tabby initially didn't go to the study for a few weeks on and off because he liked to spray there and we didn't know how to stop him. Snowy never goes there and lives in the large living room and kitchen: so this was not directly related to Snowy. Tabby got territorial age 2 and that's when some of this spraying started...but.. actually no he first banished Snowy from the bed with us, then from the room and later just attacked any time he saw him/ so we separated them. Snowy was a caring brother: he used to be reallly loving to Tabby, looked after him and literally moped around when Tabby was away sick for 5 days from a reaction to flea medicine at the vets.
Then as we brought Jack in he now lives in the study and Tabby in a really small like 6 square meters bedroom.
They also have a 4 square meter corridor. The other bedroom, where Jack is, is about 11 square meters and the living room is 30 square meters..
so Jack now is either locked in the bedroom or he has that big bedroom, the corridor and the bathroom where he likes to sleep or sit and look out the window at the outside (during which time Tabby is locked in a 6 square meter room).
Since Tabby realised Jack is his new flatmate he refuses to come out "his" bedroom -even when Jack is locked away in the bigger bedroom.
Initially we just planned to close Jack in the bathroom for an hour or so and let Tabby have his sun baking in the big bedroom. However when we bring Tabby out he just runs back into his small bedroom. He refused to go anywhere not even the corridor since he once ran out and saw Jack. When I take him out he runs back in: initially he smelled around, hissed and ran and now just runs.
This small bedroom is situated in a part of the building that doesn't get the sun- there is still light, but no direct sun because of the shape of the building and that room is in its interior side of the square shaped building where the sun is blocked by either the trees or the building itself.
I was worried - do they need the sun for vitamin D? Two vets gave me opposing info.
 
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stephenq

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Hi :-)

The real issue is that your intact male is spraying. This isn't about sunlight at all.  

You were given 100% wrong information I'm sorry to say. Male cats who are not de-sexed, (un-neutered) will mark or spray, they can't help it.  There are hormones  in their urine that they need to spray in order to attract a mate.  After being neutered they will stop spraying after being given a little time to flush the hormones out of their system.  This is understood by professionals in vet care and in animal rescue around the world and who ever is telling you differently is simply wrong.  Whoever is telling you differently is speaking completely  outside the world of accepted animal care.  There is no professional debate  left on this subject.

See these links:

http://www.vetstreet.com/dr-marty-becker/what-life-is-like-with-a-cat-who-isnt-fixed

http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/cat-care/common-cat-behavior-issues/urine-marking-cats

This link has some good, post surgical info on helping the cat not spray right after surgery: http://www.wayofcats.com/blog/dear-pammy-will-a-male-cat-spray/16185

https://www.petcha.com/do-all-cats-spray/

http://www.humanesociety.org/animal...rritory.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/how-to-stop-your-cat-from-spraying-urine-in-the-house.html

The message is the same in every article, intact males will usually spray, de-sexing them fixes it almost ever time.  You should thoroughly clean the affected furniture so the scent doesn't cause him to spray again, and he may need a few weeks to get the hormones out of his system.  Please get him fixed.
 
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AbbysMom

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Yes, I absolutely have to back up what StephenQ has said. Having him desexed will make a world of difference and after the hormones are out of his system you can trying reintroducing them.
 
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anni7

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Well if we were given wrong info how then Snowy who is also intact has never sprayed in his 6.5 years?
Jack is desexed and he always used to spray when he lived outside - he was indoor/outdoor cat our late neighbour had definitely desexed. Jack is desexed for years but he still sprayed (we saw it he usually sprayed in the same areas around the building, he's been doing it for years).
Yes Tabby's and Snowy's vets did tell us to desex them it was our choice not to for various reasons. But the vets did say that spraying doesn't necessary stops when the cat is desexed. I was told this can get less though but like I already said above Snowy never in his life sprayed anywhere and he is intact and Jack is definitely desexed and until we brought him in he used to spray I saw him virtually every week doing it in the same places?
 
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anni7

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Jack was desexed at around 6 months old.
We know another neighbour with a Siamese who was desexed as a little kitten when he got him and his temperament (don't know didn't ask about spraying but I will when I get the chance to talk to his "father") this cat BITES similarly to Tabby. Snowy also occasionally bites. We were told it was because they aren't desexed but the other cat behaves exactly the same and he definitely is desexed and has been since he was just at a few weeks I believe like 9-10 weeks I m not sure exactly, but he was at an early age. Our cats mother is oriental and we believe the biting is in part from that breed excitable character.
Will the desexing help ? Perhaps, but it isn't likely to help fully - here it is you who has been given wrong information. Jack was desexed and he attacked any cat that came into "his" territory and we aren't going to intro them because he is territorial and so is Tabby. Snowy is also territotrial with Jack (he treated Tabby normally until it was Tabby became territorial and only fight in self defence ). So we decided not to have them desexed for many reasons. One is their medicine and food allergies and they have a lot of other health issues- so this was one reason. There are others too long to describe here and likely they will just cause more arguments to desex. The question I asked was regarding sunlight not desexing, which is a totally different discussion I already had here with some people before. Yea the common thing pushed by the vets is to desex, I've heard it before for sure, unless they are breeding cats. It should be up to the owner whether they do it to or not. The prices for the surgery are also quite high so I wonder how much of it is genuinely for the cats' and peoples' benefit or is it just a way for the vets to make more money.
 
