Cat Pulls Out Own Fur

This involves our latest cat, Kasey, and 8 to 10 year old tortie.

Rather than repeat her story, it is on this link;

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=184623

I am not worried about this because the behaviour is not severe and is occassional.

She will be grooming and will pull tufts of fur from various parts of her body with her teeth.

She pulls a patch and thats it, she doesn't "stip" an area or persist and pull more. She sometimes will not do it for a couple days. The locaions are random.

She does not have any sores or a skin condition at these sites.

Her fur is quite thick and healthy, with good colours. She gets regular vet check ups and does not have fleas etc.

She is fed a premium food which she seems to like.

She is very attentive and plays quite actively, with good endurance.

All bodily functions seem fine.


When I brought her home in May 2008, she was dirty, clolours were poor and she did have "bald spots" (I don't know if she created these or it was poor diet). Some of the people were she was wanted to have her put down due to the bald spots because "she was sick", one of the guy's there intervened. She was not treated well and was under stress.

Last spring, after 6 weeks, or so, of premium food, a better environment etc., all the fur grew back quite thickly and she developed very colurful tortishell markings, with ginger in them, which did not show too well before.

She has adapted well to being an indoor cat, with no display of any wish to go outside. She has figured out things like heat comes out of a gas fireplace and it is a good thing to lie in front of etc.

I can only think the fur pulling thing is a left over nervous behaviour.

Originally Posted by Claydust

I can only think the fur pulling thing is a left over nervous behaviour.

Click to expand...

I groom Persi every day. Grooming means with a brush and a comb. He has turned out to be what I wanted, a cat with long and thick fur. But I also find wads of fur throughout the house. He sits in a crazy position to groom himself throughout the day.(The crazy position can be seen by clicking on the left thumbnail above.) Despite all of the grooming, I find tufts of his hair everywhere.

Persi is definately not nervous; Alley on the other hand is extremely nervous. But I have never found any of Alley's fur anywhere and I do not groom her at all. I have yet to find out how these tufts of fur are appearing. I have never seen Persi pulling out any of his fur. The reason that this is so amazing to me is because I groom him every morning until I cannot get any more hairs with the comb. So the fur pulling you speak of could apply to Persi but I have never seen it. But, considering the facts I have given, he must be doing the same thing as your cat. I have just never observed it.

That position is pretty much what Kasey does, too.

She likes to be brushed as well.