Young male cat with pica

[paintedpennypony]

Has anyone dealt with a cat and pica before? Our young (2yo) male cat has shown pica tendencies his whole life, starting with electrical cords as a kitten. We lubed the cords up with dish soap as a deterrent and put away any non-necessary cords (like laptop chargers) and he grew out of it. In adolescence he went through a phase where he started eating dish towels. We took him to the vet, she said to feed him more, so we upped his food and he stopped for months and months.

Just recently — within the past 10 days — we’ve noticed he’s been chewing on dish towels again, now also shirts and clothing. We upped his food again and I didn’t find any new damage for a few days. Then tonight I found a hand towel that he chewed on to the point of making his gums slightly bleed

Any other ideas? I’m worried he’s going to kill himself by doing this. He’s outwardly healthy with lots of energy and has a happy life. Not sure what’s triggered this again.

[Simkie]

Yeah, pretty much every cat I’ve ever had has had a thing. Shoelaces, loose strings, plastic wrap. One chewed holes in lightweight fabrics like underwear or t shirts. Another loves to lick the dust from the air vents. This is over decades and drastically different cats, housing, feeding plans.

I don’t think it’s indicative of anything but being a cat.

I address it by limiting access.

[pony_baloney]

My sister had a rescue cat that did this. I think she was feeding it raw food at the time and I had read somewhere to feed it dry food; it just wants to chew and chew. She did and it helped. Most likely you’re already feeding some dry food…so ignore this.

[GraceLikeRain]

Pica is really difficult to manage. Nearly every cat has preferences and will go after certain things like potato/orange mesh bags, grocery bags, cardboard, etc. but it is more of a curiosity and texture seeking than true pica.

Out of my 50+ fosters only one has true pica. It has been really challenging for her owner. She’s eaten entire pant strings, chewed holes in countless pieces of clothing, etc. Great appetite, normal bloodwork, mixture of dry and wet food, etc. The only thing they’ve found is trying to remove temptation and building good habits around storing fabric.

I don’t know if there is any evidence to support but I wonder if some pica is self soothing because of gastric distress that’s too subtle to result in diarrhea or vomiting but is creating a gnawing uncomfortable feeling. For the above cat they are currently trialing a really high quality probiotic and a novel protein but it is too soon to know if it is making an impact.

[paintedpennypony]

That is a really good point about it being a self soothing thing for minor digestive issues. Purina has a ProPlan line of cat probiotic supplement that I was debating trying on top of everything else. They get wet food, ProDen powder, and some dry food in the AM and just dry food in the PM. We have been trying a lot of different wet food brands recently (at least 4 different brands in the 2 weeks - a lot of the cats’ stocking stuffers was wet food lol) which loosely corresponds to him starting back up with the pica… no diarrhea or puking etc though.

Since you foster cats do you think the feliway diffuser is worth the $$? Or would you stabilize his wet food and try a probiotic first? In addition to blocking off access to laundry.

[2DogsFarm]

I have one who looooves chewing plastic bags. Not the soft grocery ones, has to be the crunchier stiff plastic - like cellophane.
Which was amusing, until he got a piece wedged in his mouth & choked

I wonder if you could get him interested in something like the Greenies for dogs.
Is there such a thing?

[GraceLikeRain]

@paintedpennypony

Since you foster cats do you think the feliway diffuser is worth the $$? Or would you stabilize his wet food and try a probiotic first? In addition to blocking off access to laundry.

I don’t think feliway hurts at all but I’ve personally not seen a huge transformation. I use them sporadically as a just in case during times of stress. I’d be more inclined to stick to one consistent wet food and then add in a high quality probiotic.

[Chall]

Perhaps a timed feeder would help. I tried one that works with tags on the collar and allocates food by how many minutes cat is allowed to eat totally during the day. You can then divide it up by hours in the day.
My cat got to start eating when he wanted to, but the lid closed when he had eaten his time allocation until the next hour.
What I liked about it was he would get mad at the machine, not me, for limiting his food.

I eventually gave it up because it seemed unfair that the normal weight cat could always eat but my fat cat got the lid closed on him after a few bites.

[hoopoe]

wool chewing and sucking can be genetically linked

[Simkie]

@paintedpennypony

That is a really good point about it being a self soothing thing for minor digestive issues

I use pepcid frequently in cats, and think they’re about on par with horses as an animal prone to belly problems.

Especially if the holidays were stressful in some way–visitors, change in routine, change in food–adding pepcid to his food for a couple weeks sure won’t hurt, and could help.

[red_mares]

Siamese are prone to pica. We had a cat as a kid who loved to eat yarn - that was made into socks or a sweater. He would open closet doors & eat the cuffs. Somehow, he digested it. Colored socks apparently tasted better than white ones. The only thing we could do was try & keep everything out of reach - and learn how to patch holes. I had a lot of sweaters with 3/4 length sleeves.

Current cats both like wire, so I’ve used plastic cord organizers to protect many of them. One likes sheer stuff, like organza ribbon. As a kitten, she chewed on the sheers hanging on my windows. I tried ChewStop & that didn’t slow her one bit. I realized later I was using a pepper spray to discourage a cat that ate pepperoni. Thankfully, she throws up anything she really shouldn’t have eaten.

I think pipe cleaners as toys have helped a lot - the one plays with them/chews on them all the time. Best thing in life for this cat is to pull all 25 or 30 pipe cleaners out of the bag. It is amazing though, how loud a cat chewing on a pipe cleaner ball is, especially if they are on your bed.

It does seem to get better as they age.

[paintedpennypony]

We got hampers with lids, have been feeding him just the one brand of wet food, and his probiotic gets here on Friday so will report back but so far so good!