Recently in the last month or so, my 5 year old cat Spliff has started doing something very odd...he has a favourite toy, which is a refillable fuzzy catnip pouch shaped like a strawberry. We have had the toy for about 6 months or so now, and both cats enjoy playtime with it daily (chase and fetch, jumping and attacking it.). But normally after a few hours of amusement, they bore of it and it sits by the bed until we play the next day. However lately when I get up in the morning Spliff will have dragged it into the bathroom, and placed it in his extra water dish which is always filled. I'll always find him right there, drinking his specially flavoured "catnip tea"!
He actually brings the toy in there and deliberatly puts it in his bowl to make the "tea", and drinks about 3/4 of the water, leaving a soggy green water and sopping wet toy behind for me to clean up! this use to only happen occasionally and we'd have a good laugh at him and his "addiction"...but now it's become an obsession to the point where he does it daily...it takes a while to clean mushy catnip out of the toy! Now i have to hide the toy after playtime, but he just meows mournfully into all hours of the night. That doesn't bother me, i just feel bad for not giving him his catnip tea fix for the day. (Withdrawls are never good, lol)
My question is, is he possibly lacking something in his diet to make him develop this habit? We have many bowls of water around the house for both kitties. We also grow a big pot of cat grass for them, which they both love. They eat Techni-Cal Hairball Control food, which has a lot of fiber. He eats regularly, drinks the same, uses the litter box the same. I just don't understand. Could he have possibly just developed a craving for it? anyhow, any feedback or advice would be great! I hate having to take away the catnip toys because they usually play with them a bit at night, and pay no interest to the other plain toys. Thanks again!
~Roz, Spliff and Fatty~
My question is, is he possibly lacking something in his diet to make him develop this habit? We have many bowls of water around the house for both kitties. We also grow a big pot of cat grass for them, which they both love. They eat Techni-Cal Hairball Control food, which has a lot of fiber. He eats regularly, drinks the same, uses the litter box the same. I just don't understand. Could he have possibly just developed a craving for it? anyhow, any feedback or advice would be great! I hate having to take away the catnip toys because they usually play with them a bit at night, and pay no interest to the other plain toys. Thanks again!
~Roz, Spliff and Fatty~