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talkingpeanut

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Your cats would likely be able to integrate if they were all desexed. Surely that would be a happier life for all of you.

You are referring to anecdotal examples. Jack was living outside and had to defend his territory. That is why he was more aggressive outside. Your neughbor's cat? Who knows how he was treated. Maybe he was abused. You can't know.
 
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anni7

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I don't know if my neighbors cat is abused that's correct and I have seen the neighbour being a bit rough with it when it bit and also when it yells loudly when the neighbour goes out to the mail box or taking garbage out. I tried to explain to the neighbour that he doesn't need to punish him - he shook him a bit by the scruff of his neck which I think is wrong- because yelling loudly is a Siamese /Oriental trait and I've met a couple of these breeds even Snowy does it he yells if he is left alone especially by my partner that he is the closest too.. but I noticed that Jack was also treated badly the owner yelled and had mental health and drug abuse issues - Jack never bites anyone (only cats). It even said similar stuff in the links posted by someone above - that it will lessen the problem if the cat is desexed but there are other reasons like individual temperament, stress from observing the cats outside or other cats in the household etc so the animal can and sometimes do continue to mark simply because they are cats.
It may help a little if they are desexed but it doesn't really solve every problem a cat has. I can see that Jack is more mellow but he looks a little bit Persian to me because he has long hair (that's not a natural trait of a cat as far as I recall?) and he is wider built while our cats are thin bones and similar to oriernal which are known to be temperament and known to nip more.
 
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Geoffrey

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I have had Siamese cats since 1960.  Most of them were desexed since our first cat, William, sprayed on the curtains when he was entire.  Castrating William solved that problem and none of the other male Siamese sprayed after castration because we did the deed at 3 months - and they were none the worse for it..  We bred Tonkinese cats on one occasion from Simmy the Siamese and Susie, the Burmese.   Simmy, the entire cat did not spray because we castrated him after the delivery of five Tonkinese kittens. 

I advise you to castrate your Tabby as a start before you do anything else.

I am a human doctor, not a vet but in my opinion, cats want, but do not need sunlight.  Lack of sunlight causes vitamin D deficiency in humans, but I doubt that sunlight could penetrate the cat's furry coat and they do not need sunlight for that purpose. 

Whether they actually need sunlight is a matter best discussed with a vet, but I understand that all the Vitamin D that they need is supplied in their food if you feed them on cat food.  However they love sitting in the sun  Apart from any other reason, they like the warmth in winter. 

With all best wishes,

Geoffrey
 
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anni7

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One of the vets I spoke to told me that the fur makes the vitamin and the cat licks it .
 

Norachan

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One of the vets I spoke to told me that the fur makes the vitamin and the cat licks it .
I don't think that's true. From what I've read cats don't get very much vitamin D from sunlight at all. They get nearly all of it from their diet.

https://hubpages.com/animals/Do-cats-need-sunlight-does-sunshine-make-vitamin-D-in-cats

As far as the spraying and neutering goes: I have a lot of cats, all spayed and neutered. One of my neutered boys and one of my spayed females will spray indoors if they are upset by something. They don't do it very often, but a few times a feral cat has tried to get into their enclosure or some of the local wildlife has got too close and they've both sprayed by the front and back doors.

The big difference in intact male and neutered/spayed cats spraying is the smell. Tom cat urine is extremely potent, the smell lasts for days and is almost impossible to get rid of. When fixed cats spray it's much easier to clean up.
 
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anni7

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Yea it prob doesn't smell as bad . My friend had cats for a while and her cats never sprayed and they all also were or are desexed however she only had one cat at a time and they lived in a very isolated place so the cat wasn't able to see other cats or animals outside - they were just one floor up but the way that building was it was impossible to see much close up I guess this was what helped as the cats from the outside couldn't come anywhere near the building or inside as it was securely locked. I think it was a nice environment in that apartment that made the cats calm.
 

Geoffrey

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My present cat who not a Siamese, Sukie, is female and 2 years old.  She has been spayed at 3 months but sprays occasionally when she is worried about strangers in the environment, either possums or the big Tom Burmese who comes around sometimes.  She always sprayed at the same place, but not if we cover it with the plastic bucket full of cat litter.

In my opinion as a doctor, hair, feline or otherwise, is most unlikely to secrete vitamin D from sunlight.

With all best wishes,

Geoffrey
 
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