Strange kitty habits

[wondercat]

Hello,

I was just wondering what strange habits you all have witnessed in your cats. Here's Gremlin's most bizarre:

1. Eats tape, mainly off boxes, then throws it up.
2. Licks the finish off pictures (my boyfriend was in a photography class when we found this out).
3. Finds rubberbands, picks them up, and carries them to his food bowl so we can find them.

Anybody else understand these silly things? Why does he stalk office supplies? We never met his original owner so we don't know where these little things come from!

We got Gremlin when he was 11 (now 14) because his owner left him in the apartment when she moved to Ireland ($3000 for 1 yr of quarantine was the story). Our friends, who were moving in to the place, couldn't keep him safe from their cat so we took him in. I just know if it was me, I could never leave him behind!

 

[donna]

Hi Wondercat!

You're not alone! My oldest male Casey licks envelopes (he likes the taste of the glue) and chews on plastic bags. He also likes to play with elastic bands. Cats are very curious creatures and little things amuse them. It could be that your cat didn't have very many toys so he found things to amuse himself. Sounds like a great kitty to me! He's lucky to have you!

Welcome to the Forums!

 

[vlinder]

My cat plays "fetch" and "soccer" with ponytail bands and rubberbands. It is one of her favorite things to do! She'll sit at the edge of the bed, see me raise the band, perk her little ears down, meow (tellling me she's ready), I throw it in the air, she dives for it off the bed like a dog trying to catch a frisbee.
Sometimes, she takes her elastics over to her water and puts it in the water while she drinks, picks it our with her paw, then waits for it to dry.
I can't get her to play with much else. I've got all types of jingle balls, but bands are her fave!

 

[sandie]

I hate to be a party pooper guys...but these stange things are going to hurt your babies. I just saw a cat die because he swallowed a rubber band and the owners didnt realize it. It blocked the intestines and they ruptured. These kinds of play things seem cute until they end up choking,poisoned or worse. Cats have died for as little as swallowing a long peoce of thread that ended up cutting through the intestines.

 

[wondercat]

Believe me, we fully realize he shouldn't be doing these things and have taken all necessary precautions. But the rubberband thing is just weird. We don't have any laying around...he just finds them, puts them in his bowl, and eats around them until we find it. I've only seen him once and he doesn't have any intention of eating or playing with it. He quickly picks it up and is off to the kitchen.

 

[twocats]

Hi wondercat,
My two haven't found any elastics yet that they carry around, but they like to swat and flip my son's legos. They usually wait until there are several pieces put together and then start. Luckily, they have never tried to eat any.

As for putting things in their food or water, please. If there is one cat hair in either dish, forget it. They will not touch it until I change it. Guess who they have trained?

I can tell you my Mony likes to play with live crickets. I haven't seen her eat it, but I have found just the torso and head (twitching legs make great moving targets - I swear that's what she thinks).

Oreo on the other hand likes those little play mice. In fact, as a special treat, he left one down in my shoe one night, all the way into the toe. Well, try to put your foot in on that. I had a surprise when I upended the shoe.

I know of several people who have lost beloved members for eating things not so good (this also includes dogs). Please be careful. I make a habit of checking the house before I leave for stray strings & such so they won't get hurt.

Another thing to watch out for: plastic grocery bags. Mony put her head through a handle one day, got scared and tried to go forward through it. It got stuck around her tummy and she couldn't get out. Try freeing a cat with a bag attached that's already scared. Life is not dull with these two.

 

[woozles98]

My last cat(is no longer with us), went nuts for Bows (like you put on top of presents). She would carry them around, and if you rattled one, she would come from anywhere to get the bow.
SHe even hid them and then you would come home one day and there would be 50 bows in the middle of the floor.

 

[pnut]

Clyde's favorite toys are the fake mice! But, if he cannot find one (because he knocked them all under the couch or stove) a nice little ball of his own hair that he has left behind is very amusing to him. He also HAS to be in whatever room we are in. Even when we are asleep he brings his toys to the bedroom and plays there. When anyone gets up from the couch, he follows. When my fiance and I both get up and one goes in the kitchen and the other to the bathroom, he doesn't know what to do.. so he sits in between looking back and forth to see who goes back to the couch! He's a cutie!

 

[rene]

I have water cats - Mouse is obsessive compulsive with water and if you have a glass of water anywhere, he will come and drink from it and eventually, knock it over on purpose. he will not touch wine, beer, soda, etc., just water. Also if the sink comes on, he is there.

Rockcat loves the water dish - he plays in it daily, sometimes actually stepping into it all the way and splashing water onto the floor.

Also one of their most prized possessions is the plastic twisty from the milk bottle - we do supervise this play Sandie (you know that) and take it away when we need to leave the room - but it is comical how they try to steal it from each other.

