Plastic Obsession

Really this is for curiousity sake considering my cat has been doing this since she was a kitten and is now 13. She loves chewing on plastic.

By plastic I mean, the kind that a Ziplock bag is made out of.

Anything in the house made out of plastic will have little tooth holes all over it from her. She purrs and closes her eyes when she finds some to chew on.

Has anyone ever heard of this kind of behaviour... ever?

I think all of the cats I have ever had have had some sort of weird obsession like that. One of them liked to lick plastic grocery bags. That can get super annoying!! The ones I have now chew on everything, paper, plastic, whatever. You would think they were dogs!!

There's fish oil in a lot of plastics for some reason, forget why, maybe it makes them shiny? Anyway, that's true at least of grocery sacks.

Paper is just plain fun.

I think it's normal cat behavior unless they start eating it as obsessively as playing with it.

Two of my five chew plastic with a passion. One will actually ingest it so I have to be diligent. I'd see tooth marks on my bread bags and napkin packs...whatever was lying around.

Some degree of plastic chewing and other inedible items are fairly common for cats. But when it becomes a problem it can be diagnosed as Pica.

Other ingested items to watch out for would be strings, woolen materials, litter, dirt, paper products....

Pica can be a symptom of other disorders as well (not to panic you!), anemia often being the instigator.

As to why so many cats love plastic no one is certain--perhaps the cool texture? the sound it makes? Some have said that particular animal fats are used in the making of many plastics and that could be the lure? Petroleum products, gelatins...all sorts of weird stuff in plastic.

I just make sure I keep all plastic temptations out of reach. Nothing on the counters, no grocery plastic bags lying around (those are dangers in their own right!). I watch out for strings, as one of my cats doesnt' seem to know when to stop with that....

I always know it's my Frodo chewing leftover plastic that the tissue box was encased in AT FOUR AM in the morning. She is awful! The sound is so irritiating (hairballs still win that contest though).

Basically cats, dogs, and toddlers will eat the damndest things so even if you think "nah, that's safe", think again

Mine love paper of all sorts. If i have a stack of newspaper or ads, they will scatter them. If there are only a couple sheets of paper (like when I put newspaper under their food dishes) they rip the corners of em. TP in the bathroom is nothing more than a toy to them (they are no longer allowed in the bathroom unsupervised as I am female and need my TP!)

Dexter is a plastic muncher.

One of my cats tries to eat plastic and one of my cats tries to eat paper. Throw in a DH who leaves stuff all over the place and I am always picking up.

Originally Posted by Jenny82

One of my cats tries to eat plastic and one of my cats tries to eat paper. Throw in a DH who leaves stuff all over the place and I am always picking up.

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Your house sounds like mine. Gus is a plastic chewer and the other day I caught him on the kitchen counter with part of a plastic bag half way down his throat. I don't know which would be easier, teaching hubby to pick things up or teaching the cats not to.

Originally Posted by KerryV

Your house sounds like mine.

Gus is a plastic chewer and the other day I caught him on the kitchen counter with part of a plastic bag half way down his throat. I don't know which would be easier, teaching hubby to pick things up or teaching the cats not to.

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Probably teaching the cats

My Loki Loves Plastic grocery sacks!!! Mocha loves paper and Cardboard!!

Diesel will eat anything - But has a special passion for plastic

We have to be really careful, cause as soon as we see he's eaten something we know for sure there will be kitty spew somewhere around the house in the next day or two