Devil Child of a Cat

[PhoenixGate]

I have a question for any other cat people that may be here. I have a two year old male cat, unfixed, who I'm trying to train out of spraying in my apartment. I have pet odor removal stuff so the smell isn't so much of an issue. I've been using negative reinforcement, a squirtbottle and a firm "no" plus putting him in a dog crate when I sleep at night.

The reason I've chosen to keep him unfixed is a bit of a long story, but the short version is that his full brother, Red, was very special to myself and my brother. Red took off out the door at my old house in December of 2011 and never came back. He never turned up on craigslist, none of the neighbors ever saw him, and although my brother hiked all around the isolated property he never found a trace of his body. Two days after he took off we had horrible half sleet half snow falling for a day and a half, so either the coyotes, an eagle, or the weather ended Red. We missed Red a lot and felt bad we were never able to find him, so a couple of years later we adopted the cat I have now, Murry. We had two other cats at the time so we definitely weren't looking for a third cat, but Murry is Red's full brother and the last litter from their mother. So we brought home Murry and decided that we would keep him, not fix him and breed him later on down the road. Both Murry and Red came from an excellent line of hunters. Red dragged back a bushy tailed rock rat the size of a small rabbit, as well as small rabbits on a regular basis. Originally, my brother was going to keep Murry and I was going to move out with the other two cats. Circumstances have changed to where my brother has to move and can't take Murry, so I am now responsible for all three cats.

My other two cats are fixed, one is a 12 year old fixed male (Asher), the other a 3 year old fixed female(Aussie). My question is this; how do I get Murry to stop spraying? I've done a little research and as far as I can tell, even if we get him fixed now he might still spray.

[Twitchy]

try feliway diffusers, it is the facial pheromone that cats give off when rubbing their face on things, this pheromone it to mark items or their humans lol as something that they love, and that belongs to them. I have an neutered male cat that urinates outside of the litter box and it helped to resolve the issue. He is probably spraying because he is intact and is marking his territory. The feliway will hopefully give him some confidence that he is in control of his environment and help to decrease the spraying.

[DooLittle]

Neuter him.

[Jackie]

Neuter him.

I second that

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[Kodieh]

This is a sacrifice to having both a male cat and an unaltered male cat.

Get him fixed, theres plenty of cats in the world needing homes and obviously your brother no longer as vested interest in the cat or he would make arrangements to move to where he could have pets.

[Darkbird]

Hate to say it, but I doubt anything will help while he's still intact. If breeding him is that important to you, consider giving him his own small room, or building a large cage he spends most of his time in. He could be let out for supervised time, but he would essentially be a caged pet. As long as he had toys and climbing areas, he wouldn't get too bored.

[aahmn]

Agreed. Neutering is going to be the only chance at getting him to stop if you want to keep him in your house. There are so many other cats that need homes that whatever you are looking for in the future, you'll be able to find in a rescue.

[PhoenixGate]

I'm opposed to neutering him for several reasons. The biggest reason is that I intend to breed him to keep the line going, and keep a link back to Red. Another reason is, well, I think it would be a little rude to get him fixed at this point. I've been making progress with training him to stop spraying, and I knew someone else who kept an intact tom inside and successfully trained him out of spraying in the house.

I looked up the feliway difusers and I'm giving that a go as soon as I get extra income again. I'm putting it down as a top priority at this point.

The odd thing is that Murry didn't start spraying until a couple months ago, after the most recent move. He'd been through two moves with the other cats prior to this last one, in what has been one of the most stressful periods of both my life and my cats lives. I think part of it is that these guys have been a clowder for barely a year, and my older cat has always been opposed to new cats coming in the household. Most of the time its Asher that's the antagonizer, and I've noticed Murry tends to spray only where he's scented Asher or immediately after they've had a confrontation. I think another big part of it is that I don't have a lot of spaces for them to climb or a lot of toys right now either. A lot of stuff got lost in the last couple of moves. That's top on my priority list as well.

I'm planning on moving again in one to two years (relocating for school) and settling down in a house of my own sometime after that. I do plan on building the cats a run (basically a large jungle gym space outside that's caged and connects inside the house.

[I-KandyReptiles]

So you have 3 cats, and you want to have kittens to continue a line of mutt cats, basically.

There are thousands of cats needing home, yet you're going to bring more into the world.

Get him neutered.


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[PhoenixGate]

He may not be a purebred cat but I like the line he comes from. I'm not planning on breeding an army of cats. There are a ton of bps in captivity that are receiving sub par care or need permanent homes, not to mention all the larger pythons that get killed or abandoned, yet I would never suggest that people not breed them if they desire to do so. I find this comment rude.

I will also point out that humans as a species are overpopulated, and that we should not be reproducing at such a high rate, yet I would never suggest that someone get themselves fixed (before or after kids) as a solution.




I will also add that I've spoken to my vet and she has stated that getting him fixed will have a high chance of NOT stoppingthe spraying.

So you have 3 cats, and you want to have kittens to continue a line of mutt cats, basically.

There are thousands of cats needing home, yet you're going to bring more into the world.

Get him neutered.


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