Kris­tel-Marie Ram­nath

Pheromones are chem­i­cal sig­nals that are used as a form of com­mu­ni­ca­tion be­tween an­i­mals. They are species-spe­cif­ic, so cats will on­ly re­spond to pheromones from oth­er cats and not to pheromones from oth­er species, such as dogs or hu­mans. Pheromones are used to leave “mes­sages”, and dif­fer­ent pheromones send dif­fer­ent mes­sages.

Cats de­tect pheromones us­ing their vomeronasal or­gan (VNO), which is lo­cat­ed in the roof of their mouths. De­tec­tion is aid­ed by the Flehmen re­sponse dur­ing which pheromones en­ter the ducts through an open­ing in the roof of the mouth and move up to the VNO. The Flehmen re­sponse re­sem­bles a gri­mace, and in­volves lift­ing the head, pulling the lips back and mov­ing the tongue to­wards the front of the mouth. The pheromones can dis­solve in the nasal mu­cus and en­ter the VNO via the na­sopala­tine canal, or they are licked or in­haled in­to the mouth where they dis­solve in sali­va and trav­el to the VNO via two open­ings be­hind the front teeth. The VNO con­nects to the amyg­dala in the brain which de­ci­phers the mes­sage.

Cats pro­duce pheromones in glands around the body and face. They can be found be­tween the head and ears, on the chin, cheeks and around the mouth; in the pads on the paws; and in the anal and urino­gen­i­tal re­gion. Fe­male cats al­so have glands around the teats that pro­duce fe­line ma­ter­nal ap­peas­ing pheromone.

Pheromones are shared or de­posit­ed on­to oth­er cats or in­to the en­vi­ron­ment by rub­bing the head and body on peo­ple, oth­er cats or ob­jects; by scratch­ing or claw­ing at items; by tail wrap­ping; urine spray­ing; and mid­den­ing (leav­ing poop un­cov­ered).

Pheromones in­flu­ence cat be­hav­iours, in­ter­ac­tions and emo­tions. They are used to iden­ti­fy and recog­nise oth­er cats; mark ter­ri­to­ry; and cre­ate so­cial re­la­tion­ships with­in groups of cats. Tail wrap­ping is thought to main­tain a “group scent”. Pheromones re­leased from the rear of a cat (of­ten in urine) are com­mon to both male and fe­male. They com­mu­ni­cate ter­ri­to­ry mes­sages, in­di­cate sex­u­al sta­tus, and ex­press fear or stress. Male cats are at­tract­ed to pheromone marks left by a fe­male in heat which tells him when she is ready to mate.

Pheromones are im­por­tant in en­sur­ing bond­ing be­tween a moth­er cat and her kit­tens. They help the moth­er to iden­ti­fy her kit­tens if they be­come sep­a­rat­ed, and help the kit­tens to iden­ti­fy each oth­er as “fa­mil­iar” friends. They al­so help nurs­ing kit­tens feel con­tent and se­cure, re­duc­ing con­flict and ten­sion.

Ever since the im­por­tance of pheromones in cat com­mu­ni­ca­tion has been recog­nised, re­search has gone in­to the cre­ation of syn­thet­ic pheromones which mim­ic the in­flu­ence of nat­ur­al ap­peas­ing cat pheromones and are used in cas­es where cats are anx­ious or ag­gres­sive. The most pop­u­lar brand for cats is Fe­li­way, which pro­duces syn­thet­ic pheromones in sev­er­al forms in­clud­ing as plug-in dif­fusers, sprays, wipes and col­lars.

Pheromones are not drugs and do not re­quire ab­sorp­tion in­to the blood­stream nor me­tab­o­lism by the an­i­mal to have an ef­fect, there­fore they are very safe for an­i­mals of any age, re­gard­less of state of health, and are safe to use with any oth­er med­ica­tion that an an­i­mal may be re­ceiv­ing. How­ev­er, pheromones should not be seen as the mag­ic so­lu­tion for be­hav­iour prob­lems. Syn­thet­ic pheromones should be used as part of an over­all be­hav­iour plan, not used on their own.