分类： Pet Pheromone

Most pheromone sourcing problems are decided before the first order is placed. The suppliers who cause trouble later are rarely the ones with the worst material — they are the ones who could not answer a documentation question, could not hold a specification between batches, or had no answer for the destination market’s rules. Use the twelve questions below as a checklist before you commit.

Material and specification

1. Can they state the fatty-acid fraction profile, batch by batch? If the answer is “typical values”, the specification is not controlled.
2. Is there a Certificate of Analysis per batch? Ask to see one for a real batch, not a template.
3. What is the assay method, and who runs it? An in-house number and an accredited third-party number are different products commercially.
4. What is the batch-to-batch tolerance? A range is acceptable; silence is not.

Carrier and formulation support

5. Do they supply the carrier, or only the active? One supplier for the whole chain removes a whole class of compatibility surprises. See slow-release carriers.
6. Will they characterise the release profile? Ask for T90 and the burst fraction.
7. Can they support a formulation change without re-qualifying everything? A small change should not reset your timeline.
8. Do they have sample quantities at trial scale? Trial kg should be available before you commit to production volumes.

Compliance and export

9. Can they produce TDS, SDS and GHS-compliant labels? Ask for the pack, not a promise.
10. REACH / SVHC declaration? For EU-destined goods this is not optional. See Resources.
11. Do they respect non-drug positioning? A supplier who encourages medical claims is putting your listing at risk, not helping you.
12. What is the lead time for a repeat order, and what happens if a batch fails? The answer to this question tells you more about a supplier than the price.

How to run the checklist

Send the twelve questions as a short written list and compare the answers side by side. A supplier who answers all twelve in writing, quickly, is usually the one who will still be answering emails two years from now. Where an answer is partial, ask for the document — the gap between “we can” and “here it is” is exactly the risk you are trying to price.

We are happy to be put through this checklist. Send us your requirements — species, format, target duration and destination market — and we will reply with a specification proposal and quotation within 24 hours.

A diffuser that fades after ten days is not a formulation failure — it is a release-rate failure. Most complaints about pheromone diffusers trace back to one of three things: the active was never held in the carrier, the release curve was never characterised, or the product was packed in a way that let the volatile fraction escape before the customer opened it. This article explains what happens, and what to specify so it does not.

The problem: volatile actives, vapour pressure and time

Pheromone analogues are fatty-acid derivatives with measurable vapour pressure. In a simple liquid blend they partition into the headspace of the bottle, and once the bottle is opened they leave at a rate set by temperature and airflow rather than by your design. The customer experiences this as a diffuser that “works” for a week and then stops — even though the liquid level has barely moved.

How encapsulation changes the curve

A slow-release carrier holds the active in a matrix — a cyclodextrin inclusion complex, or a polymer microsphere — and releases it as the matrix equilibrates with its environment. Practical loading is 10–30% w/w. Two specifications matter more than the rest:

• T90. The time to release 90% of the payload. Well-designed systems reach T90 ≥ 30 days at ambient temperature, which is what makes a “30-day” claim defensible.
• Burst fraction. The share released in the first 24 hours. Too high and you get a strong opening smell and a weak tail; the target is a controlled burst you have chosen deliberately.

The technology is described in more detail on our slow-release carriers page, and the underlying chemistry on the Technology page.

Three specifications to write into your brief

1. Shelf life and storage. Ask for a 3-year shelf-life statement and the storage conditions it assumes. A T90 that only holds at 15 °C is not a 30-day product in a warm climate.
2. Accelerated ageing data. Request at least one accelerated study (for example 40 °C for 3 months) so you know how the curve shifts in transit and in a customer’s summer.
3. Packaging compatibility. The carrier has to survive contact with the container. Confirm the wick, seal and bottle material have been tested with the finished blend, not just with the active.

The commercial payoff

A characterised release profile is not only a quality issue. It is what converts a return-rate problem into a repeat-purchase product, and it is the document a distributor will ask for when they decide whether to list your SKU. It is also the single easiest place to differentiate a private-label range from a commodity one.

If you are specifying a diffuser, spray or collar and want the release profile engineered rather than inherited, see the finished-product ODM page or send us your target duration.

F3 and DAP are not interchangeable. The single most consequential decision when you build a calming product is which pheromone active goes into it — because the active determines the species, the behavioural claim, the delivery format and the regulatory story you are allowed to tell. This guide compares the two actives we supply most often and gives you a decision rule you can apply in under a minute.

What each active actually is

Feline Facial Pheromone (F3) is the fatty-acid fraction a cat deposits when it rubs its cheek against furniture, door frames and people. It signals familiarity and territorial security. Commercially it is supplied as a reconstituted fraction in ethanol, in which oleic acid typically accounts for 62–86% of the total fatty-acid content. It is the reference active for feline marking, scratching and environmental stress.

Dog Appeasing Pheromone (DAP) is a synthetic analogue of the inter-mammary pheromone secreted by lactating bitches, which signals reassurance to puppies and, in practice, to adult dogs in unfamiliar or stressful situations. It is supplied as an emulsion concentrate — commonly 2% w/w — with a droplet size distribution around D50 0.5–2 µm so it can be delivered cleanly from a spray or a plug-in diffuser. See the full DAP product introduction.

Side by side

	Feline Facial Pheromone (F3)	Dog Appeasing Pheromone (DAP)
Species	Cat	Dog
Signals	Territorial security, familiarity	Reassurance, maternal presence
Typical use case	Marking, scratching, multi-cat tension, vet visits	Separation anxiety, travel, crate and kennel stress, noise
Common supply form	2–10% ethanol solution	2% w/w emulsion concentrate
Best formats	Spray, wipe, diffuser liquid	Plug-in diffuser, spray, collar
Key spec to agree	Fatty-acid fraction profile	Droplet size + emulsion stability

Where buyers get this wrong

• Treating them as one “calming pheromone”. A cat product built on a dog active will under-perform and may fail a review panel. Species mismatch is the most common formulation error we see in incoming briefs.
• Ignoring the carrier. Both actives are volatile. Without a slow-release carrier, a diffuser can lose most of its payload in the first week — see slow-release carriers.
• Claiming too much. Position the product as behavioural support, not a medicine. Wording that implies treatment of a condition will stall in most markets; see our Resources page for compliant claim language.

The decision rule

Name the species first, then the behaviour, then the format. If the species is cat, start with F3; if dog, start with DAP. Then let the format choose the carrier, not the other way round. If your SKU has to serve both species, you need two formulations — there is no honest single-active compromise.

Tell us the species, the behaviour and the format and we will come back with a specification proposal and a quotation within 24 hours: request a quote.