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Cats love to mark their territories, and rubbing behavior
is one way to do so. Urine
marking is another common way a cat marks its territory,
but can be quite upsetting to the household.
Often times however, cats will rub their cheeks or
sides along side a table leg, the owner, another animal,
or object. In these instances, they are actually
marking the areas they are rubbing with Pheromones.
Pheromones are hormone substances which cats produce
in the skin of the cheeks and body, which when applied
to other objects act to scent mark these objects as
familiar territory to the cat. New items introduced
in a household are frequently marked in this way.
Owners who have just returned from being away, or new
people in the household are likewise marked. In
this way, your cat familiarizes itself with its environment,
and therefore feels secure. When the cat's territory
is being threatened, often times they will turn to urine
marking. This message is to act as a strong warning
to the other "intruder" that this is MY territory,
and to respect it as such.
With this in mind, some treatments for urine marking
use pheromone therapy. Synthetic pheromones are
bottled, and then sprayed on objects the cat tends to
mark with its urine. The theory behind this approach
is the cat will not urine mark an area that has been
previously scent marked with cat pheromones.
Check with your veterinarian, or submit a request to
Questions
for the vet for more information.
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