Can the use of Pet Remedy’s Calming Spray elicit a calming response in domestic cats (Felis catus)?

Background: research: Phytotherapy, using olfactory enrichment, is often overlooked as a method of environmental enrichment for domestic cats. The most common example of olfactory enrichment to elicit a calming response, uses Valerian Root, which is researched to also cause an apparent euphoric response in cats. It is important that enrichment is considered to allow the cats to exhibit natural behaviours which can reduce stress and destructive behaviours. Thus, this article will explore the effectiveness of Pet Remedy’s Calming spray and the behaviours cat’s exhibit. Methodology: Furthering the existing research which was initially undertaken, Pet Remedy’s Calming Spray was tested on 44 domestic cats to observe their responses. All cats were blindly offered exposure to Pet Remedy and a control sample at random. The number of interactions were recorded onto behavioural ethograms. All cats had 30 minutes to acclimatise to the researcher and had at least a four-hour washout period between both exposures. Results: The statistical analysis of data gathered was computed using IBM SPSS Statistics 25 in form of; a Freidman’s test, Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Tests, Descriptive Statistics and Spearman’s rank-order tests. The mean number of interactions amongst Pet Remedy and the control sample were computed to find that Pet Remedy’s Calming spray had a mean number of interactions of 18.09. Conclusions: This study suggests that olfactory enrichment using Pet Remedy’s Calming Spray corresponds an effective means to induce a calming response.