Dangerously Bad Habit!

[2crazykittens]

I am currently dealing with a very terrifying issue. Both my 1 year old boys love to chew on electrical cords  of various sizes.

  This seems to be an ongoing fascination for the two of them since bringing them home on day one. I have exhausted all options that I know of and have no more ideas as what to do to prevent a possible death if this continues.

I have tried using Bitter Yuck spray on items around the home including the electrical cords.. This seems to keep only one cat from chewing the cords or wires though, and it seems somewhat effective with the other cat. I have bought cord covers to keep cords at bay, including the ones that stick to the wall where you can hide the cord inside against the wall. This works too. I recently bought a fan for the boys room, I had to make sure that the cord was not a source of play. I made sure to cover it to the best of my ability only to find that one of them removed the  tubular wrapping from the electrical cord and exposed the fan cord. They even had a fun time chewing up the cover this morning. Thank God neither of them decided to take a swing at chewing up the fan cord (which is plugged in but not turned on).

Once I discovered what they had done, I got a rag and the plastic cover, wrapped the cord back into the cover then wrapped that with a rag, duct taped that onto the cover then doused everything in some Bitter Yuck spray. 

  I am praying that they will forget about it now.

I have all cords in my place covered up. I have covers for everything. I can never just let the boys roam freely around the house without taking some kind of risk that they might chew on something that could KILL them! As some of you know from my other post "A cat room is not a prison", my boys have their own room. Mostly for their safety and my peace of mind. Their room for the most part with the exception of the new fan is a safe place for them to rest. I keep all electronics well covered in there and nothing has been disturbed for a year now. I would love to let them freely roam one day but that does not look like an option at this point. 

I really have no clue how to break them from this very scary and very potentially fatal habit. I don't want to have to deal with what could be the outcome if these cats wont stop this. If anyone has a similar situation or knows someone who is and wants to share their thoughts, please do. I could really use some advice.

 

[nbrazil]

Well, I'll throw an idea out there as I speculate that Bitter Yuck "works" because of its taste. Cats have a very sensitive sense of smell. Although I (thankfully) do not have a problem with them chewing cords, there are some places I would prefer they don't go. For that I put a light coating of an essential oil. Which one? Well, I have to be careful because pretty much all of them are toxic if consumed - but the intense odor has so far driven them away. So... the choice is pretty much up to you.

I have cinnamon oil, valor (a blend), Thieves (a blend) and Frankincense, for instance. Available through Young Living (which makes a highly refined product).

I don't have these oils to repel cats, but I found that they do. If it is on my hand and they come up to investigate me, well, I've never seen a cat run so fast once they get a whiff of it. But do observe them first. My only concern is if they get any on their fur and go to clean, well, like I said, toxic, but that is unlikely to happen if you are lightly coating a cord (say INSIDE the protector?). Because if it gets on the floor they could "step" on it.

With all these caveats, I find if I lightly coat things I want them to avoid, they do.

Just sharing my experience. Good luck.