Enzo is eating spiderwebs. Why?!?

Hi all!

So Enzo, my 9 year old neutered male, has an outdoor cat enclosure. In order to get into the enclosure you have to open up my sliding back door and there is about two feet of space between that and the cat enclosure door.

Spiderwebs are usually found in the corners. He will make a beeline for where they are usually found. He will even lick the screen door if he sees one. I'm not concerned about bugs all that much, but that doesn't seem to be his interest. It's the actual spiderweb that he wants.

I am concerned about a nutritional deficiency as I can't think of any other reason he would do this (yuck). He eats Merrick limited ingredient turkey wet food, the occasional smart n tasty dental treat, and some cooked pork as a treat daily. He also gets a probiotic. It seems to me that a deficiency of some kind would be unlikely, but why else would he be doing this?

Maybe he just finds them so interesting and a little bit tasty (like cotton candy.)  I don't think, but I'm not sure, that spider webs would have much nutrition.  I had one kitty who loved shrink wrap off CD's.  He'd wake up from a nap and come running if he heard the sound of it!  He loved it so much I would have to let him take a few chews while holding it, of course, so he didn't actually bite some off.   He may need some different protein sources.  Does he like rabbit or duck?

Ginny said:

Maybe he just finds them so interesting and a little bit tasty (like cotton candy.)  I don't think, but I'm not sure, that spider webs would have much nutrition.  I had one kitty who loved shrink wrap off CD's.  He'd wake up from a nap and come running if he heard the sound of it!  He loved it so much I would have to let him take a few chews while holding it, of course, so he didn't actually bite some off.   He may need some different protein sources.  Does he like rabbit or duck?

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Haha shrink wrap!! That's too funny. Unfortunately he won't eat duck or rabbit. I can't barely even ever find something chicken related that he'll eat. He's so picky!!

Yes, Sammy loved his shrink wrap something awful!

Oh dear!  You do have a picky eater don't you?  One of mine only ate kitty food tuna.  She would also eat cooked beef, just a few small pieces.  She was very particular too.  

I wonder about the vitamin/mineral content of the canned foods I feed mine.  They don't give exact amounts so how do we know how much they are getting?  I think Taurine is one of the most essential ones.  I've heard (but please check this out for yourself) that you can add it to their food, and it won't hurt because it's a B vitamin (water soluble) which means they will pee out any excess.  

Ginny said:

Yes, Sammy loved his shrink wrap something awful!

Oh dear!  You do have a picky eater don't you?  One of mine only ate kitty food tuna.  She would also eat cooked beef, just a few small pieces.  She was very particular too.  

I wonder about the vitamin/mineral content of the canned foods I feed mine.  They don't give exact amounts so how do we know how much they are getting?  I think Taurine is one of the most essential ones.  I've heard (but please check this out for yourself) that you can add it to their food, and it won't hurt because it's a B vitamin (water soluble) which means they will pee out any excess.  

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I will absolutely look into the taurine, thank you. I've done some research about nutrient deficiency before (he has IBD so it was trial and error with a lot of food) I'm just nervous I'll give him too much of something since I've read numerous times that a quality food will have all the needed amounts of nutrients. The little bugger won't budge from his turkey. The only way I found out he likes pork is because I caught him stealing a ham sandwich once. He couldn't have the lunch meat of course because of the salt so I decided to try pork chops, and he loves them! He wasn't always so particular, it's just since the IBD was diagnosed and seafood was determined to be the likely culprit. He too was a tuna lover!

Maybe you could make him some homemade cooked pork and add all the vitamins and minerals.  Or get something like EZcomplete which has complete nutrition  that you just add to cooked meats.  I've heard you should NEVER feed them raw pork.  Anyone else know? 

Aww, poor kitty can't eat his tuna now?  Poor kitty!

Ginny said:

Maybe you could make him some homemade cooked pork and add all the vitamins and minerals.  Or get something like EZcomplete which has complete nutrition  that you just add to cooked meats.  I've heard you should NEVER feed them raw pork.  Anyone else know? 

Aww, poor kitty can't eat his tuna now?  Poor kitty!

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He gets tiny bits of pork chops as a treat a few times a day. It's always fully cooked and its pure pork with no additives. I definitely don't think you should feed raw pork. He gets this in addition to his wet food everyday. I don't want to feed him a pork only diet, and I don't really want to do any supplements or vitamins in case his needs are already being met with his wet food. He won't be able to do the EZ because there is seafood in the ingredients, I had checked it out previously when I was considering feeding a raw diet. Haha nope, no more tuna! He wasn't happy about it at first but he's had no more vomiting since all the seafood has been removed.