Feliway for Cats: A Pet Parent’s Guide

Feliway is a safe, effective and natural way to improve problem behavior and help your cat to cope with changes such as moving house and introducing new pets.

What is Feliway?

Cats are very susceptible to pheromones, let’s face it they use them all the time to make their environment smell more cat-friendly. Every time your cat scratches on something, rubs his face somewhere or urinates to mark, he is using his ‘smell brain’ to map out his home.

In many cases where cats become unhappy or hard to live with, they are simply working out strategies to cope with the constantly changing environment they live in. Situations that are often out of their control and cause them to act in often peculiar ways. Changes such as a new baby, routine changes, a house move, new furniture, and other cats can be severely distressing. Some cats, like people, internalize their anxieties, while others will wear their hearts on their paws and tell you all about how they feel.

Feliway comes as a plug-in diffuser with a replaceable refill or a non-aerosol hand-held spray. The diffuser constantly releases a pheromone that can’t be detected by our human noses, but that is comforting to cats. It works in a similar way to an air freshener and simply plugs into a regular power socket.

The hand-held spray is useful to treat specific places such as a cat carrier or areas your cat is urine marking or scratching.

How does Feliway work?

Feliway makes your home, that dreaded cat carrier or your new house smell comforting and safe. It is formulated from an analog of the feline facial pheromone, which cats place on things by rubbing their faces on furniture (or people!).

Cats are not particularly good at change. They like routine and predictability. Unfortunately, life is not always like this. Situations that are often out of your cat’s control can often cause anxiety, leading to behavioral problems. Your cat may scratch on furniture, urinate somewhere, vocalise, be reluctant to eat, overgroom or simply go and hide to avoid everything. Feliway is one way to get your cat out from under the bed and feeling a little happier again.

When should you use Feliway?

Stressed cats may overgroom, yowl, pace, urinate outside of the litter tray, show aggression, hide more often, may overeat or lose their appetite or under-eat. They may also lose the ability to play or may be unable to get their regular 16-18 hours of sleep a day.

We suggest placing the Feliway Diffuser Set in a power point in the main part of your house, or where your cat spends most of his time. If you are moving, place the diffuser in the new house 24 hours before you move your cat in. It would be ideal to have a separate room for your cat to feel safe in when you first move in, with the Feliway plugged in.

For trips to the vet, spray Feliway Spray into the cat carrier just before travel.

For urine marking, after cleaning with an enzymatic cleaner, spray Feliway in that particular spot to deter repeated ‘accidents’. For more information on solving problems involving cats urinating outside of the litter tray, visit here.

What to look for when buying Feliway

For travel or urine marking where a hand-held spray would be useful, look to buy the Feliway Spray that you can spray onto areas your cat marks with urine or in the cat carrier.

For anxious cats, moving home or situations where you are introducing a new pet or human to the household, the diffuser would be more useful.

Simply check that the tamper seal is in place when you purchase your Feliway.

Where can you buy Feliway?

Feliway is available in online stores such as Amazon or vet clinics.

What else do I need?

If your cat is suffering from anxiety, consider also the Thundershirt for cats.

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