my kitten is licking my cast iron stove!

[jscole]

Yup, the title is right! Ok, well she's not really a kitten anymore, but she's the youngest of my zoo of pets lol... She just started it about a week ago, and thankfully we haven't had a fire on yet!! >_< she'll actually get on top of it and start licking away like her life depends on it! What I was wondering is, is it harmfull to her at all? I mean, obviously we have to stop her cause it's getting colder and soon we'll be using the stove, and any suggestions to get her to stop would be great too

Thanks

 

[kluchetta]

You could try that bitter apple stuff. Or even lemon juice...???

 

[gloriajh]

hmmmm - wonder if he needs some sort of nutrient that he might be getting by licking the iron stove?

 

[nekochan]

There are a few things you can try to discourage it. Sometimes just cutting an orange or lemon in half and placing it on the stove might be enough. I used to do that around the Christmas tree to keep the cats away. There are also sprays to make things taste bad, or deterrents to keep cats away from certain areas like X-mats, scat mats or ssscat spray.

I have a cat who likes to lick weird things. Luckily not the stove though!

 

[jscole]

Thanks for the quick replies

I sprayed some vinegar on it and I haven't seen her on it all day.... hopefully she got up there at one point and didn't like the vinegar! I'll let you guys know

 

[ducman69]

I always heard that kitties lick stuff if they are hungry (or missing some mineral or something). Possibly just wants more nomnoms? Wesley was doing that with the paint for a while, was annoying me, so I just fed him a bit more and it quit.

 

[rewboss]

Our Bonnie goes through phases when she'll lick just about anything, mostly furniture, but my monitor will also do:


Occasionally, my keyboard gets a complete grooming. This is Bonnie as a small kitten: it's out of focus, but it looks to me more like grooming than anything tasting or eating.

 

[mrblanche]

It seems someone on here used a polish on their stove, the cat licked it, and died of poisoning. Or am I imagining that?

 

[jscole]

rewboss, the first video is adorable! lol I love that she was licking the monitor then she saw you filming her and thought your camera needed a cleaning too hehe.... in the second vid, that's what Allie does, she get really intense with her licking of the stove....

I don't think it's harming her, I mean, people make meals in cast iron pots and pans so it really can't be harmful? and she and my other cat are free fed, and their bowls are always full so it's not that she's hungry.... and I haven't changed their food recently... it's getting cold out, and I'm just scared that one day I'll have a fire going and she'll jump up there and burn herself badly

it gets REALLY hot, I've actually cooked on it when we lost power once last winter...

The vinegar didn't do it.... I caught her up there last night just before going to bed... think I'll try lemon juice next...

 

[jscole]

ok so I tried something other than lemon juice and I think it did the trick! I put a piece of aluminum foil on the stove! I crinkled it up a bit so it isn't just laying flat, and she jumped up there and it scared the bejesus out of her! I laughed so hard I was crying! LOL. she was looking at me like what the H*ll is going on!? LOL... I'm going to leave it up there for a few days to make sure she got the message, then hopefully she'll keep her fuzzy butt off of it!

 

[kluchetta]

Originally Posted by jscole

ok so I tried something other than lemon juice and I think it did the trick! I put a piece of aluminum foil on the stove! I crinkled it up a bit so it isn't just laying flat, and she jumped up there and it scared the bejesus out of her! I laughed so hard I was crying! LOL. she was looking at me like what the H*ll is going on!? LOL... I'm going to leave it up there for a few days to make sure she got the message, then hopefully she'll keep her fuzzy butt off of it!

Haha! I totally thought of that but didn't think to mention it...if you have trouble with kitties clawing the furniture, it helps there as well. I'm so glad you care about your kitty so much!!

 

[nekochan]

Right after I posted about how I have a cat who likes to lick weird things, I caught her trying to lick/eat the paper mache paste I had in a bowl on the kitchen table! I shooed her away.

She's so weird. She acts like I'm trying to poison her if I offer her any treats or "people food" or even canned cat food and hates catnip but then she wants to eat this? It's just flour and water so it's not harmful or anything, just weird... She also loves to groom peoples' hair and faces.

 

[rewboss]

There's no accounting for taste. One of the cats in my childhood loved boiled cabbage and would do anything to get it. The only time we ever caught Clyde on the kitchen counter-top he was eating cold boiled potatoes.

 

[kluchetta]

Originally Posted by rewboss

There's no accounting for taste. One of the cats in my childhood loved boiled cabbage and would do anything to get it. The only time we ever caught Clyde on the kitchen counter-top he was eating cold boiled potatoes.

Haha! We had a cat that loved peaches. And Elsa LOVES guacamole. But at least those things are actually FOOD...

 

[nekochan]

Yeah that's the weird thing, Harley seems to only like things that are NOT food. Like the paper mache paste. She won't touch canned cat food or treats. If I offer her a piece of chicken or fish she looks disgusted and leaves and she won't eat any other "people food". But she used to like to lick the cage bars when I had pet rats (and ended up getting her tongue bitten!) She also loves to lick this plastic shelf I have on my computer desk and when we empty the clean laundry she jumps in the laundry basket and licks the holes in the sides. So weird.