why does my cat love to eat plastic strips?

[ibelieve721]

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This is my cat. Ever since he came in to my house, all the plastic strips from the tetra paks have been gone...I'm curious that why he keeps doing such a thing.

Is it because the sound of crunching plastics resembles eating cat grass?

[Lilith]

Hi there - I'm sorry, but this is potentially very dangerous, your cat can't digest plastic and could end up with a blockage in his guts and be in dreadful agony. Believe me I'm not exaggerating. Worst case scenario is that eating these things could kill him.

Cats DO like crunching up anything that resembles grass, it's true. If he doesn't have access to grass outside there is cat grass seed that you can buy and plant for him and he'll have great fun with that.

Please don't give him any more plastic to chew - even if he sicks it back up it might not have all returned, and personally I'd get him to a vet for a checkup - better than him collapsing in the middle of the night and you having to rush him to the emergency vet - with the skyhigh emergency fee. Cats can sometimes be their own worst enemies, they'll chew and swallow all sorts of stuff that's not good for them; they don't realise it's dangerous so we have to think ahead for them.

I do hope your little guy hasn't come to any harm from his plastic addiction - let us know how he goes on

[Crewella]

I agree with Lilith - eating plastic won't do him any good at all and is potentially dangerous.

[MarkB]

Why are you encouraging your cat to eat something that could cause a blockage in its stomach/intestines. Are you seriously that stupid?

That is animal abuse.

[Mrs Kane]

This is actually a condition. It's called "pica" and a lot of other animals and humans have it too. It means they'll crave something not normally meant for consumption. I had the same problem with my uncles cat. He'd chew through any wires he could reach. In the end I coated any cables that couldn't be nailed to the upper wall with aniseed flavouring. He hated it and soon stopped. Every Sunday I'd recoat the cables with the flavouring and he grew out of his bad habit after a month, but I had to be very careful around him with other things like my walkman charger and if I needed a lamp to help me study from the cuboard. (this was the 90s) . I'd recommend doing what I did. Find a taste or smell your cat hates and use it to your advantage. You don't have to coat cables (it can stain the walls pretty badly over time, I remember it looked like someone had spilt oil everywhere) but doing something similar would probably help your cause. After all, you can't watch him all the time.

Failing that, try buying him chew toys that have a similar consistency. Is he on only wet food? If so perhaps try dry food that he can crunch. The texture is probably what he's craving.

Pica is a condition that can't be cured, only dissuaded and monitored closely. Remove all plastic within your cats reach permanently. I'm talking plastic bags, cling film, wrapping, the works. Make sure he can't reach it under any circumstances. Use tactics to dissuade your cat when you catch him eating plastic if he finds it. Also if your rubbish bin is in the open, make sure you move it to a place he can't reach.

Good luck to you! I know what I'm saying seems more trouble than it's worth but my uncles cat lived to be 17 and he was wonderful! I think he actually brought my uncle and me closer together in the long run as I was always over at his house playing with Snuff and making sure he didn't get into trouble.

[Mrs Kane]

Ps: My uncle called his cat Snuff because his was all black apart from a little white bit under his nose. I think my uncle had a sick sense of humour.