Rx Vitamins NutriCalm Liquid Calming Supplement for Cats & Dogs, 4-fl oz bottle

Seems to work overall

This is a long review in hope that it will help someone with a similar situation. My two cats, both around 7 years old, one male and one female, were always friendly with each other until a few years ago when tensions started to rise and the male started to become aggressive toward the female. The male cat seemed to start out trying to play, but it was intense. He would stalk and pounce on the female, who was caught off guard and did not want to play. The male would chase her and sometimes jump onto her, biting her, and at that point it was definitely not play. Many of the incidents seemed unrelated to any resources, but sometimes the altercations could have been competition for a resource -- window seat or litter box. Resolving this issue took many components. Nutricalm was the last thing we added; I doubt it would have been sufficient by itself but it has made a big difference. What we did: We increased the availability of elevated beds/perches, so the cats now have two window seats plus a bed within a small bookcase. We knew we should increase the number of litter boxes but we're tight on space so held off. (We're lucky neither cat developed stress-related litter box issues during this time.) We had been playing with the female cat most evenings but the male had seemed uninterested in play. It turns out he actually wanted to play too but maybe was deterred by the presence of the female cat. Once we realized that, we started to find times and places where we could offer a play session for the male away from the female. And he loves it! Now they can take turns playing with the same fishing pole type toy in the same room. I think the male needed an outlet where he could "legally" stalk, pounce, and bite. All of these things seemed to help but were not sufficient. We then tried Purina Calming Care (probiotic you mix in with food). I experimented with giving it only to the male cat (aggressor) but found that the female also needed it as she had started to initiate snarkiness toward the male, often in the context of one of the window seats. She also seemed to be anticipating the worst from the male even after he was mellowing. With the increased resources (elevated beds), increased enrichment (play), and Calming Care for both kitties, were saw a big improvement, but the male was still occasionally chasing the female in a "tense unreciprocated play/aggression" manner. We then added Nutricalm for the male. This Rx Vitamins product is the only L-tryptophan-containing supplement I could find that contains the dosage of L-tryptophan actually shown in studies (search Google Scholar) to reduce aggression in cats living in multicat homes. So if you've tried other L-Tryptophan supplements and they did not help, it's worth trying this one. For us, the L-Tryptophan seems to have been the last missing piece. So now, it's not as if there is never any tension or squabbling between the cats. But when they do have a little spat, that's all it is -- one growls or swats at the other (usually the female directed toward the male) and it's over. And ... big victory: I have caught them playing with each other recently for the first time in a long time. You can tell it's most likely play as opposed to aggression if it is quiet. The other day (what prompted this review), they had an extended play session where they were hiding from and chasing each other. It was clear that both cats were enjoying it. Phew! Oh and I would not describe the effects as sedating. The kitty is still himself, still playful with toys, still a weirdo who likes to wake me up in the wee hours. He is less restless, but not sleepy. Note that the Nutricalm has a very strong smell and apparently a strong flavor. I saw some reviews saying that cats rejected it and I could easily imagine my cat rejecting it. So I did not give him the full amount right away. I started with a tiny drop and increased it gradually over two weeks. Also, the Calming Care is highly palatable (liver flavor is added to that product), so I give it to him with the Calming Care. That did the trick and now he loves it. I will add that it's pretty disgusting looking so prepare yourself. And shake well, really well before opening the bottle for the first time. Also, the eye dropper does not allow for accurate measurement. At this point, I'm eyeballing it, but I might get a syringe for this to be sure I'm not overdosing. I hope Rx Vitamins will consider altering the flavor to make this product more appealing and more easily accepted by more cats and will come up with a way to more accurately measure out the recommended amount.