r/Catownerhacks • u/QTM53 • 1d ago
Safety of Automatic Spray Pet Deterrent
I adopted a kitten, who is now 5 months old. We have a minimum of two long, vigorous playtimes each day, and my house could be called House of Cat Trees and Scratching Posts. It could also be called House of Sticky Paws, as the kitchen counters and tables are covered by Sticky Paws or foil.
Jackson Galaxy has a video recommending SSSCat Automatic Spray Pet Deterrent as a training tool. I bought two, thinking I’d try them out on the dining room table, but reading the warning on the side of the box gives me pause. If it’s unsafe for me, what about a kitten? I can’t decide whether to use them or return them to Amazon.
Has anyone used this to train your cats? Do you think it’s safe to use? Did it work? Any other advice about training her to stay off of some surfaces? (I’m trying to avoid following her around with a plant mister if I can.)
Thanks for your thoughts, much appreciated.
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u/SusanSlytherin 1d ago
I've not used it myself yet but I've been looking into getting it for my cat so I have done a lot of looking into it, and as far as I can tell the stuff in it is overall very safe, and the safety warnings are largely just the warnings that are put on all pressurized spray cans (don't light it on fire or freeze it, don't spray it in your eyes, keep away from babies, etc) and there's also a few warnings not to use it in certain specific situations (don't use on an aggressive animal or on an animal that may be sick/unhealthy, and don't use on birds)
Anyways, while I'm not a scientist or vet or anything, it seems to me like it's generally safe to use as long as your pet is in overall good health and is non-aggressive. The main potential health concerns would be if you also have small children in the house who could monkey with it, or if for some unfathomable reason you went and sprayed it all over your bare skin and/or into your eyes/mouth, or if your cat were to sit there and let it blast him in the face or something, and quite frankly, if your cat did that I'd say there's probably bigger issues going on there because I've never known a cat who was even remotely okay with getting air blown at their face lol
If you still have any concerns you could probably call your vet's office quick sometime during their business hours to see what they say (or if they have an app/online messaging service you could shoot them a message there), or there's also some online services where you can ask a vet questions about stuff like that but most will charge you a small fee so I'd suggest going down the first route, if possible.