Factors Affecting Hair Cortisol Concentration in Privately Owned Intact Cats

    April 2026 in “ Frontiers in Veterinary Science ”
    Veronika Vojtkovská, Naďa Konečná, Karla Štěpánková … Simona Kovaříková
    Studysummary This study observed that in privately owned, intact cats, male cats exhibited significantly higher long-term hair cortisol concentrations compared to females, while environmental and behavioral factors did not significantly impact cortisol levels, suggesting individual traits may influence stress markers more than external factors.
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    Research cited in this study 6

    1. Determining Cortisol in Animal Hair as a Marker of Chronic Stress Biology Bulletin Reviews · 2025
    2. Coat Color and Other Factors Influencing Hair Cortisol Concentration in Domestic Cats Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation · 2025
    3. The Use of Hair Cortisol for the Assessment of Stress in Animals General and Comparative Endocrinology · 2018
    4. Short Communication: Factors Affecting Hair Cortisol Concentrations in Lactating Dairy Cows Journal of Dairy Science · 2014
    5. Quantifying Long-Term Stress in Brown Bears with Hair Cortisol Concentration: A Biomarker That May Be Confounded by Rapid Changes in Response to Capture and Handling Conservation Physiology · 2014
    6. Human Hair Follicles Display a Functional Equivalent of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis and Synthesize Cortisol The FASEB Journal · 2005