Cat sprays when he doesn't get a treat?!

[regalace]

One of our male cats sometimes sprays, and we’ve figured out it’s connected to food. He does it when he’s begging for dry food, and he is really really obvious about it. It seems he wants us to notice it.

We have 7 cats and they’re usually fed twice daily, canned/raw food. They sometimes get dry food as a treat, and they love it, but I don’t think it’s healthy to set out dry food free choice. So they all beg for it when they see us in the kitchen, but Jinx will beg and then go to the wall and spray. It’s clear he does it when we’re watching; I’m not sure if he also sprays for other reasons when we’re not looking, but this is a definite pattern.

How do we stop him from doing this? I want to be able to redirect him. I’ve tried picking him up for a cuddle as a distraction, but he isn’t crazy about that and it doesn’t seem to minimize the begging that seems to go with the spraying. I don’t want to discipline–I’m afraid he would just then do it without us seeing it, which would be worse if we didn’t realize! Only thing I can think is, once he starts begging, to put him in time-out in the cat bathroom for awhile, and then after he’s distracted give him a healthy snack?

[FatCatFarm]

Some cats are more prone to spraying than others; particularly males, though females will do it too. Some do it for cause an effect; some due to stress and insecurity. Hopefully Jinx is neutered which usually helps to curb it considerably.

To prevent FUS, I keep dry cat kibble out 24/7 for my kittles and have done this for 20 years. Cats need many small frequent meals throughout the day and good clean water to prevent their urine crystalizing in the bladder. While a few of my kitties are heavier than others, none is ridiculously so. Good canned/raw food is definitely better than the kibble, I agree, but is not practical for feeding multiple kitties as we’ve always done since we rescue. Still, you might try leaving out some good quality kibble and see if this doesn’t help with Jinx’ issue.

[mvp]

OP, “take what you like and leave the rest” about what I’ll say.

IMO, you are looking at this wrong-- wrong in a way that ignores your cat’s feelings as well as his attempt to gain power. That means you’re reactions to his behavior will be somewhere between inaccurate, ineffectual and frustrating for you and for him. You have made an a priori decision about what you want your response to your cat to be…. without even putting his moves into the equation!

In order to choose the right response to your cat’s “language”-- of spraying after begging in this case, you have to get inside his little kitty head and translate that behavior into a motivation that you can understand.

I read the spraying as your cat

1. Attracting your attention
2. Doing that because regular begging has failed to get him the food from you that he wanted.
3. It’s an “upping the ante” move. IMO, cats know that spraying is about “hear me roar.”

You can think of that “upping the ante” move as a “Yo! You didn’t hear me!” or a “Hey, F U! Listen up!”

So your first obligation is to let CatHead know that you did, in fact, hear him.

After that, you get to tell him whether or not his “yelling at you via spraying” is something that will make you cave or make you mad. Will he gain what he wanted by spraying or will he lose?

Right here, you can CatMan are negotiating power. IMO, pet owners who think that’s an ugly way to see their animals-- as about sharing power-- are frustrating to their animals. Animals do want to control their world enough to be safe in it… and there’s nothing mean or anthropomorphic about that.

My personal view is that spraying is an act of terrorism, that a cat knows this, and that I will “pull over” from whatever conversation we were having and tell the cat that I don’t negotiate with terrorists. What that looks like is a quick and unmistakable NO in response to spraying. I am as aggressive as the cat requires. When I see him look surprised and scared, I quit; I have done enough to make my point. Usually, I’ll ignore him afterwards. This means “my meter goes back to zero.” I don’t hold a grudge, but I don’t turn around and comfort him after I scared him. Rather, I let him replay the tape of our interaction in his mind while he’s alone. If I’m lucky (and I did my job right), cat figures out that spraying was the magic move that earned my wrath.

The “time out” solution is great for calming an animal (or person, or union negotiator). It does give them time to reconsider just what happened. But does it teach the cat that spraying in particular was A Bad Thing? I don’t know. It depends how much your cat needs your company. If that’s something he values, being thrown in solitary is something he’d like to avoid. If he doesn’t care, you didn’t create a consequence that was negative enough for Kitty to want to avoid it again.

And if the cat is hungry, you are setting him up to fail. It’s a powerful drive and a cat will accept a lot of suffering in order to avoid hunger. If he has to “run the gauntlet” with you in order to get food, it will screw up your relationship with him. What I mean is that if he thinks he has to ask for food, spray, get yelled at, then get food, he’ll learn that you just drive a hard and crappy bargain. But he won’t decide that eating is something he’ll give up.

[regalace]

Yes, he is neutered. And yes, it’s definitely a power play! He’s a bit more moody and less happy-go-lucky than the other kids.

To clarify–I didn’t mean he would go in time-out after spraying, but beforehand, when we started seeing the begging. I know he wants food, but he isn’t going to always be able to eat when he asks for it, and I don’t want to reward the begging behavior that is the precursor to the spraying. (He doesn’t always spray, BTW, maybe a couple of times per week? But they all beg pretty routinely, every time we’re in the kitchen, despite being in robust good weight.)

If we discipline for spraying (by yelling at him or squirting him with a water bottle) I just think that’s approaching the behavior from the wrong end of the issue. I’m just not sure how to set him up to succeed here.

Ideally I’d like to give this kitty some special attention, and I do try to take him out of the room and give him a snack just for himself sometimes, that he doesn’t have to share with the others, but I can’t necessarily do that every day. He seems eager enough to go into the communal feeding area, but I’m wondering if he’s completely comfortable with sharing all the time.

[mvp]

[QUOTE=regalace;7495717]
I do try to take him out of the room and give him a snack just for himself sometimes, that he doesn’t have to share with the others, but I can’t necessarily do that every day. [/QUOTE]

It sounds like you are using inconsistent positive reinforcement in your “sometimes he gets snacks, but that’s at random and not every day.” If so, you are using the best conditioning technique there is!

I do understand wanting to cut off the begging behavior as a precursor to spraying. So why not tell him to “Cut it out!” and get a little menacing if he doesn’t? When he looks surprised and retreats, go back to neutral.

Does that not work?

I think you can separate your liking this cat (wanting to give him special attention) from the more systematic and firm person you need to be with him while changing his behavior. You can be both, but you have to be cognizant of when you do one or the other and how CatBoy is interpreting your behavior.