15 Reasons Why Cats Spray in Your House
Anyone who’s owned a cat has likely encountered cat spraying, an admittedly annoying habit whereby a cat will spray urine on a vertical surface in the house. If your cat suddenly starts doing this, you’ll probably first wonder why and then wonder if there’s a way you can get your cat to stop. It’s not likely that you want your house to smell like cat urine, after all.
There are various reasons your cat might suddenly begin spraying in the house, or even worse, spraying you. Luckily, this isn’t a problem without a solution, and there are things you can do to help your cat stop spraying. Here are 15 reasons your cat might be spraying in your house and what you can do to help fix the problem.
Cat Spraying – 15 Reasons Why Cats Spray in Your House
Urine spraying among cats is pretty standard, and there are quite a few reasons that your cat might suddenly start spraying in the house, at a cat kennel, or any other indoor place. This behavior isn’t particular to house cats in the Gold Coast necessarily, but there are a few reasons why the environment your cat is in might make it spray inappropriately.
Cats can bring a lot of joy to your life, but when they start spraying all over your walls and furniture, you might feel like they’re starting to wear out their welcome. Never fear; you can take steps to get your feline friend to stop spraying all over your house and keep it in the litter box! Keep reading to find out more about why cats might be spraying and what you can do about it.
What is Cat Spraying?
First, it might help get an idea of what we’re referring to when we talk about cat spraying. When a cat sprays, it lifts its tail and sprays urine on a vertical surface, like a wall or a piece of furniture. Cat urine can have a strong, extremely unpleasant odor and can be very difficult to remove, so this can be a frustrating habit for a cat to pick up.
Cats may also urinate on horizontal surfaces, but this is different from spraying. The reasons can be the same, though, so you may find that your cat has been both spraying as well as urinating outside its litter box. Both of these behaviors are commonly referred to as urine-marking, and if your cat is doing both, it may provide further clues as to what’s wrong.
Cat spraying typically means something is wrong with your cat. This can be narrowed down into either a behavioral problem or a biological problem, each of which will have different solutions.
If you’ve found that your cat is spraying, your first step should be to take your cat to a vet for a checkup. You’ll want to rule out a health issue quickly so you can hopefully help your cat. If it’s not a biological issue, you can start working on the various behavioral issues.
How to Isolate Your Spraying Cat
If you have multiple cats in your home, you might find that you’re unable to figure out which cat is spraying your walls and furniture. Maybe it only happens at night or when you’re out at work, but it can be frustrating to have a spraying cat and not know which cat it is. Luckily, there’s a pretty simple answer – fluorescent stain.
To determine which cat is the culprit, simply give the cat one of the fluorescent stain cubes. You can follow the steps listed below:
- One at a time, give your cats a fluorescent stain capsule (usually a small piece of edible paper in a gelatin cube)
- Observe the sprayed areas for 24-48 hours
- If you don’t see dyed urine within this time, wait another 48 hours before moving on to the next cat
Make sure you give it at least 48 hours to get completely out of your cat’s system, or else you might get confusing results.
One important thing to note is that fluorescent dye is considered water-soluble but has been known to stain carpets or upholstery. Therefore, you’ll want to exhaust all other options to determine the culprit before you resort to using dyes.
Territory Marking
The most common reason that a cat will start spraying urine is as a way to mark its territory. Cats are territorial creatures, and the smell of their urine tells them, and other potential invaders, that this is their territory. Many animals found throughout the Gold Coast will be able to smell your cat’s urine and know to stay away.
If you’ve noticed your cat recently starting to spray, you should first consider whether you’ve recently introduced a new cat or another type of pet to the house. We’ll get more into this other reason below, but the presence of a potential rival will bring out your cat’s territorial instincts, and it’ll start spraying its perceived territory.
If you haven’t recently introduced a new pet, you should also check to see if any wild animals have recently taken up abode around your house. Your cat might feel threatened by them and, in an effort to warn them away, start spraying around your home.
