How Does Feliway Work?

And How Can It Help With My Cat's Anxiety?

Tearing furniture apart, hiding in the corner of the room, and urinating outside the litter box can all be signs that your cat is stressed. Cat behavior is often influenced by their level of comfort- because cats are territorial; they need to ensure that their environment feels like their home. Cats naturally produce a pheromone to mark their territory.

Pheromones are chemicals that animals naturally secrete to elicit a particular response from other members of the species. One type of pheromone is the feline facial pheromone that calms cats and is used to mark their territory as secure. Feliway is a synthetic replication of the feline facial pheromone. Thus, the synthetic copy acts to calm cats using their own chemical response system.

Causes and Signs of Stress

There are many reasons your cat might be stressed. Most of the time, when a cat is stressed it is because they do not feel as though they’re in control of their environment. This often occurs when the cat is being moved to a new environment for something like a visit to the veterinarian. Additionally, simply adding new furniture or redecorating the home might be enough to make your cat feel uncomfortable.

Lastly, cats might feel uncomfortable in a home with multiple cats. This means that whether the cat is in a kennel with many other cats or simply in a two-cat household, cats might be made uncomfortable by the presence of another cat. This is especially true if one cat was in the home for some time before the second cat was added as a member of the family.

Here is a list of some of the more common signs of stress in cats:

Different Forms for Different Problems

Feliway comes in three different forms so that you can use the method which best caters to your cat’s unwanted behavior and the conditions surrounding it. For example, if you need a solution to misbehavior that occurs while traveling with your pet, you will be unable to use the Feliway Diffuser because it needs to be plugged into an outlet.

Feliway spray is also the preferred solution to resolving unwanted scratching by applying the Feliway spray directly to the scratched surface. The diffuser, however, is preferred in households with multiple cats and it is preferred for the first time treating cats for stress-related behaviors. Both solutions work equally well when it comes to urine marking when used in conjunction with an appropriate cleaner.

Feliway is also available in a wipe form to create another easy-to-use topical version of their product. These disposable wipes can be applied directly to surfaces to relieve stress-related issues in cats. The wipes also allow for the creation of particular paths or comfort zones to control your cat’s travel patterns.

Alternate Solutions

Though pheromones are all-natural, clinically proven to work, and recommended by 94% of veterinarians that were surveyed by CEVA Animal Health, there are alternate solutions available. If your cat does not react strongly to the presence of cat appeasing pheromones, then you can try feeding it a calming supplement or treat.

We recommend Bonies Natural Calming Formula, to maintain dental health and calm your pet with a low calorie treat. Also, try NaturVet’s Quiet Moments Gel for Cats. Quiet Moments not only reduces stress and tension, but it also promotes rest and sleep with the use of L-Tryptophan. We hope that these products offer a comprehensive solution to your cat's stress-related needs.