Eating carpet pieces?

[tinysalmon]

My cat likes scratching the carpet in the hallway, which is fine by me because it's old anyway, but sometimes I hear her chewing, and I see her putting the pieces of carpet in her mouth. Every time I turn around, she stops and acts all innocent. Then when I go over to her, I see a piece of carpet on the floor that she's been picking on or drops it from her mouth. She also does this with the pieces that fall off her scratching post.

Is this normal? Does anyone else's cat do this? I don't remember her being so fond of the hallway carpet for the first few weeks we got her. I have only been noticing this for the past three or so weeks.

I know people discipline their cats by spraying water. We only had to do this twice during the first two weeks we got her (had her for three months now and up until now, I never had to spray her.)

 

[mschauer]

One of mine does that.  There was one scratching post that produced a lot of those little pieces when scratched. A lot more so than the others.Recently she threw up about a fist sized blob of it. I threw that scatching post away. I strongly suspect that eating that stuff, especially as much as she was eating, is *not* good for them.

 

[presto]

It's totally normal.  If you want to limit the behavior, you'll have to clip their nails regularly.  My cats won't allow it, and therefore, I live with the consequences. 

 

[tinysalmon]

Ya, I'm afraid of her eating it and then throwing up later on, so I routinely remove all loose and fallen pieces from the scratching post.

 

[x2006nkg]

My cat does the same thing with the living room carpet. As soon as we make eye contact with him or walk into the room he'll walk away as if he wasn't doing anything. He's never gotten sick over it, but I can't imagine it's healthy 

 

[ldg]

In some cats, it's "normal," in others, if it's a new behavior, I'd go for bloodwork. It can (but isn't necessarily) a form of pica, which can indicate anemia.

Our Ming Loy routinely chews plastic, rubber, etc. (LOVES headsets or non-bluetooth headset cords). But Lazlo recently began chewing plastic. He was anemic. Ming Loy is not.

 

[cat person]

My cat likes scratching the carpet in the hallway, which is fine by me because it's old anyway, but sometimes I hear her chewing, and I see her putting the pieces of carpet in her mouth. Every time I turn around, she stops and acts all innocent. Then when I go over to her, I see a piece of carpet on the floor that she's been picking on or drops it from her mouth. She also does this with the pieces that fall off her scratching post.

Is this normal? Does anyone else's cat do this? I don't remember her being so fond of the hallway carpet for the first few weeks we got her. I have only been noticing this for the past three or so weeks.

I know people discipline their cats by spraying water. We only had to do this twice during the first two weeks we got her (had her for three months now and up until now, I never had to spray her.)

Is the cat eating the carpet pieces or just chewing them? If the cat is not swallowing them, then I would not worry. If the cat is swallowing the carpet pieces, then I would recommend putting Bitter Apple on the general area.

In some cats, it's "normal," in others, if it's a new behavior, I'd go for bloodwork. It can (but isn't necessarily) a form of pica, which can indicate anemia.
Our Ming Loy routinely chews plastic, rubber, etc. (LOVES headsets or non-bluetooth headset cords). But Lazlo recently began chewing plastic. He was anemic. Ming Loy is not.

Some breeds of cats are prone to having pica issues as well

. My F3 Savannah, has tried to eat all types of things in the year I have owned him. I have learned to limit what he has access to. He also has a cat safe room, for when I can not monitor him directly.