F3 vs CAP: Cat Pheromone Types Explained

Most Cat Parents comparing calming diffusers are comparing brands. The more useful comparison is the pheromone inside them, because two products can look identical on a shelf and be sending entirely different messages to your cat.

Cats sharing a home comfortably and a cat settling into a space are two different problems, and they call for different pheromone signals.

What F3 Is

F3 is the facial pheromone. When a cat rubs their cheek against a doorframe, a chair leg, or your ankle, they are depositing it. The message is territorial in a reassuring sense: this place is known, this place is mine, nothing here needs to be treated as a threat. Cats do this most readily in environments where they already feel secure, which is why a cat that has stopped face rubbing around the home is often a cat that has stopped feeling settled.

Synthetic F3 reproduces that signal and releases it into a room continuously. The situations it suits are the ones where the underlying issue is a cat's relationship with their environment rather than with another cat: settling into a new home, adjusting after a change to the household, scratching and marking behaviour, general hiding and withdrawal, and everyday background stress.

What CAP Is

CAP, the cat appeasing pheromone, comes from a different source entirely. It is based on the pheromone a nursing mother cat produces, which supports bonding and a sense of group harmony among her kittens. The message is social rather than territorial: these individuals belong together.

That makes CAP the signal used in products aimed specifically at tension between cats sharing a home, the chasing, blocking, staring, and fighting that come from an unresolved social arrangement rather than from an unfamiliar environment. Feliway's Friends and MultiCat formulations are the widely available CAP products.

Which One Your Situation Calls For

What is happening	Relevant pheromone
Moving house, renovation, new furniture, a change in routine	F3
Scratching furniture, urine marking, spraying	F3
Hiding, withdrawal, general unsettledness at home	F3
Carrier and travel stress	F3
Cats chasing, blocking, or staring at each other	CAP
Ongoing fighting between cats in the same home	CAP
A new cat being introduced to a resident cat	Either can play a part, since the situation is both environmental and social

Where CalmGuard Fits, and Where It Does Not

Pawganix CalmGuard is an F3 product. It is built for the environmental side: supporting a cat through change, general household calm, and the behaviours that follow from a cat not feeling settled in their space. In a multi cat home it supports the shared environment, which is genuinely useful.

What CalmGuard is not is a CAP product. Pawganix does not currently offer a CAP equivalent. If the central problem in your home is cats actively in conflict with each other, a CAP formulation is what that situation calls for, and it would be misleading to suggest otherwise. Pheromone support of either type also works best alongside the environmental work, particularly resource distribution, rather than instead of it.

This content is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional veterinary or behavioural advice. Product information reflects what each manufacturer publishes as of September 2026 and may change. Feliway, Friends, and MultiCat are trademarks of Ceva Sante Animale, referenced here for identification only, and this article is not affiliated with or endorsed by Ceva. If cats in your home are fighting, causing injury, or one cat is being kept from food, water, or the litter box, consult your veterinarian or a qualified feline behaviourist.