Advice to prevent feline male spraying?

Question

Is there anything I can do to help prevent a newly adopted 6 yr old male shelter cat from spraying? He will be neutered on Friday, pick him up on Saturday. We have a 4 yr old spayed female cat. We will keep them separate for a while. I will buy some Rescue Remedy and put it on both cats before bringing the new one into his room. Any advice to prevent spraying would be helpful.

FYI - we don't currently own the cat, so he hasn't sprayed in our house. We don't get him until Saturday.

Answer 1

Slowly introducing him to the home should help. Cats bascially mark because they can't be everywhere at once, but their smell can. Giving him a large amount of territory makes it more likely he will spray.

It sounds like you already have a plan for keeping him in one room for awhile (at least one week is a good idea). Don't let him suddenly have full run of the house, though, after that week. Either expand his territory to two rooms, or allow him out for half an hour to an hour at a time and keep an eye on him. After another week or two, let him stay out 15 minutes longer, then another 15 to 30 minutes a week later, etc.

A product called Comfort Zone can be quite helpful in preventing spraying, too. It uses a synthetic pheromone to "trick" the cat into thinking the area has been sprayed so he won't do so himself.

Do you know if he is already a sprayer? If he's not, you may be in the clear.

Answer 2

My male cat was spraying until we got him neutered and he never did it again. It is a just a way to mark the area. I would just try and stop him and clean up the mess.

Good Luck.

Answer 3

You'll just have to put up with it until Friday, I'm afraid. Intact males, of most species, like to mark their territory and that's all he's doing. Neutering him will take care of the problem

Answer 4

There is no way to stop that and since he is older he may still spray after he is neuterd.

Answer 5

Neutering is the only solution.