My Little guy chews plastic. i need some help with this.

[teelaandsasha]

okay so im 16 and i live with my parents and 2 brothers. i have two cats, brother and sister by the names of Sasha and Teela and they are about 3 and a half.

My little guy Sasha chews plastic all the time. he chews plastic wrappers on video games and similar, bin bags, plastic bags, and anything he can get a hold of.

Naturally im worried that he will hurt himself or swallow something and get into serious bother. As a side note and not sure if it is related is that he seems like he is always hungry. it seems like a lot, especially at night he is always up for food, even as soon as he is finished, to anyone who will listen and he scoffs his dinner and most of the time my shyer girl Teela's dinner too. he doesn't look skinny i think but Teela has a bit of a belly where as he is very lean.

we feed the 3 times a day.

is there anything i can do about the food and the eating plastic problem? should i be concerned about anything else?

also he has been sick after chewing on the plastic and also he has been sick after eating his dinner too.

This has happened a number of times so im just a little concerned for him.

Also i should note i don't think i can take him to the vet as i am only 16 and they are not registered under my name and my mother always makes excuses about taking them just for check-ups as we don't get to choose the time of the appointments and if it was a day my step-father was working then she would have to bring my 2 and a half year old brother with her and she does not want to bring him around big dogs and stuff which frankly makes me mad.


so anyway there is that so if anybody can give me any advice that would be great. thank you.

 

[tulosai]

This may be of limited use to you, since I'm not sure how much control you have over the environment in the  house, but as my first step, the main thing I'd do is keep plastic away from the cat.  Since it sounds like this has gone on for quite some time, that will be easier than trying to train him all at once, since by now the habit is probably ingrained and it's going to take some time to break him of it.

What I'd do for training is, if you see him get at some plastic, lift him up and take him far away from it.  If he stays by you then instead of running immediately back, I'd offer a treat. This is probably going to be a long, time consuming process.  I know a lot of things are plastic but honestly, what I'd do in your position is try to keep the plastic away from him totally.  My one little guy tries to eat the feathers off my boas.  My solution to this wasn't to keep him away from the boas, but instead to lock the boas up away from him.

Good luck!

 

[teelaandsasha]

yes you're right. the thing that is a big problem is in our house we have no door to our kitchen so the bin is easy access and nothing can stop them. i guess i will have to see if my parents will let me but a bin with a lid. we tie the bag up so he does not try and rip it open. he usually tips the in over and spills it's contents to get a empty cat food packets.