I have two cats and only the female "loves" the smell. When I have worked with bleach she would "attack" my hands, lick and rub her face against my hands, occasionally I get a bite or two.

Check this out:
https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/cats/c...aste-3934.html

Apparently it is a rare thing.

Be careful to clean up well after using it so that she does not try to lick it.

Thank you! My cat is 18months old. I keep her away from the bleach so I am her only target :-)

My cat, Chairman Mao, is about 4 years old. He goes crazy for the scent of bleach. Nuzzling and cuddling in clean whites. When I friend came over after he'd cleaned up the kitchen at work, Mao would nip at his fingers and nuzzle his hand. Me and my girlfriend have always wondered why he does this. She asked me to try to find out and I figured I'd share what I found with you, since some of you may be interested.

I strongly suggest that you do not allow your cat to play with your hands or clothes after they have been bleached. I probably don't need to say it, but bleach is very dangerous, especially to cats because of their minuscule body mass. A whiff of it on your hand or your clothes probably isn't immediately dangerous, assuming you've rinsed everything very well, but it's probably not a good thing to let happen that often. Always make sure you rinse your hands very, very well before you let your cat play with your hands. Just imagine how much rinsing your whites go through, and that's more than enough of the scent to drive kitty crazy. But there are many other products that you can get that cause a similar reaction, without the dangers of bleach.

The ingestion of any amount of bleach even if it's just kitty licking a bleach mixture directly off your hands before you've rinsed them extensively, is likely going to be a medical emergency and you need to take your cat to the vet right away. I can't stress that enough.

Drooling, coughing, vomiting, difficulty breathing, tender abdomens, tremors, and stumbling are all signs of poisoning, and it is a definite medical emergency. You need to get them to the vet as quickly as possilbe if your pet is going to have any chance to survive. Lightening of fur color or changes in it's pattern around the mouth/muzzle or paws means that kitty has been exposed to a dangerous amount of bleach, and the fumes may jeopardize their health. Keep alert for any symptoms.

OK, now that that's out of the way...

Each brand of bleach uses their own particular blend of chemicals and compounds to create their product, and not every product containts every agent. Besides being common ingredients for bleach, these seem to be the most interesting ingredients, at least as far as our cats our concerned.


Carbamide Peroxide is an oxydizer used in many bleaching and disinfecting agents, which is a derivative of urea. Urea is the organic compound: CO(NH2)2 which is naturally found in in urine of mammals as a method to eliminate excess nitrogen from the body. This probably fits into the idea that it has something to do with a territorial association.


Tetrasodium pyrophosphate is an emulsifier, which is used in many cat foods and cat treats, but it's also used in many "people foods"... the most relevant would be canned tuna.

Calcium hypochlorite is used as a disinfectant and bleaching agent, usually in treatment for drinking water and pools. It is a component of chloroform, so in small doses it gets people high, so it gets kitty a little tipsy. Dosing yourself with chloroform causes one extremely terrible headache.


There are also many other ingredients without obvious possibilities for causing such a reaction in cats.

I wonder if there is a relationship between cats who like canned tuna, and cats who like the scent of bleach? It's easy enough to find cat foods that don't contain tetrasodium pyrophosphate, so picky eaters may avoid both foods that contain it and bleach.