Does Your Cat Eat Weird Things? Should I Be Concerned?

[Josh Halber]

It is kind of normal; however, I would not say not to worry about it.

Our cat Estella likes to lick plastic bags. She never chews on them, thankfully! She gets sores and puffy lips when she licks too much. We try to keep it from her, but she always finds it somehow. She also likes to eat dust bunnies.

im so glad you mentioned dust bunnies because Ive seen her eat those to. okay it must be more common then I initially thought. Thank you so much for sharing your experience.

 

[1 bruce 1]

Like @Elphaba09 said, one of ours (Baby Girl, who else) likes to eat hair, dust bunnies and weird things. She'll chew up large plastic items and cardboard boxes because she likes chewing things, but if she has a stomach ache this is worth exploring. If she's free fed this won't work, but you could try feeding her smaller meals more often (same amount per day, just spread out) and see if that helps. It might not but it's worth a try

 

[Caspers Human]

That sounds so familiar. She also licks photographs to so I know how yo feel. Hopefully its not pica but again I really appreciate you sharing your experience because it helps put me at ease knowing that there are more cats like mine

Over the years, I have heard many a tale of cats licking photographs. A couple of my photography teachers have mentioned it but I never thought *MY* cat would do it.

Common wisdom suggests that, because the emulsion on photographic paper is made from egg albumen. Since many cats like eggs, it's not a stretch to imagine that they would like photos, too.

 

[ArtNJ]

I see all of you folks saying "maybe it is/isn't pica" and as far as I know, thats the wrong use of the terminology. Pica is a name for the behavior regardless of the cause, so by definition, ALL of the cats we are talking about here have pica. There are a lot of possible causes, including "its just something some cats do". See the following link, which is about pica generally despite the link title:

Wool sucking behavior, cats sucking fabric, cloth and socks

 

[Caspers Human]

The key to deciding whether a cat that eats things it shouldn't has pica is to determine whether there is nutritional aspect found in the thing being eaten.

A cat might chew on plastic because it can taste or smell food on the plastic. (e.g. A cat might chew or lick a plastic milk bottle top because it tastes or smells like milk which a cat could think of as food.)

A cat might chew on packing tape because it likes the taste of the glue. Again, there is an association with food.

My former cat licked the emulsion off photographs, supposedly because the emulsion is made from albumen. (An egg by-product.)

Some cats might eat cat litter or even dirt because they have some kind of vitamin or mineral deficiency. Cat litter is made from Bentonite clay or Fuller's earth, both of which have a high mineral content. The cat that eats litter or dirt might, subconsciously, be trying to supplement its own nutrition.

On the other hand, many cats DO develop pica and they WILL eat things that they aren't supposed to which have no nutritional value and/or can't be associated with food in some way.

The difference is whether or not food or the association with food comes into play.

 

[1 bruce 1]

The key to deciding whether a cat that eats things it shouldn't has pica is to determine whether there is nutritional aspect found in the thing being eaten.

A cat might chew on plastic because it can taste or smell food on the plastic. (e.g. A cat might chew or lick a plastic milk bottle top because it tastes or smells like milk which a cat could think of as food.)

A cat might chew on packing tape because it likes the taste of the glue. Again, there is an association with food.

My former cat licked the emulsion off photographs, supposedly because the emulsion is made from albumen. (An egg by-product.)

Some cats might eat cat litter or even dirt because they have some kind of vitamin or mineral deficiency. Cat litter is made from Bentonite clay or Fuller's earth, both of which have a high mineral content. The cat that eats litter or dirt might, subconsciously, be trying to supplement its own nutrition.

On the other hand, many cats DO develop pica and they WILL eat things that they aren't supposed to which have no nutritional value and/or can't be associated with food in some way.

The difference is whether or not food or the association with food comes into play.

On pica, we have a buddy who had a big dog that was riddled with cancer, not eating well going through some treatment and that dog would frantically eat dirt by the mouthfuls. When the dog went into remission, the dirt eating stopped!
Our cat with stomatitis before he was diagnosed was chewing on large, plastic or wooden objects, and chewing pretty ferociously. Vet said his "teeth were itching" as it hadn't progressed far, but it definitely was affecting his behavior that had little to do with nutritional factors.
Also, horses will chew and begin cribbing out of boredom, frustration, and probably nutritional reasons but once the cribbing starts, it's almost impossible to fix (and really annoying.) Thank God cats don't crib.

 

[Animal Freak]

that sounds similar to our older cats who used to chew flowers and plants. it sounds very similar to your experience. Thank you for giving me reassurance that other cats have similar behaviors I really do appreciate your time

Oh, no problem. I'm happy to help in any way I can.

 

[blumarine916]

My cat Meffy does this too. Drives me nuts because she even figured out how to open the step bin, get inside to chew on any plastic wrappers especially really thin ones. Sometimes I won’t notice when she does this and only realize minutes later she’s about to throw up. Blehh..there it is..a gunk of chewed plastic in her vomit.

I don’t know how to stop her aside from putting away any plastic bags as soon as possible. She also chews on loose tape (masking tapes on boxes), magazine wrappers among other plastic...mostly anything thin and filmy.

 

[Caspers Human]

I had a cat that liked to dig in the garbage can.

I got a swing-top garbage can and balanced a cup full of water on top of the lid so that he would get water dumped on him if he tried to get into the garbage can.

It didn't take very long to break him of that habit... probably only a couple of days.