Cindy keeps chewing all the paper in the house

[pui hang]

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone might have some advice for me about Cindy. I've had her since she was 3 months and she's now 5 years old. From about age 2 or 3, she started to chew paper but it was never really proper chewing - we would find teethmarks on magazines or paper that had been left on the floor. I bought her a chew toy but she wasn't interested in it at all. We made it a policy to never leave magazines or paper on the floor and thought that was the end of it.

However, over the past year, she's taken to jumping onto tables and chewing whatever paperwork or magazine has been left out. I don't actually have a problem with this but it drives my husband insane. Does anyone know why she is doing this or even better, what can be done to stop her? She doesn't chew anything else, just paper.

Thanks!

 

[strange_wings]

Many cats love to chew and shred paper. I think its the sound and texture that they enjoy so much. Really there isn't much you can do about it. Put up anything you don't want shredded. Giving her other toys and games to curb the boredom may help a little.

 

[ldg]

Get a couple of subscriptions to a magazine she can chew, and put the ones you care about away.

Our Flowerbelle is a paper chewer, and the only solution we found is to not leave anything out we don't want chewed.

 

[my4llma]

Maybe she likes the sound paper makes?

 

[feralvr]

I have had cats that like to chew paper, chew broomstick bristles, chew plastic bags etc. I think sometimes it is something missing in their diet??!! Especially if it comes on suddenlly out of the blue. What do you feed? How long has your cat been on the same diet? Wet or Dry?? Also, have your cat's teeth checked/cleaned.

Sometimes I will leave cardboard boxes on the floor or those boxes you get with the cans of pop in them. The cats like to chew on these and play in them as well. I think it is part of having a cat, most cats I have ever had have had some sort of obsession about chewing certain types of items. Very strange I know. I have noticed less of this since putting my cats on a really good natural diet and alot more wet food.

 

[stephanietx]

There are a few chew toys that are fleece covered but sound like they have paper inside them. That might be an option for you. Also, you might see if you can find some packing paper (like from a moving place or something) or newsprint and putting it on the floor one sheet at a time. That way she has her own paper and can play with it and chew it up. When that one's decimated she can have a new piece. I bring home packing paper from work for my kitties to play with and they love it.

 

[pui hang]

Originally Posted by LDG

Get a couple of subscriptions to a magazine she can chew, and put the ones you care about away.

Our Flowerbelle is a paper chewer, and the only solution we found is to not leave anything out we don't want chewed.

Heh. I do that already. However, my husband, lazy so and so that he is, never puts anything away so it's his paper that gets chewed! I've left magazines out for her to chew but he says that I am simply encouraging her behaviour by doing this

 

[pui hang]

Originally Posted by Feralvr

I have had cats that like to chew paper, chew broomstick bristles, chew plastic bags etc. I think sometimes it is something missing in their diet??!! Especially if it comes on suddenlly out of the blue. What do you feed? How long has your cat been on the same diet? Wet or Dry?? Also, have your cat's teeth checked/cleaned.

Sometimes I will leave cardboard boxes on the floor or those boxes you get with the cans of pop in them. The cats like to chew on these and play in them as well. I think it is part of having a cat, most cats I have ever had have had some sort of obsession about chewing certain types of items. Very strange I know. I have noticed less of this since putting my cats on a really good natural diet and alot more wet food.

Cindy gets royal canin wet and dry food. The biscuits are permanently available and she gets a pouch of Royal Canin Instinctive for breakfast and one for dinner. She just grazes on the biscuits when she is peckish in between meals. She's been on this diet for 3 years now. I do vary the dry food so she doesn't get bored but it's always royal canin as that is the only brand she will eat.

Her teeth are fine - she gets checked regularly by our vets.

There is a permanent cardboard box full of shredded paper in our bedroom for her to play in. She loves to play in the box but she just seems to have days where she just has to put puncture holes into paper

As I said earlier, I don't have an issue with this but my husband does..

 

[kailie]

Imhotep is my paper shredder here. He's not as bad now as he was when he was younger, but I leared pretty quickly to NEVER leave any papers or books out where he could get at them.

It's less of a problem now that I have an ereader.

 

[feralvr]

Well, guess what?? I just got home a little while ago and heard some shredding!!! Presley and Perkins were going to town on my Living magazine on the table in the LR!!!

Oh no

, and then they were carrying around the pieces and batting them around on the floor, and then Perla came over to see what the new game is all about. I guess I will have to keep magazines away for awhile because I know these guys, and once they have a new "game" they will search out all of the magazines

The games kittens play