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cat eats hay

post #1 of 9
1/5/11 at 1:00pm
Thread Starter 
so, my cat is obsessed with eating the timothy hay that I feed the rabbits. I'm pretty good at keeping her out of their room, but sometimes she manages to get a piece. last night, she did just this, and threw up her entire dinner right after. I swear she thinks she's a rabbit with the determination she has to get to their hay! she will sit calmly next to them in their litterboxes, munching on hay with them. the other cat is nothing like this, she will just sit in their cages, and I can trust her not to play too roughly with the buns. is there any way to discourage her from eating the hay, or do I just need to be more diligent? as it is, I sweep and vacuum in the bunny room every day, just to keep her from eating the hay.
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post #2 of 9
1/5/11 at 2:04pm
Not that uncommon. See the barn cats take a bit hay every once in a while, and they all go mad over alfalfa. Even Da Magpie will chew on hay. Hay, after all, is just dried grass or grass/alfalfa mix, and most cats relish a chew on a bit of grass now and again. They eat it for texture and sometimes to prompt tossing their cookies if a meal doesn't sit right. Perfectly normal behaviour
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post #3 of 9
1/5/11 at 5:12pm
Thread Starter 
is it normal that she does this every single day, every chance she gets? every time she eats their hay, she regurgitates. is she trying to tell me that her food isn't agreeing with her or something? She knows she's not allowed to, and stops when she realizes she's in trouble, but how much is too much? I don't think my carpets can take her little presents much longer (thankfully we're replacing most of it, so it's not a huge deal, I would just like to not have to clean up little gooey piles throughout the house.)
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post #4 of 9
1/5/11 at 5:18pm
It could well be food. What are you feeding? Not every food agrees with every cat and sometimes it takes experimentation to find what they will eat and do well on.
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post #5 of 9
1/5/11 at 5:27pm
Give her some cat grass. My cats eat hay all the time- mostly so they can regurgitate hairballs. It really is normal although timothy hay is pretty rich and could be upsetting to the system.
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post #6 of 9
1/5/11 at 6:34pm
Thread Starter 
She and my other cat eat the purina pro plan for hairball control. Since being on it, isis, the hay eater, has not had a single hairball, when she would usually have them two to three times a month.
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post #7 of 9
1/5/11 at 6:43pm
Hay and grass are eaten for the explicit purpose of inducing vomiting normally. It's added ruffage they use to fill themselves to capacity to make vomiting easier and less painful (dry heaves are way more painful than actually vomiting something). I would check to see ifthis happens mostly after eating cat food, it could just be a quirk that your cat likes hay but doesn't need to vomit.
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post #8 of 9
1/5/11 at 7:18pm
Thread Starter 
Isis just does this every time I open the bunny cages to give them hay, or let the bunnies out to play, basically any chance she can get to get in there and eat their hay, regardless of whether she's eaten recently or not. it just sucks, because it's gotta hurt her throat and ribs to be horking stuff up every other second. I do try to keep tabs on her so she doesn't eat hay too often, but I can't keep her with me at all times, and I can't just lock the rabbits up behind closed doors all the time either, it wouldn't be fair to them.
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post #9 of 9
1/5/11 at 8:13pm
One of mine likes to eat the bunnies' hay, too. Fortunately, it doesn't make him throw up very often. The only thing I can think of is to close the rabbits' cage after you let them out, and be vigilant about not letting her steal any when you're re-stocking. Timothy is just a variety of grass (NOT rich, it's all fiber. . .alfalfa is rich), so maybe some fresh grass will help with her cravings, and maybe it won't make her throw up as much as the dried stuff.
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