Scent Maintenance
Once your cat has started spraying, the urine’s odor will cause it to come back and spray to help maintain the scent, thereby ensuring its territory continues to be marked. Even if it has no direct competition in the area in the form of other pets or wildlife, your cat’s instinct is to mark its territory through urination.
If you notice your cat spraying in the same place twice, it’s time to do some deep cleaning to get rid of the smell. Don’t use ammonia since that will attract them back, but doing a deep clean with soap and water or a natural-based cleaning product will eliminate the odor and keep your cat from coming back.
Again, you’ll also want to make sure your cat doesn’t feel threatened in the house if you find it’s spraying urine in the same place. Check around your home to see if there’s some wildlife outside that might be making your cat nervous, like dingoes, feral dogs, and cats, or foxes. Put up a fence to keep them out of your yard and keep your cat feeling safe.
Urinary Tract Disease
If your cat has suddenly started spraying all over the house, it might be suffering from a disease of the urinary tract. In these cases, your cat may have an infection or bladder stones that are either causing a blockage of the urinary tract or an illness, making urination painful or uncomfortable.
If your cat is also crying while urinating or urinating in odd places (besides spraying), it’s an indication that somethings wrong, and you should take your pet to the vet as soon as possible. As you can well imagine, urinary tract infections or bladder stones can be incredibly painful, and you don’t want your cat to suffer.
Bladder Stones in Cats
Cats can develop bladder stones when certain minerals aren’t being processed by their body correctly. These minerals can group together and harden into crystals, which then irritate the urinary tract and causes it to produce mucus. The mucus and crystals stick together, and voila, your cat has bladder stones.
This condition is more common in male cats, but these stones can completely block off urine flow, making it impossible for your cat to pass urine properly. In these cases, your cat will start spraying urine because it can’t achieve a regular urine flow.
Here’s a quick table summarizing bladder stones in cats. If you suspect your cat is suffering from bladder stones, you should consider this a life-threatening emergency and immediately take your cat to the vet.
Signs/Symptoms of bladder stones | Inability to urinate or blood in the urine. |
Diagnosis | It can be felt with fingers sometimes or identified with x-rays or ultrasounds. |
Treatment | Cystotomy (surgery to open bladder), relieve via a catheter or attempt to dissolve via a special diet. |
Prevention | Regular urine inspections analyze passed bladder stones for the chemical composition to determine if a special diet is required… |
Table Data Source: www.vcahospitals.com
Kidney Diseases
Apart from UTIs or bladder stones, kidney disease could cause your cat to start spraying urine. Your cat’s kidneys can begin to fail as your cat gets older, called renal failure. This can manifest itself in a variety of symptoms, including hair loss, weight loss, excessive water drinking, or in some cases, spraying urine.
If you suspect kidney disease as the culprit behind your cat’s disordered urination, you should seek help from a veterinarian. In most cases, you can tell from the other symptoms that show up in addition to the spraying. Other symptoms of kidney disease might include:
- Bad breath
- vomiting/diarrhea
- Bloody or cloudy urine
- Mouth ulcers
Acute vs. Chronic Kidney Disease
There are two types of renal failure in cats: acute or chronic. Acute will often show up suddenly in a matter of days or weeks, and if caught early enough, vets can reverse its effects and stop the spread. Chronic renal failure, on the other hand, is irreversible and is usually brought about by age.
While chronic renal failure can’t be stopped, and it will likely be a contributing factor to your cat’s death, there are a number of things a vet can do, like medication and diet alteration, to make your cat more comfortable. If you suspect your cat is suffering from chronic renal failure, seek advice and an assessment from a veterinarian.
Insecurity
Cats can be temperamental, and it’s important to remember that, unlike dogs, they’re not fully domesticated. Domesticated here is defined by being bred and trained in such a way that they’re fully dependent on humans to meet their needs.
Dogs have been domesticated by humans for anywhere from 18,000 to 30,000 years, while cats have only been domesticated for about 4,000 years. This means a cat living in your house hasn’t had its wild instincts completely bred out of it yet. Cats can, therefore, be insecure creatures that develop annoying habits as a way to cope with being out of the wild.
