Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi! I have two cats, a 3yo female and a 1.5yo male. Both are altered and indoor.

My baby, Tumaini, is especially enamored of chewing on plastic, and has been all her life. I know this is a common behavior, and don't mind very much. However, I am concerned because she frequently will act as if she is going to swallow bits of plastic. My biggest battle occurred the first Christmas that I had her. Curling ribbon became her favorite snack. After finding a piece in the litter box (so scary!) and pulling six inches of it out of her throat on a separate occassion, I eliminated curling ribbon entirely from the house, and haven't had it since.

Obviously, ingesting plastic can cause huge problems for cats. I try to limit plastic in the house, but eliminating it completely is next to impossible. And now the male has taken to trying to eat tape off of boxes, as well as our shower curtain.

Any advice for discouraging the eating of plastic, other than being omniscient and omnipresent in order to correct them every time they start chewing?

Hi There,

I have a plastic chewer here also. Timothy has also loved to lick anything and everything plastic and he has ingested some in the past. I have to be very careful about what I leave out. At least hard plastic cannot be ingested.

I think the best thing you can do is try to discourage this behavior is by doing something to stop him in the act. Either start playing with him with an interactive toy, or try clicker-training him. Usually the noise of the clicker will cause a cat to stop what they are doing, and this can be rewarded with a treat of some kind.

BTW, the worse thing you can do if something like a ribbon is sticking out of either end of a cat is pull it out. You can cause more damage than the foreign body already has. You should only trim whatever is sticking out and get the cat to a vet immediately.

Regards,
PHKitkat

Thanks for the advice! I'll see about getting a clicker to use with her. I had heard water sprays suggested before, but since I bathe my cats as needed, I didn't want to introduce water as a punishment.

Also, thank you very much for the advice about foreign body ingestion. Fortunately, since that one event two years ago, she hasn't eaten anything like that. As I mentioned, I eliminated gift-wrap ribbon from my home when I discovered she thought it was a delicious treat.