Hi
I have a 7 year old neutered female British Blue Shorthair called Marmite. She is in excellent health & is an indoor only cat. She lives in a large house with myself & my wife, there are no other animals. We look after her behavior needs, most rooms have a scratch posts, there are 2 aerobic centers, one positioned so she can watch birds at a bird feeder at the front of the house. She has radiator beds (which she loves) in the living room, my office & the bedroom. There are also additional cat beds/sleeping places in the dining room, my office & the bedroom. There are 2 litter trays, she has regular playtimes & is generally happy & loved.
For the past year, I have been having marking problems. I know the problem - there is a cat that walks along at the front of the house most nights. Marmite gets very stressed at this & if I am up, I try to make sure I am with her. There are 3 windows at the front & Marmite will run VERY fast from one window to the next to check the cat outside. In the mornings, I sometimes find urine marking. This goes though phases & can be every morning for a few days then it stops. To control this, we keep the curtains open at the front of the house, because she was spraying on thim when they were closed. After a spraying episode the area is properly cleaned with biological powder & white spirit. Marmite is of course never told off for spraying. The spraying happens either in the living room, or the kitchen. She is fed in the kitchen, the middle room, the dining room is her playroom. She has an area there with a small selection of her toys & also a big pile of bubblewrap - which she loves. She also has a play area along the upstairs landing. Living room spraying started on the curtains, now we leave them open, we also found she was spraying on the TV cabinet. We had missed this for several weeks. Spraying in the kitchen is her current favorite spot. She used to spray on the curtains, but now sprays on the kitchen worktop at the side wall - in the general direction of the kitchen scales, wine rack & dustbuster. Anything we can't clean perfectly is removed (dustbuster, magazines). This worktop is approximately above her food dish. The scales are used to measure her food.
The living room & kitchen both have a Feliway diffuser (http://www.feliway.com) & I use a Feliway sprayer on suitable places like the TV cabinet, all front windows & various places in the kitchen.
I recognise that I am only treating the symptons & trying to stop a habit forming. How do I stop the outside cat from visiting? Finding the owner is unlikely as I am in a rural area & it is likely to be a farm cat. I have tried synthetic Lion poops with only very slight success. I'm looking to try some sort of sound deterrent. My preference would be an air horn that sounds when a beam is broken, or possibly some sort of ultrasonic deterrent, but this must not affect birds. We also have other wildlife here including badgers, hedgehogs, deer & there are sheep in a field 20 feet in front of the house. The unit would hopefully not be mains powered.
I have considered using black card or translucent film to blank off all windows at the front of the house. I've noticed however that Marmite hears the cat & then runs to the window, so I'm not sure of the effect on Marmite of not being able to see the intruder. She also would not be able to watch the birds during the day.
We have security lights all around the house which are usually triggered by the visitor. We also have CCTV cameras.
I'd be grateful for any advice.
Regards
Nick (UK)
I have a 7 year old neutered female British Blue Shorthair called Marmite. She is in excellent health & is an indoor only cat. She lives in a large house with myself & my wife, there are no other animals. We look after her behavior needs, most rooms have a scratch posts, there are 2 aerobic centers, one positioned so she can watch birds at a bird feeder at the front of the house. She has radiator beds (which she loves) in the living room, my office & the bedroom. There are also additional cat beds/sleeping places in the dining room, my office & the bedroom. There are 2 litter trays, she has regular playtimes & is generally happy & loved.
For the past year, I have been having marking problems. I know the problem - there is a cat that walks along at the front of the house most nights. Marmite gets very stressed at this & if I am up, I try to make sure I am with her. There are 3 windows at the front & Marmite will run VERY fast from one window to the next to check the cat outside. In the mornings, I sometimes find urine marking. This goes though phases & can be every morning for a few days then it stops. To control this, we keep the curtains open at the front of the house, because she was spraying on thim when they were closed. After a spraying episode the area is properly cleaned with biological powder & white spirit. Marmite is of course never told off for spraying. The spraying happens either in the living room, or the kitchen. She is fed in the kitchen, the middle room, the dining room is her playroom. She has an area there with a small selection of her toys & also a big pile of bubblewrap - which she loves. She also has a play area along the upstairs landing. Living room spraying started on the curtains, now we leave them open, we also found she was spraying on the TV cabinet. We had missed this for several weeks. Spraying in the kitchen is her current favorite spot. She used to spray on the curtains, but now sprays on the kitchen worktop at the side wall - in the general direction of the kitchen scales, wine rack & dustbuster. Anything we can't clean perfectly is removed (dustbuster, magazines). This worktop is approximately above her food dish. The scales are used to measure her food.
The living room & kitchen both have a Feliway diffuser (http://www.feliway.com) & I use a Feliway sprayer on suitable places like the TV cabinet, all front windows & various places in the kitchen.
I recognise that I am only treating the symptons & trying to stop a habit forming. How do I stop the outside cat from visiting? Finding the owner is unlikely as I am in a rural area & it is likely to be a farm cat. I have tried synthetic Lion poops with only very slight success. I'm looking to try some sort of sound deterrent. My preference would be an air horn that sounds when a beam is broken, or possibly some sort of ultrasonic deterrent, but this must not affect birds. We also have other wildlife here including badgers, hedgehogs, deer & there are sheep in a field 20 feet in front of the house. The unit would hopefully not be mains powered.
I have considered using black card or translucent film to blank off all windows at the front of the house. I've noticed however that Marmite hears the cat & then runs to the window, so I'm not sure of the effect on Marmite of not being able to see the intruder. She also would not be able to watch the birds during the day.
We have security lights all around the house which are usually triggered by the visitor. We also have CCTV cameras.
I'd be grateful for any advice.
Regards
Nick (UK)