 

[tiggeytoes]

Our K.C. LOVES socks. Red socks blue socks, clean socks, dirty socks....no sock is safe around K.C. If a sock drawer is left ajar, you will surely find socks on the kitchen floor. One day after doing the laundry I left the laundry basket out overnight. The next morning....Twenty-seven pairs of socks greeted us on the kitchen floor. Now when we have an old pair of socks, instead of throwing it out we fill one with catnip and roll the pair back up as a cat toy. It may not be a great deterrent to "sock-snatching",but he loves it, as do all the others. Katie is a collector. Last summer she started bringing things downstairs and leaving them in a pile. Rubber sink stoppers, stuffed animals, socks(that K.C. didn`t find first),cat toys,wash cloths...you name it...all in front of the downstairs bathroom. we let it go for about a week to see how many treasures she would collect....and there was quite a pile. Speaking of odd behaviors...even as I type this, K.C. is sitting on the back of my chair doing a balancing act,with his butt in my back...just trying to be close I love my K.C.!!!. We once had a cat named Tigger who would shake his cat food before he ate it. Guess he just wanted to be sure those Friskies were dead before he ate them! Another cat, Rusty would scratch at the floor in front of the weater dish a couple of times before drinking, as though he were digging for water.



[Edited by Tiggeytoes on 04-02-2001 at 01:00 PM]

 

[getthemoose]

Originally posted by Sandie
I hate to be a party pooper guys...but these stange things are going to hurt your babies. I just saw a cat die because he swallowed a rubber band and the owners didnt realize it. It blocked the intestines and they ruptured. These kinds of play things seem cute until they end up choking,poisoned or worse. Cats have died for as little as swallowing a long peoce of thread that ended up cutting through the intestines.

My cat Electra died exactly because she ate thread from my mom's sewing machine.

 

[swalker]

Sorry to hear that getthemoose. I didn't realize that string was such a hazard until I read it posted here on this site. How tragic. I think of how lucky I have been in the past.

 

[kittykratz]

I'm sorry to hear about Electra.
Smitty loves to carry around his fake mice. He plays with them throughout the day, but at night, he stockpiles them on the bed. My husband and I wake up in the morning with 6 fake mice at the foot of the bed, and usually one in his food dish! Smitty loves to put things in our shoes, as well. Usually fake mice, but sometimes whatever is available. Aren't they adorable!?

 

[tashajd]

Kitten, our oldest turning 14 this spring, loves water also. She will sit by the bathroom sink till someone turns on the tap for her. Also, refuses to drink out of the community water bowl....has to have her water in a GLASS, not just any glass, has to be a christmas glass with teddy bears on it! She also sits on top of the recliner so she can attack Shero, our collie. She waits till Shero is being petted or talked to, then she sneaks down and swats at Shero's tail, runs back up to her perch and looks :goodbad: innocent.

 

[crazy cat lady]

My youngest cat Lily loves my best sneakers. When I take them out of my gym bag in the morning to put them on for the gym, they usually lay on the carpet in my room for a bit. As soon as Lily spots the sneaker, she lunges at one and kicks the crap out of it. It is hilarious to watch. She looks all proud while she is beating it up.
Gabby likes to get up on my dresser and haul my dried hydrandes on to the floor and pulverize them. I came home from work one Friday after my cleaning lady had been there and guess who had been busy. Gabby had managed to destroy one and cover the carpet with the mess.

 

[twocats]

Hi everybody - here's one more for the boards, that may or may not be behavior but health: My Oreo, little guy that he is,

will eat the artificial flower greenery. He especially likes the long pieces that look like overgrown grass blades. Its not that both of them don't get greens - my sister and I take turns growing Oat grass for them, so they always have it. I notice I don't have many "presents" left in the floor when they eat the oat grass.

I've given up on having the long things in the arrangements and I won't even bring home a bouquet now because he gets to them no matter where I put them. I caught him one time up on the washer and another time on the sink munching away.

 

[alieneater]

My Chips eats plastic greenery when he can get his paws on it too. He also enjoys the milk tops, the twistie ties for trash bags and brown paper bags. He also finds plastic tape all over the house and somehow manages to get it stuck all over him.
To get him to stop eating the plastic greenery, I would squirt him with water. I also went out and bought plenty of good greens for him, and when he eats those insted, I give him a nice treat of his favorite wet food. He gets more rewards than punishments now, but he hasn't learned completely. =)

 

[dubhach]

my kitty likes to drop my things in the toilet. so in the morning i get the joy of fishing out my makeup or ponytail holders. also she is a sock feind! she'll leave them lying around the house, usually on tables, but mainly she hoards them (and her other 'treasures') under my bed. she has a pair of baby socks that she loves, she'll carry them all over the house. one time i was really stressed about a paper i was writing and she came and dropped one of those socks under my feet. she's such a cute little nutter ^_^
*~dubhach~*

 

[donna]

My cat Maya Linn has this fascination with my blush brush. She'll carry it around with the bristles in her mouth. She puts it in my bed or my purse.

 

[kittykratz]

My cats like to play with emery boards, too.