Any number of things can give rise to insecurity in cats, such as:
- A larger cat picking on it
- A change in its environment (more on that below)
- A feral cat in the backyard
- One of its human caretakers being missing for a long period of time.
In these cases, the cat may resort to spraying, and one of the ways to address it is to remove the source of insecurity.
Of particular note is making sure each cat has its own litter box. A general rule of thumb, if you have multiple cats, is to have one more litter box in your house than you do cats. If a cat sees the litter box as a source of anxiety, it won’t use it and will resort to urinating around the house. Removing stressors can help keep your cat using the litter box and not spraying your house.
Old age
Just like with humans, as cats age, they start to lose control of their bodily functions. One of these functions can be urination, and your cat may spray urine because of this. Your cat is just getting old, so it might develop new behaviors as a way to cope with that old age and the lack of mobility that comes with it.
Senility can be tough to handle as a cat-owner since they often start adopting bizarre behaviors other than just spraying as they age. Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do to address changes in behavior that are a result of brain function decline, other than making your cat more comfortable. Keeping a cat active and engaged throughout its life can help prevent senility.
Diabetes
When a cat has diabetes, it’s unable to properly process sugars, which leaves its cells unable to get the energy they need. As a result, one of the first signs of diabetes in cats can be severe weight loss, as its cells turn to burning fat and muscle cells to try and get the energy they need to survive.
Another symptom of feline diabetes is excessive thirst and drinking, which then leads to more frequent urination. When your cat has too much urine, it may resort to spraying as opposed to evacuating it in a more controlled manner in a litter box. If you notice your cat drinking a lot more water and urinating more, you might want to get it checked for diabetes.
Disorders of the nervous system
If your cat is experiencing any of a number of other possible nervous system disorders, it might result in a lack of urinary tract control and uncontrolled urination and spraying habits could result. This means their spraying is probably involuntary, rather than being a result of a behavioral issue like stress or territorial marking.
If you suspect your cat has a nervous system disorder, you’ll want to get them checked out by a qualified veterinarian. They’ll be able to tell you if their urine spraying is a result of a medical issue, as well as be able to suggest some ways you might be able to address the issue.
Pain/discomfort
Besides all the health issues we’ve already discussed, your cat may just be experiencing pain or discomfort unrelated to any chronic condition, which is making it uncomfortable and causing it to spray urine. If you suspect a health issue with your cat, you’ve probably already brought it to a vet, but try and observe your cat urinating or spraying if you can catch it.
A cat who is experiencing pain while urinating will likely cry or meow loudly while urinating and may continuously lick itself after urinating in an effort to reduce the pain. There are feline pain relievers available that may be able to help, and if you can help make your cat more comfortable, it could stop spraying urine around your house.
Stiff joints (i.e., arthritis)
As cats age, their muscles and joints can get stiff. This affects their ability to urinate because you’re probably aware that cats typically squat to urinate in a litter box if you own a cat. Since this requires some bending at the hips and knees, your cat may simply be unable to squat to urinate due to the pain of arthritis or a similar joint issue.
Unable to squat, your cat may resort to spraying its urine simply to relieve itself. If your cat is older (7 years old or older), you should be aware that it could start developing arthritis in its joints, and this may be a cause of spraying.
If your cat has been diagnosed with arthritis, there’s nothing you can do to cure it, but there are a few things you can do to help your cat be more comfortable:
- Talk to your vet about prescription medication.
- Modify your cat’s diet to lose weight if it’s overweight
- Get your cat a comfortable, soft bed
- Make sure your cat has an easy path to food, water, and the litter box.
Cat arthritis is common. It’s an unfortunate effect of old age, but if your cat has been spraying urine because of arthritis, finding some ways to make it more comfortable may help discourage the habit and get it urinating back in the litter box where it belongs.
A Perceived Threat in the Area
We’ve already touched on this a bit, but your cat may perceive a threat in its environment and therefore engage in urine-marking behaviors like spraying. If your cat perceives some sort of threat, whether it’s a potential predator or a potential rival on the food chain, your cat may start marking its territory by spraying.
