Duvet cover tells cat where to sleep

Duvet cover tells cat where to sleep. Shame they can't read English. Image: FB.

I like this duvet cover. Cool idea and it looks good. Shame cats can't read English. The duvet does tell a big story of cat intrusions on the bed. They do tend to hog it and sometimes interfere with sleep. You could write a book about cats in the bedroom.

There is the ever-present question of whether to let your cat come into the bedroom at night or whether you keep them out of the bedroom at night. A lot of people keep their cat out of the bedroom at night but I think it is a bad idea. So does Jackson Galaxy the American cat behaviourist. The bedroom is a great place for a cat but, I admit, it isn't so great for the person using the bed at night.

But cats just love to be with their owner on the bed at night. You are going to tell me now that your cat doesn't like to sleep on your bed with you which is fair enough but most cats do like to do it.

And then you've got a hold another chapter to write in this book about how cats wake their owners up at four in the morning because they want their breakfast. That's about domestic cats being crepuscular. Everybody knows that now. I think when you have a domestic cat you can expect to have your sleep broken sometimes at least. But it's a great trade-off. It's worth it. All cat owners would more or less say that.

You know what Jackson says is the best compromise about allowing your cat into the bedroom? It's to make a little bed for your cat in the corner of the room and that bed contains smelly items from you and your cat so they feel very comfortable sleeping on it. Because cats are attracted to the bedroom by the smell as in the words of Jackson, the bedroom has a "scent soaker". He means that it is soaked in the body odour of their owner. Yes, it doesn't sound great to humans but it is wonderful to cats.

Plant scents that are a deterrent to nuisance cats? Are they effective?

From time to time, we see an article in the online news media about deterrents to stop neighbours' cats from coming into your garden. Non-cat owning gardeners hate it because domestic cats like to go to the toilet in a nice fresh area of well fertilised flower bed. All that tender loving care can be undermined a little.

The Express in the UK has one of these articles online today. They list 'offensive scented low maintenance garden plants to deter cats from fouling outside'.

Lavender is not an effective cat deterrent. Image: MikeB

They suggest four plants which produce a scent that cats hate. The objective: to make your garden as unpleasant as possible for domestic cats as they have excellent noses.

The problem is this: they don't work! The scent of plants does not work as an effective cat deterrent.

I know that from general research and personal experience. For example, I have lavender in my backyard. A big bush of it near the patio. Lavender is the number one deterrent plant according to the Express.

For years my cat has walked past and brushed against this big bush of lavender and nothing! No effect. Nada. Zilch. He ignored it.

So that is the end of lavender as a cat deterrent as far as I am concerned. 

But my experience is backed up by science. Google Scholar has no articles on plants as cat deterrents as at the date of this post.

The scientists do not see research on plant scent deterrents as useful or viable. They don't want to waste their time.

The other three plants that the Express say are effective deterrents are: Rosemary, Rue and Pennyroyal.

Just in case you think they are worth a try; I wouldn't bother. The scientists says that ultrasonic noise deterrents work fairly well. You can buy them online at a fairly modest price.

Do ultrasonic cat deterrents work?

The one downside is that some people can hear ultrasonic sound. You won't know if you can until you have bought the device. It may be a waste of money if the deterrent deters you as well from going onto your own garden! 😎

One kitten hates the other after they were neutered. What's happening?

This is a question on the Reddit.com website which I would like to also answer on this site. This is quite a typical problem actually. Domestic cats identify almost everything that they encounter through their sense of smell. Or to put it more accurately, they confirm the identity of the object. This happens as you can see when they eat. They sniff food because at close range their eyesight is not that great and therefore, they've got to identify whether it is edible and nutritious through its smell.

One kitten hates the other after they were neutered. What's happening? Image: u/jkamio

When a cat goes to a veterinary clinic for any procedure including a minor operation like a male neutering, they come back smelling of the veterinary clinic. And the veterinarian has probably used a sterilising agent on the site of the wound which also will have a strong smell.

These smells transform the freshly neutered cat into a complete stranger to the sibling. Whereas once they recognised their sibling as a friendly cat who they knew, all of a sudden, they are encountering a stranger who has invaded their space.

In response they hiss at their sibling which is disturbing to their human caregiver. They hate to see this agonistic behaviour among friendly cats.

But the smell will fade and the kitten when then once again become a sibling who they like. And perhaps the smell of the operation can be removed with a damp cloth. In addition, a bit of bedding used by both cats could be rubbed over the cat who had the operation to speed up the return of their body odour to its true smell.

It is nothing to worry about although it is concerning initially. Years ago, I had a brother and sister siblings who got on well. The sister fell into a pot of white paint. It was water-soluble and I immediately washed it off. I also washed off her body odour. 

