Many chemicals have been put into the environment and into the food chain with limited, if any, knowledge about their safety. Plastics, including those on food packaging, contain phthalates, which disrupt the endocrine system, along with bisphenol A (BPA), which is still used as a lining in canned foods for human consumption, as well as in most cans of pet food. Once a cat develops an addiction to these kinds of materials, the only thing to do is to keep vigilant and store such items out of the cat’s reach. Some cats like to hoard and chew paper money, which is treated with a finishing coat containing animal fat extract. In the case of plastic materials, extracts of animal fats (stearates) are used as a softener, and some animals may detect the odor or taste and find it irresistible. But if there is no identifiable physical cause and only specific materials are chosen to consume, I would diagnose addictive behavior triggered by one or more substances. All of these are possible triggers for pica, or abnormal appetite. The second consideration is possible digestive or inflammatory bowel problems or internal parasites. What can we do to curb her plastic fetish?ĭF: I always advise close examination of the animal’s oral cavity to rule out inflammation or infection that can make some animals want to chew things to help alleviate the discomfort. Of course, she zeroed in on the bag and chewed it up and swallowed the plastic. We discovered that we had inadvertently left a plastic bag of oranges in the fruit bowl - we forgot to take out the fruit and throw the bag away. I jumped up and was horrified to see that she had just vomited up a piece of plastic about 4 inches long by about 1 inch wide. It’s like a cat version of pica.Ī few weeks ago, we were awakened at 4 a.m. When we throw the rings into the garbage, she claws at the can, trying to get at them.
The cat has an obsessive need to gnaw on plastic, rubber bands, twist ties, ribbons, bows and any substance that is plastic or rubbery.įor example, when we bring home bottles held together by plastic rings, Jacky hears us separating the bottles and comes running into the kitchen, jumps onto the counter and tries to bite the plastic. A friend recently suggested that it could be diet- or vitamin-related, so we’re turning to you once again. I’m writing because Jacky has always had a weird fetish. We followed your vitamin and food regimen, and Jacky Paper remains an active cat. Several years ago, you gave us excellent advice about our cat’s low neutrophil level. Real concern calls for responsible action, and with free-roaming cats, that means humane trapping, neutering and holding in quarantine or group housing in sanctuaries where rehabilitation and socialization can lead to many becoming friendly and adoptable. Even neutered “community colonies’’ of cats pose a serious threat to wildlife and to public health. Such feeding encourages cats to congregate and multiply. Those goodhearted people who put out food for stray cats and end up feeding raccoons, opossums and the occasional coyote - which will happily make a meal out of a cat - must realize that their concern for cats amounts to misguided altruism and does more harm than good, as you point out in your letter. More than one dog has died from eating the bones out of the garbage, but coyotes seem to handle such potentially hazardous fare just fine. It is one of many human activities that, as Dan Flores emphasizes in his excellent book “Coyote America,’’ create ideal conditions for some wild species to proliferate, so the war on wildlife will continue.Īll garbage should be put in raccoon-proof containers: These masked bandits are the most dexterous of species in opening containers and spreading the contents out for all to share. I have addressed the issue of people putting out food for free-roaming cats in earlier columns. Maybe then something will be done.ĭF: Yes, it seems the fur must fly before people wake up and act responsibly on many fronts.
Once they do, it’s just a matter of time before small pets start disappearing, as has already happened in the western United States.
#Homeless dog pica free
Eventually, coyotes will catch on that there are free meals from these trash bags and cat food bowls.
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