In this case, spraying could be a sign of stress, or it could be the cat trying to make sure potential rivals know that this territory belongs to it. In either case, you should check your outside to make sure no potential predators have taken up residence in your backyard. If they have, you should take steps to discourage them per local regulations.
Recent Introduction of a New Pet
If you have multiple cats or decide to add a new cat or dog to the mix, you may notice an uptick in the frequency of your cat’s spraying behavior. This is mainly because spraying can be a sign of stress in cats, who sometimes cope with increased stress by spraying urine on your furniture and walls.
If your cat is marking its territory due to a new pet being added to your household, there are several things you can do to help it through the stress and stop the spraying. Cats primarily communicate through scent, after all. For instance, you could:
- Keep your new pet at a distance, whether in a separate room with a baby gate or something similar, to help your cat get to know the new pet.
- Ensure your cats don’t share a litter box, food tray, or water dish
- Give your resident cat some extra attention
You should also make sure you have more than enough litter boxes for all the cats you have in your home. Your resident cat should not be sharing a litter box with the new addition, mainly for territorial reasons. Making your resident cat more comfortable with the new cat will help it stop spraying as much.
Mating Behavior
Female cats, in particular, are prone to spraying due to being in the heat or being in a stage of being fertile. The urine they spray will contain a mix of pheromones and hormones, which will help signal tomcats (unneutered male cats) that the female is ready to mate.
Since cats communicate with each other, mainly through smell, it would make sense your cat starts spraying urine everywhere when it’s ready to “mingle.” If you suspect your cat is in heat and that’s the reason for the increased spraying, you may notice some other outward behavioral signs from your cat or the environment:
- Increased desire for affection
- Increased rubbing against your leg
- Increase in vocalizing
- Increased spraying
- An increased presence of unusual male cats in the area
When your cat is done being in heat, you’ll likely notice a decrease in these behaviors.
Changes in the Environment
Besides a new animal in the area, your cat may start spraying in response to a change in its environment. Spraying can be a way of dealing with stress, and your cat can get stressed out by a variety of things in its environment. Just a few of these things might be:
- Visits to the vet
- New smells
- New human family members (i.e., a new baby)
- Loud noises, like fireworks
- Moving to a new place
- Being picked on by another cat
There are a few things you can do to help your cat get through these stressful events; try and keep your routine as close to normal as possible, crate train your cat to give it a safe place to go and get away from stressors.
There’s also a product called Feliway available on Amazon. This product is a spray that has scents that are calming for cats, making them less likely to spray. Spray it where your cat has sprayed in the past or is currently spraying, and they’ll be calmed by the scent and won’t stress-spray in the same area.
Introduction to a New Place
Your cat may start spraying if it’s being introduced to a new place, like a Gold Coast cattery, or if its primary caretaker (you) is away for a period of time. In this case, you probably wouldn’t notice the increase in spraying, but your cat kennel might!
If your cat carer starts complaining that your cat has been spraying, you should take it seriously since they could stop allowing your cat to board with them. Crate training can help make your cat less anxious when it’s away, and if you send its crate with them, it becomes like a home away from home for them.
Reducing Stress During Boarding
In fact, if your cat struggles with stress when it goes to a boarding facility (regardless of whether that stress manifests itself as spraying or in some other behavior), there are a number of ways you can reduce its stress and make it a happier experience.
- Bring something they know from home, like a favorite toy or their bed
- Do an introductory visit for maybe an overnight, so you’re cat isn’t first introduced during a long trip
- Make sure the Gold Coast cat carer you choose is aware of feline anxiety and knows how to address it
- Let the cattery know if your cat gets stressed out, so they can be prepared
By taking a little bit of time before your cat goes to a boarder to get it ready, you can keep your cat happy while you’re away, enjoy a worry-free holiday yourself, and make sure your cat has a happy home away from home for future trips too.
Final Thoughts
Cat spraying can be very annoying, but it’s not normal behavior, and the good news is that in many cases, it can be addressed. For the reasons described throughout this article, as well as reasons that may be less common that we didn’t address, you can seek medical or behavioral interventions that stop your cat from spraying and keeps urine in the litter box.
