I need help or cats gotta go

lonnie

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I'm still looking for answers as to why my two cats are tearing up anything paper. It ranges from toilet paper to mail to mags. Can someone help me. I really love the cats but this can not continue. Thank You.
 

zissou'smom

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And you were given lots of advice. It really is not all that difficult to keep things you don't want destroyed out of reach.

Also, play with your cats more.

Frankly, though, the title of your thread is disturbing. You would get rid of your cats over the mail? And threaten us to give you advice or you will?
 

lilleah

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Originally Posted by Lonnie

I'm still looking for answers as to why my two cats are tearing up anything paper. It ranges from toilet paper to mail to mags. Can someone help me. I really love the cats but this can not continue. Thank You.
Well hmmm....
Anyway you can get these things out of thier reach?
Do they have a scratching post, or plenty of toys that aren't like hidden under the couch?
Have you tried anything catnip?
Maybe play with them, with a lazer dot, or long "flying" type of toy..
Sounds to me like they are bored...
How many cats are there?
And how old are they?
Anyway you could get them some type of paper they can play with?
 

lilleah

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Originally Posted by Zissou'sMom

And you were given lots of advice. It really is not all that difficult to keep things you don't want destroyed out of reach.

Also, play with your cats more.

Frankly, though, the title of your thread is disturbing. You would get rid of your cats over the mail? And threaten us to give you advice or you will?
Oh so I take it there has already been another thread about this?
And he/she didn't take that advice...
(I didn't know that)
 

yosemite

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Lonnie, I haven't looked at your other thread, so perhaps I'm repeating what others have said, but firstly, how old are the kitties? My Siamese from years ago was the same - I'd come home and the toilet paper would be all over the apartment, any roses I'd received were spilled and chewed.

With love and patience, she finally grew out of her kitten stages and stopped doing all those things.

The very best thing you can do is "kitty-proof" your place until they have matured enough to not do those things any more. Also make sure they have plenty of toys to play with while you are out. Sounds like they are bored and if you have some patience, tire them out playing and kitty-proofing for a while, it should all work itself out.

Don't give up - they are worth the effort and you'll be glad you persevered.
 

hissy

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Hi Lonnie,
Kitties are just like that, fascinated with paper, with the scents they hold, the noise they make and how fun they are to shred.

You can distract your cats easily enough with a diversion of paper. Take one of those old telephone books you might have stored in your home. Here in our area, we must get a new one every few months


Take the old phone book, put it on the ground and sprinkle some catnip into some of the pages, then just open it up and let your cats have at it. It does make a mess, but it saves mail, toilet paper, paper towels and other paper items from being attacked.

All cats shred paper, no one really knows why though. I did an article about it a long time ago, if you are interested in reading it just drop me a note and I will send it along.

Don't get mad at your cats, they are really just playing and having fun-
 

miss mew

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Cats will be cats. I have 2 and they get into all sorts of mischief, and yes they do love to shred paper.

It's important that you put up and/or out of reach anything you don't wish to be shred.

Hissy gave you some wonderful advice...give it a try.
 

bab-ush-niik

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I have a male cat, just a little older than yours. He does the same thing. Have you trained them not to jump onto desks/tables/etc? Puppy came to us mostly trained, so that made the solution easy. Just put all items you don't want shredded up higher. Training for this will take some patience, but it's a good thing for multiple reasons.

Other thoughts:
* Have you tried giving them paper that's harder to shred? Puppy loves cardboard. We have a piece on the floor that he rips pieces off of now and again. It lasts a little longer, and there's less mess to pick up.

* Box of newspapers/scrap paper? Cardboard and paper together. Just toss it all in recycling when it gets messy, and start again.

* Phone book was a great idea; I'm actually going to try that! Right now, Puppy goes after my spiral bound notebooks if I leave them on the floor, so I'm sure the phonebook will be a hit.

Basically, you need to distract them on "approved" shredding. Figure out what it is they like, and supply them with it. My cat also loves to chew my plants, so now I have a pot of oatgrass growing. It's worked pretty well. We reinforce the behavior by shouting or clapping when he eats the other plants, but petting when he eats the oatgrass. You just need to do a similar thing with the paper. It's not going to be perfect, and they'll still probably love the toilet paper, but it will help keep them off the other items.
 
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