All cat owners love to hear the sweet sound of “Meow” from their furry companion. No one can deny that cats are super cute creatures and their owners like to cuddle with them. On the other hand, having a clean house is also a challenge for a cat owner.
No doubt, nothing is worse than returning home after a long hectic day and a strong pungent odor welcomes you. Spraying is one of the cat’s behavioral problems other than scratching. Cats usually use vertical spaces to spray on them.
Furthermore, cat parents usually expect their cats to start spraying from 6 to 7 months. During this time cats become fully adult and mature. Sometimes cats start spraying early, than the expected period.
Female and male cats can spray. Your furry friends can spray indoors when something disturbs them or their daily routine life. Do people usually confuse what cat spray smells like? They are confused that either it smells like a cat’s urine or is different from it. Let’s explore the topic more deeply.
What Do Cats Spray Smell Like?
There is no doubt that the smell of cat spray is like urine, but more pungent and stronger than urine. In addition to all this, every cat spray has its unique smell. But you can feel a strong ammonia smell from your cat spray.
Cat spray has a high amount of ammonia with a little addition of other chemicals that cause a more pungent smell. Especially, you can smell a strong “Tom Cat” smell in a male cat spray.
Moreover, spayed and neutered cats can also spray, but it smells different. It’s true that spaying and neutering decrease the cat’s wish to spray. But, still, 5 percent of females and 10 percent of male cats spray even after surgical procedures.
What Does Cat Spray Smell Like Male Cat?
All male cat owners will confirm that the spray of their male cat friend is very intense. Due to their hormones, male cats usually spray intensively with a sharp smell of ammonia. But, the smell of neutered tom cats is not that penetrating.
Moreover, the odor of non-neutered male cat spray is strong enough to attain attention quickly. Due to the presence of some extra chemicals, the cat spray smells different than regular cat urine. All these extra chemicals will let you experience these smells within seconds.
What Does Cat Spray Smell Like Female Cat?
There is no doubt that female cats also spray. Therefore, confusion for cat owners is the difference between male and female cat spray. There is little variation in the smell of both male and female cat spray.
Furthermore, the smell of the female cat spray is less pungent as compared to a male cat. Due to the presence of some additional hormones, the smell of female cat spray is “musky and sweet”. This sweet and musky smell is mixed with cat pee’s standard ammonia smell. But it is not strong at all.
Spaying your female cat can solve your problem of cat spraying. But you have to keep in mind that 5% of female cats can still spray in some situations. But you can correct this behavior through training.
How long does Smell of a Cat Spray Last?
No one can tell you with confirmation how long the smell of cat spray last. It lasts forever actually or until you changed your furniture or desensitized the place.
In addition to this, the best option is to clean cat spray or urine as soon as possible for you. In this way, cat spray or pee will not seep or penetrates deep inside your furniture, walls, or appliance.
Why Do Cats Spray? | Reasons
Several cats’ parents ask questions that why their cats are spraying. They want to know the reasons behind this behavioral problem of their loving furry friend. Spraying is a type of cat communication and they wish their message must be heard.
In a wildlife environment, to communicate with other cats, cats left scent signals. These scent signals are sent through scratching, rubbing, spraying, and urinating. Due to these scent signals other cats come to know that the area is the territory of any cat or that cat will return or cat is ready for mating.
On the other side, pet neutered or spayed cats don’t spray most of the time. However, when cats are under stress and that time, they want to have their scent smell to feel protected. Even though you create a nurturing and safe atmosphere for your cat, your cat still becomes disturbed and sometimes sprays.
Let’s have a quick look at the common reasons that become the cause of cat spray.
Marking Territory
Communication through smell is a common way of sending messages in the animal kingdom. Cats are very possessive about their territories. Therefore, they mark their territory through spraying.
Cats don’t like to share their territory with other cats. On the other side, confrontation is also stressful for cats. That’s why the cat sprays and warns other cats not to enter his territory without confrontation and fighting.
The smell of the spray of every cat is unique. Due to this reason, other cats can easily recognize that this is the territory of any other cat.
Looking For Mate
When cats are ready to mate and they are looking for a partner then cats also spray. You can find this behavior in both male and female cats. The smell of the spraying is a signal to show their availability that they are ready to mate.
You can differentiate between the smell of male and female cat spray. What does cat spray smell like on male cats? It’s a pungent, strong, intense smell. On the other side, if you ask what does cat spray smell like for female cats? Then the answer is a sweet, less intense, cat pee-like smell.
Stress
No doubt, stress is not good for any living thing including cats. Moreover, cats can’t be able to accept change easily. Therefore, even a tiny change in the surroundings causes cats to spray or urine marking. People usually experience this behavior of cats at the arrival of a newborn baby, new pets, and new furniture.
As we mentioned above that cats don’t like confrontation. That’s why they spray and mark the boundary. In this way, they think that new visitors, babies, or furniture will recognize the scent and stay away from a cat’s territory.
When you have several cats in one home, then cats suffer from long-term stress due to the presence of others. That’s why you need to spend time with every cat and let every cat feel special.
In addition to this, you have to spread litter boxes, toys, and other items all around your place. So, all cats can use them without getting stressed by the other cat’s presence.
Fear
Furthermore, fear is another stimulus that will let our cat start spraying. Whenever a cat feels fear or stress then they show it through spraying.
If your cat sees some stray cats moving in your yard. This site will threaten your cat. They are innocent creatures. Cats will think that these stray cats will enter the house. Therefore, your cat starts marking indoor walls through spraying to stay away from all intruders.
You have to block the view or not let stray cats enter your yards. You can use a different type of sensor alarm that can easily keep stray animals away from your home. In addition to this, you can buy a pheromone diffuser from any pet shop to relax your cat.
New Place or New Home
When you change your place or move to someone’s home, then it is not easy for your cat to adjust. All this can cause a cat to spray to mark new territory. Due to new surroundings and arrangements, cats feel insecure. So, you can again feel the smell of cat sprays in your new home too.
In such conditions, you can try to make the cat’s surroundings like your old place as much as possible. For example, you can place a litter box near the window, if it was near the window previously.
People are usually curious to know the reasons for cat spray. Moreover, cat owners also wish to know what cat spray smells like for female or male cats. We tried to explain all these queries in this article.
Final Verdict
Spraying is a behavioral problem for cats. Cats can display this behavior in different situations. People try to explore what cat spray smells like. They are usually confused about the behavior of their cats.
There is no need to yell and punish your innocent furry friends. They even don’t know the meaning of punishment. You should try to understand the problem of your fury partner.
Moreover, you can train cats through love and affection. You can redirect this behavior over time and have the cuddly, cute, and active, furry friends which you always wanted.
If your home has torn sofas, scratches on walls, and strains of urine on rugs and walls, then it means this house belongs to a happy human that has a happy lovely furry companion in his life.
