Table 2.

Scent stimuli with potential stress-reducing and/or enriching effect for cats.

Scent name/commercial	Source	Component	Potential function	Application evidence
F3/Feliway™	Cat cheek/sebaceous gland	Oleic acid, azelaic acid, pimelic acid, palmitic acid	Object marking	Putative effect of reducing urine spraying/marking (79), debated efficacy of calming cats at vet clinic and shelter (80, 81)
Appeasing pheromone/Feliway® Multicat or Feliway® Felifriend	Queen mammary sulcus/ skin sebaceous gland during nursing	Oleic acid, palmitic acid, linoleic acid, myristic acid, lauric acid, and stearic acid	Appeasing the queen and kittens	Reduce inter-cat aggression in multi-cat household (82), and also improve cat interaction with co-resident dogs a 6-week testing period (83)
Pedal/ Feliway® Feliscratch™	Cat interdigital area/skin sebaceous gland	Valeric acid, lactic acid and, linoleic acid	Territory marking	Induce scratching when applied to scratching posts (84), more likely due to catnip (85)
Prey odor	Rat, rabbit	Odor mixture	Induce predatory or play behavior	Inconclusive results in captive cats (86, 87)
	Rabbit maternal-neonatal pheromone	2-methyl-2-butenal (2M2B)	Unknown	Improve use of litter box and reduced aggression in pair-housed cats when applied to litter box (88)
Familiar interspecific scent	Mostly from owner	Odor mixture	Comforting effect	Not effective during the strange situation test (89), remains to be tested in other settings
Cat attractant	Plant such as catnip and silver vine	e.g., Neptalactone in catnip; isoiridomyrmecin and dihydronepetalactone in silver vine	Chemical defense against mosquitoes	Inducing play behavior in a proportion of adult cats (90–92), calming cats at clinic together with F3 analog (93), cat habituation is common (86)