The Silence Factor:

This is a term that the Missing Animal Response network coined to describe the behaviour when a sick, injured, or panicked cat will hide in silence. It is a natural form of protection for a cat to find a place to hide under a house, a deck, a porch, bushes, or any place they can crawl.

The Silence Factor kills many cats because while the cat is sick or injured and hiding under a neighbour’s deck, the cat owners are simply telling people their cat is lost or posting notices online or on telephone poles. Instead, the proper search for most cats in most situations is to conduct an aggressive, physical search of the immediate area while understanding that the cat might be close by but hiding in silence.

The Threshold Factor:

This is an interesting behavioural pattern observed with displaced cats. Many of these cats initially hide in silence, but eventually break cover and meow, return to their home or the escape point (window or door), or finally enter a humane trap. While some cats take only hours or a few days to reach their threshold, many others take several days (typically ten to twelve days) before they break cover. We suspect the threshold is reached due to their thirst, although more research needs to be conducted into this behaviour.

The Kitty Litter Myth

Many web sites recommend that if your cat is lost that you spread cat litter, cat feces, or scent articles of the cat owner around the home that the cat is missing from. The concept is that your cat ran away or is out of the area and by putting something with your scent on it (a dirty t-shirt or alike) in your yard, it will attract your cat and encourage him to come back home. Some also advocate putting out dirty cat litter or feces - as if the cat needs this cue to help him find his way back home.

The MARN Network does not advocate this practice for the following reasons:

The first reason we don’t recommend the kitty litter method is that the urine/feces scent could attract aggressive cats into the property where a missing cat may be hiding. Cats are territorial and when an indoor-only cat escapes outdoors, that cat is often hiding within the territory of another (outside) neighbourhood cat. Dirty cat litter can attract community “tom” cats (intact male cats) or other territorial neighbourhood cats and that scent could predispose them to want to defend their territory, drawing them into the area where a displaced cat is hiding in silence. These territorial cats are put into defense mode when they detect the pheromones from another cat’s urine and feces, causing them to be ready to fight. These cats are then more likely to beat up and chase the lost (displaced) cat from his hiding place, making a recovery more difficult. However, using cat food (and even a wildlife camera) will draw a territorial cat in also, but the scent of food will not likely trigger the same level of aggression/readiness to fight as urine and feces would. None of this has been proven in a scientific study (yet), but it is the opinion of the MARN Network that you are better off investing time and effort in conducting a physical search for your lost cat and using wildlife cameras or a humane trap than you are in putting out dirty cat litter.

You can likely find many on-line testimonials from cat owners who claim positive results from scent luring scattering dirty cat litter or feces in their yards or placing their cat’s litterbox on their porch. It is more likely that these cats returned home due to one of two factors: a behavior called “The Threshold Phenomenon” (described above) or simply due to their temperament than due to anything that they smelled. Cat owners mistakenly associate the fact that their cat returned home due to a scent lure (dirty cat litter) when, in fact, their particular cat would have returned home on its own anyway with or without a scent lure because it finally reached its threshold (indoor-only cats hiding in fear) or the cat was trapped somewhere and finally got free (outdoor cat trapped in a neighbour’s garage, up a tree, etc.). As stated earlier, in many cases a food lure (placed inside a humane trap or set down on the ground with a wildlife camera pointing at it to capture photos) is the best type of lure to use and is a highly effective recovery method.

The final reason why the MARN Network does not advocate using dirty cat litter as a scent lure for cats is the most important one: it is a passive approach to finding a lost cat. Cat owners might believe they are “doing something” by placing dirty clothing or cat feces in their yard. Some Internet folklore posts have claimed that “cats can smell a mile away” and advise you to simply put your cat’s litterbox outside, claiming “it works!” However, scientific research has shown that these cat owners would have a higher chance of recovering their cat by conducting an aggressive, physical search of their property and their neighbour’s property. We understand that it may be less intrusive to your neighbours to set out a dirty cat litter box on your porch and hope that your cat will come home than it is to ask for permission to enter their yard and to crawl around under their house or deck, but a physical search of your neighbour’s yards is the most effective on the ground method for recovering a missing cat.

How Can PetDetective.nz Help?

If you would like more help discussing your cat type and how they are likely to react, you can book time with an NZCAR Pet Detective for a one-on-one personalised service. Click here to email your request. There is no charge for the advice given on this site. You are welcome, but not obliged, to make a donation to support our work if you are able.

If you prefer dedicated one-on-one support support, we are available and can discuss pricing to ensure it is affordable and effective. Our primary concern is getting your lost pet home.

* MDPI, Search Methods Used to Locate Missing Cats and Locations Where Missing Cats Are Found, by Liyan Huang, Marcia Coradini, Jacquie Rand, John Morton, Kat Albrecht, Brigid Wasson and Danielle Robertson. Published: 2 January 2018 - to view online click here

This page has been created based on advice written by Kat Albrecht, Network Director for the Missing Animal Response network and founder of the Missing Pet Partnership. Her website is missinganimalresponse.com.