Her brother no longer recognised her and hissed at her. She groomed herself fastidiously for about an hour to put her scent back and at that point he recognised her and the status quo was renewed.

There is another point worth making. Siblings when they are young are normally friendly towards each other. When they become adults and independent, that friendship may disappear as they become competitors for resources.

That's the wild cat behaviour which looks peculiar in the home of their caregiver. There is no need to be independent-minded when they are both being looked after but of course it is instinctive. They may get along but they may not any more.

3 reasons why Persian cat always sits by shower cubicle when owner showers

This Reddit.com user, Mary, asks whether any other cat owned by the Reddit.com community sits by the glass shower screen when their owner is in the shower as you see in the photo below. And they are asking why this is happening. I think I know the reasons.

3 reasons why this Persian cat always sits by shower cubicle when owner showers. Image: Reddit user: u/Maryy_returns

There are three:

1. The shower and the surrounding bathroom have a strong smell of the person showering who is the human caregiver of the cat waiting outside the shower cubicle. This is because the warm water and steam distributes the body scent around the bathroom. It is the body scent of the person showering which attracts this gorgeous Persian cat to sit and wait. It's an attractant to him or her. Domestic cats are very involved with scents and smells. They connect with a person through their scent, and they identify a person by their scent.
2. Another reason is that their owner (believed to me Mary) has gone behind a glass screen and therefore becomes inaccessible. It is almost as if the person has decided to leave their cat. It's as if from the cat's perspective that they have placed a barrier between themselves and their cat. This is slightly disturbing, and her is trying to figure out why it's happening. And he will wait until that barrier is removed which happens when Mary steps out of the shower cubicle.
3. The third reason is an obvious one namely that this cat wants to be with their owner wherever they are within the home. They probably have a very close relationship and while Mary is at home, they are together a lot. She might be away during the day and therefore her cat has a particular desire to be with her when they are at home. This is a great motivator and a background reason which when added to the above results in this Persian cat sitting patiently outside the shower cubicle.

I guess it is 90% common sense. The fact that cats are so switched on to body scent is also another reason why when their owner goes to the toilet in the bathroom their cat might routinely or might occasionally join them at least briefly and then perhaps wait outside. 

They are attracted to the odours from the bathroom. That sounds a bit rude but for the cat, it isn't. It's a world in which scent plays an important role which is demonstrated in these ways.

Some domestic cats go even further. For example, the wildcat hybrid cats such as the F1 Savannah sometimes like to go into the shower cubicle with their owner. They don't mind the water and it puts them in direct contact with their owner which they enjoy.

Do you believe scientists who say that smelly clothes don't reassure domestic cats?

This is a cross post - click this for the earlier post. Three scientists conducted an experiment as to whether the scented i.e. unwashed clothes, of domestic cat human caregiver's provided what they describe as a "secure base effect" (SBE) for their cats. To cut out the technical language, they wanted to see whether cats obtained reassurance from the unwashed clothes of their owners when their owners were absent; away from the home or perhaps asleep at night. Are smelly clothes a substitute for the presence of cat owners in terms of reassuring the domestic cat companions?

Do you believe scientists who say that smelly clothes don't reassure domestic cats? Image in public domain.

I would expect that nearly all cat owners would say that they are at least a second-best substitute. Many cat owners place an unwashed item of clothing in a cat carrier to help to reassure their cat when they take them to a veterinarian for instance. Or they leave an item of clothing with their cat when they are boarded at a cattery when they are away on holiday.

And of course you see thousands of pictures on the Internet of cat sleeping on beds which contain copious amounts of body odour from their owner or domestic cats sleeping on their owner's favourite chair. Domestic cat sleep on the laps of owners because it is warmer and because it smells of their owner. The scientist will say that these are all anecdotal forms of evidence.

They wanted to address the issue through science and provide a scientific, objective answer as to whether smelly clothes reassure domestic cats. And they say that they DO NOT! This runs counter to conventional wisdom on cat caregiving.

ASSOCIATED PAGE: 14 links between stress in domestic cats and health implications

They conducted the experiment in what was a strange place for the cats. The cats would have been brought there in carriers. The room would have been quite stark I expect and there would have been other interfering aspects such as strange noises and strange people. I believe that when you place a domestic cat into an entirely new place which might be perceived as being hostile to them, you cannot expect them to behave normally. And if you can't expect them to behave normally you can't measure natural behaviours.

The researchers found that when cats were left in a room without their owner being present but with the benefit of smelly clothing from their owner they did not use those clothes to seek reassurance. When their owner was in the room with them their stress levels went down but the clothes did not reduce stress levels as judged through their behaviour when their owners left the room.

