Cat Behaviour and Pregnancy

Dolbert

Hi all, our 4 year old neutered male cat has been exhibiting some behavioural problems for the last few weeks. He's taken to peeing indoors and has done so at least once in every room. He also refuses to go outside during the day, often hiding so we can't get to him, yet he's raring to go out once it gets dark but comes back in time for bed (we've always kept him in at night).

I'm 7 months pregnant and recently we've brought a lot of baby items into the house, could he be acting out against this? We've taken him to the vet and after extensive (and expensive!) testing they couldn't find anything physically wrong with him. I was expecting some behaviour like this when the baby is born but not before! Any ideas of how to calm him down?

Nody

Honestly it sounds like a new cat has starting roaming in his area and he feels territorially threatened by it. If the issue was the new stuff he'd run outside but as you note he does not want to go out which is why I'm inclined on another cat in the area.

Pumpkinseeds

I agree with Nody. It sounds as if he's unsettled by another cat in his territory. You could try a Feliway plug in or we use a dry food called Royal Canin Calm. It sounds as if the other cat is around during the day, which might explain why he doesn't want to go out at a specific time. Other than a really expensive and not very practical option of putting up special fencing, the other things you could try to stop the intruder cat coming into the garden would be something like a motion activated deterent like a water sprinkler or something that makes a loud noise when the cat walks by it. Obviously it would have to be turned off when you're own cat is outdoors.

It's just about trying to make your garden feel hostile to the intruder cat, so it goes somewhere else. Congratulations on the baby.:) I was watching a cat programme the other night and one of the cat experts was heavily pregnant. She was preparing her cats for the babies arrival by playing a recording of a crying baby so the cats would get used to that sound and also using a clean sock to rub their cheeks then rubbing it on the sides of the new baby furniture, apparently it makes it less threatening to cats if their scent is on it, odourless to us.