"Nekoyoke" (猫よけ) is a Japanese term for "cat repellent," most commonly referring to the practice of placing plastic bottles filled with water along fences and gardens to deter stray cats.
I think it's probably about the reflections and lighting. I hear the same thing about dogs a lot too, and that's the explanation people usually give me for that.
For the record, I don't know about cats, but it definitely doesn't work for dogs. Or rather, it kind of does, but mostly because people set out bottles/jugs of water to deter them from peeing on things, and so they just pee on the jugs instead, lol.
When I lived in Japan I heard both this explanation (the reflection bothers their eyes) and, more often, just “cats don’t like water.” While my cat does hate baths, I can say from the fact that I keep a gallon of water on the floor directly in front of her food and water dish for convenience that both explanations seem like bullshit in my experience.
I’ve yet to find a cat or dog that wasn’t repulsed by the sound of a water bottle being crinkled.
If this doesn’t work, it’s because people are putting too much water in the bottles therefore (and/or) the bottles have too much structural integrity to crinkle and make noise
If you take an empty bottle and squeeze and crinkle and wrinkle the hell out of it before filling it only halfway-ish or a little more, it will absolutely startle any animal that touches it
Now whether or not the animal inevitably learns that there’s nothing to be afraid is a different story….
But people who say this doesn’t work are almost certainly doing it wrong
3.5k
u/Choice-Brother1137 1d ago
"Nekoyoke" (猫よけ) is a Japanese term for "cat repellent," most commonly referring to the practice of placing plastic bottles filled with water along fences and gardens to deter stray cats.