I'm not sure if this should be a nutrition thread or behaviour. Mitz occasionally goes through phases of spraying. He's the lowest in the pack and submissive to the other three, plus an 'emotional' type, easily bothered by routine changes, and I've gone through an elimination list of what might be causing the problem.
Having got rid of all strange/foreign objects in the house he objected to, feliway everywhere (all four love it), proper odour eliminators and all the other basic steps to stop it, I've got it reduced now to a pattern I can spot, and it's to do with when I feed the cats meat! When Jazz had a tooth out and for a couple of weeks they had to have dry food only, he didn't do it once. The first night I fed them meat again, about an hour later he sprayed three times in five minutes. He gets clearly excited and agitated, shouts at me and rushes around, the meat clearly has an effect on him and it doesn't seem to be directly at the time of eating either.
I wondered whether it might be that he was competing with the other three when they're fed the catfood. That doesn't seem to be the case, and while the other three eat all of their spoonful, Mitz often only has a few mouthfuls and then goes away and leaves his, he prefers the dry food. I've tried a couple of different brands and it's the same effect. Could it be a dietary thing, could the food have this effect on him, or is this a behaviour thing? Does this ring a bell with anyone?
Having got rid of all strange/foreign objects in the house he objected to, feliway everywhere (all four love it), proper odour eliminators and all the other basic steps to stop it, I've got it reduced now to a pattern I can spot, and it's to do with when I feed the cats meat! When Jazz had a tooth out and for a couple of weeks they had to have dry food only, he didn't do it once. The first night I fed them meat again, about an hour later he sprayed three times in five minutes. He gets clearly excited and agitated, shouts at me and rushes around, the meat clearly has an effect on him and it doesn't seem to be directly at the time of eating either.
I wondered whether it might be that he was competing with the other three when they're fed the catfood. That doesn't seem to be the case, and while the other three eat all of their spoonful, Mitz often only has a few mouthfuls and then goes away and leaves his, he prefers the dry food. I've tried a couple of different brands and it's the same effect. Could it be a dietary thing, could the food have this effect on him, or is this a behaviour thing? Does this ring a bell with anyone?