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Greetings everyone. Not sure where to turn, as our vet has been limited help, but, here we go.
My fiancÃ[emoji]169[/emoji]e and I have two cats, Audrey and Gilbert. Both are about three and a half years old. We adopted them about six months apart (Audrey first, then Gil). And, well, here we go.
When we adopted Gil, we knew he was a wool suckler, except he's not the traditional case. He has his 'drool rags' that he uses, and that's fine; no problems if it stopped there.
Gil also has (as far as we can tell), the kitty form of OCD. He eats a number of things he shouldn't, most notably wood. He also eats things like fleece (we discovered this after he at a meter long piece of fleece on a kitty toy, which he passed through just fine). His most infamous eating was a piece of foam yoga mat, which was removed from him six months later and costing us quite a bit.
Now, Gil loves attention (side note: doesn't seem to like it 100% when we play with Audrey; he some times runs after and chances her after this). He also loves food. We started leaving a bowl of food down and night, which has helped a lot to sleep through the night (I am a very light sleeper). But, Gil's thing is that he will chew on the corners of our night stand to get attention.
We can't kick him out of the bedroom for two reasons: one, he meows under the door and projects his voice into our bedroom, making matters much louder, and two, he chews on the bottom of the door (there is about a two, three inch gap between the door and floor). We have also tried locking him in the bathroom to deal with the problem, but then he just chews on the metal door stopper (which probably contains lead paint, or traces of).
Oh, and he also loves cardboard, and will rip through boxes like no bodies business. He just rips off small pieces from the box, spits them out, and then goes back for more. This we feel is the least damaging thing he can do, but we aren't sure if we are encouraging him.
Finally, as icing on the cake, despite him really enjoying his scratching pad, he tends to like the carpet and the futon more.
So, we've tried just about everything under the sun to get him to stop any one of these behaviours. Loud noises, water bottles (which turned into a game), Feliway, attempting to wear him out, bitter spray.
This has been steadily getting worse in the two and a half years we've had Gil, so, not quite sure what to do or how to handle this anymore. I've been up at four am the last two days, and it's beginning to take it's toll on me.
He is a very sweet, loving cat. But he is also a pain and really making things tough for us as we have no idea what is the correct way to respond to him any more (after reading so many sites, including Cornell's feline OCD article).
Help!
Thanks,
Peter
My fiancÃ[emoji]169[/emoji]e and I have two cats, Audrey and Gilbert. Both are about three and a half years old. We adopted them about six months apart (Audrey first, then Gil). And, well, here we go.
When we adopted Gil, we knew he was a wool suckler, except he's not the traditional case. He has his 'drool rags' that he uses, and that's fine; no problems if it stopped there.
Gil also has (as far as we can tell), the kitty form of OCD. He eats a number of things he shouldn't, most notably wood. He also eats things like fleece (we discovered this after he at a meter long piece of fleece on a kitty toy, which he passed through just fine). His most infamous eating was a piece of foam yoga mat, which was removed from him six months later and costing us quite a bit.
Now, Gil loves attention (side note: doesn't seem to like it 100% when we play with Audrey; he some times runs after and chances her after this). He also loves food. We started leaving a bowl of food down and night, which has helped a lot to sleep through the night (I am a very light sleeper). But, Gil's thing is that he will chew on the corners of our night stand to get attention.
We can't kick him out of the bedroom for two reasons: one, he meows under the door and projects his voice into our bedroom, making matters much louder, and two, he chews on the bottom of the door (there is about a two, three inch gap between the door and floor). We have also tried locking him in the bathroom to deal with the problem, but then he just chews on the metal door stopper (which probably contains lead paint, or traces of).
Oh, and he also loves cardboard, and will rip through boxes like no bodies business. He just rips off small pieces from the box, spits them out, and then goes back for more. This we feel is the least damaging thing he can do, but we aren't sure if we are encouraging him.
Finally, as icing on the cake, despite him really enjoying his scratching pad, he tends to like the carpet and the futon more.
So, we've tried just about everything under the sun to get him to stop any one of these behaviours. Loud noises, water bottles (which turned into a game), Feliway, attempting to wear him out, bitter spray.
This has been steadily getting worse in the two and a half years we've had Gil, so, not quite sure what to do or how to handle this anymore. I've been up at four am the last two days, and it's beginning to take it's toll on me.
He is a very sweet, loving cat. But he is also a pain and really making things tough for us as we have no idea what is the correct way to respond to him any more (after reading so many sites, including Cornell's feline OCD article).
Help!
Thanks,
Peter