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I have a 1 year old melanistic bengal female and from the moment she walked in and owned my house she's had a strange addiction. Anything she can find thats plush she will drag under my bed and chew/suck/rip on it. We've had to put all plush animals, etc. away in bags.. she has many other toys to choose from and she is very often the center of attention.. I just don't k now how to make her stop destroying stuffed things! Help..?

Hi,

This is a tough one. I think that your Bengal for some reason claims plush things as her own to play with and/or destroy. Does she have any plush cat toys that she likes? If so, maybe if they are the only plush things available to her, she will change. If not, maybe you can get some and see what she does with them.

For now, you have to keep the stuffed toys put away, but maybe in the future you can help to make them undesirable somehow. Maybe by spraying them with something that cats hate the smell of, like citrus, or leaving some kind of cut citrus near the stuffed animals. Most cats hate anything citrus. There are also commercial spray products that help to keep cats away from things, but I don't know how well they work.

Hope to see some more suggestions posted about this.

Regards,
PHKitkat

Nova is a special kitty indeed.. I have given her her own plush while hiding the others and she universally ignores them even though I made it obvious they were for her to play with and not the other things... My cat is also strange and likes citrus, she's a garbage disposal, she hasn't actually swallowed anything yet just rips it to pieces.. Eh, maybe i'll just have to live plush-less.

You may also want to contact your vet. Some cats will actually eat the material and this can cause major intestinal problems! There is usually medication that needs to be administered for this kind of problem. If she's not actually eating the plush material, then she just wants to have those for toys and want sthose that are marked with her humans scents. Bitter apple spray (very inexpensive) will deterr her from stealing plush toys, or just pack them all up and put away. It is true, cats rule our lives!

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