ASSOCIATED: Study says that cats are prone to separation anxiety in homes with two female residents

They concluded, firmly, that this was scientific evidence that cats don't obtain a "secure base effect" from scented objects belonging to their owner. I would argue, as mentioned, that the study is tainted by the abnormal behaviour of the cats brought about because they were out of their home range and placed in a strange place with can induce a mild sense of panic and anxiety which masks normal behaviours.

The use of scented clothes to help reduce a well-known condition called "separation anxiety" in felines appears to have been debunked by this study. You make up your own mind. I have made up mine as you can see. There is too much first hand experience to show that scented clothes are very important to domestic cat because the smell of objects is a vital part of their lives. The use their sense of smell as much as they use their eyesight. Humans rely far more heavily on their eyesight.

Note: The scientists are: Alexandra C.Behnkea, Kristyn R.Vital and Monique A.R.Udella who, I believe, conducted the study at Animal Health & Behavior, Distance Education, Unity College, 49 Farm View Drive, Suite 201, New Gloucester, ME 04260, USA.

Cat refuses to drink water except from cupped hands. Why?

This is about a feline drinking problem and a cat whose owner posted a request for help on the Reddit.com website. He said that his cat would not drink water except when he cupped the water in his hands and presented it to him. He's tried everything possible including changing the water receptacle and using different kinds of water including bottled water. He could not go on doing this because he wasn't at home all the time and his cat was becoming dehydrated. 

I'm not sure how the story ended because it's about six years old but he received some good answers mainly about changing the receptacle. One person thought that the cat could not recognise the water and suggested that he put a ping-pong ball in it.

Cupped hands holding water. Photo: Pixabay.

I would suggest that the problem might be to do with the odour of the water. When it is cupped in the hands of the cat's owner the water would smell of the body odour of the person. Cats are very much into the scent of their owner. They recognise their owner by their scent. It is possible that this cat is very anxious and timid and needs the reassurance of his 'surrogate mother' (owner) to drink and he achieves this by drinking from the hands of his owner. He will even lick fragments of water from his owner's hands rather than drink in the normal way.

If I am correct and it is about the smell of the water through the person's hands then the problem may be resolved by using a water which is as near as possible without smell, such as bottled water, pouring it into a receptacle, ideally a glass receptacle, and dipping his hands into that receptacle and aerating the water with his hands for about 20 seconds. 

That should deposit some of his scent into the water to make it smell a bit like his hands. That is quite a big guess but I have a feeling that the problem is not about recognising the water but about the bond between the cat and the person which in this instance is very strong. The cat needs to feel that he is being nursed by his owner. I think it's an act of nursing, a throwback to when he was a newborn kitten.

In fact, this cat may have been weaned too early and this may be an example of behavioural problems due to early weaning - not uncommon. That's my best guess and I think it is worth a try. Unfortunately, the problem was discussed about six years ago, as mentioned, and therefore my thoughts cannot be relayed to him in comments on the Reddit.com website because comments have been archived.

Indoor cat loves the smells of the outdoors

From @henrythecoloradodog: “Sometimes I swear B is actually a dog.” #catsofinstagram pic.twitter.com/1K0V5Drc5E

— Cats of Instagram (@catsofinstagram) November 12, 2020

I've taken the liberty of deciding that this cat, who is so enjoying a car ride, lives inside their owner's home all the time. When they're taken outside in a car ride and the window is wound down all the smells of the exterior come to her. You can see she's taking it all in. She loves the breeze and the gentle smells of the countryside. Her dog companion is enjoying the journey as much. I could be wrong about the cat being full-time indoors. But you can see the owner has brought her cat on a lead which is sensible as the cat is allowed to perch at an open car window while the car is travelling but this looks like a trip that the owners have taken for both their pets to give them a bit of fun and stimulation and also make a neat little 10 second video.

Super Cat Hug Based on the Smell of the Owner

This is a good example of a domestic cat enjoying a cuddle with his owner. I hate to say the word “owner" at any time but when watching this video it seems to be particularly inappropriate. This gentleman does not own his cat. They are simply best friends.

My assessment is that not only does this cat like to be close to his human caretaker, which as you know is very common and normal, he also likes to smell the scent of his caretaker.  It is that, in fact, which keeps in so close to his caretaker.

You can see this beautiful orange tabby cat embedding his chin into the neck of his human companion, which allows him to smell the scent from this man.

Scent plays a central role in the life of the domestic cat.  It is as important as seeing. They remember you years later by your scent.  In fact, it may be more important because the olfactory skills of the domestic cat are highly advanced - far superior to ours - whereas a cat's visual skills are less advanced than ours or perhaps it is more accurate to say that they are attuned to crepuscular activity, meaning activity at dawn and dusk and therefore attuned to dark conditions.  In that respect their eyesight is far superior to ours.

This video, for me, is all about olfactory skills and that all-important scent off the cat's companion, which in this case is a human but it could just as well be another cat or any other animal to which he or she is socialised.