My cat thinks he's hungry, so he eats drywall

October 1, 2007 8:58 PM

How can I stop my cat from eating everything he finds that is smaller than his head?

If he can fit it in his mouth, he'll eat it. Besides stealing any food he can from our plates and any trash bins (including wrappers), he usually eats paper and plastic he finds or steals from us, and of course bugs. But now he's eating drywall, screws, and wood splinters. (We're renovating a bit.) He'll also chew up books and newspaper left out, not to mention electrical cords.

I do my best to pick up anything that could harm him and put it away where he can't get it, but he always seems to find something I missed. If he can't find anything to eat, he'll eat the carpet.

Yes, he puts his face down and chews on the carpet, pulling up the stuff and eating it. There is threadbare carpet in spots he loves.

I know we feed him enough, our vet even told us in the past that we overfed our cats so we have them on a diet of one can of food a day. I can't imagine he's actually so hungry he needs to eat carpet to survive. What the hell is he doing?

Any tips on getting him to eat only "cat food" and not people food and non-food items?

posted by jesirose to pets & animals (14 comments total)

One can of food a day?

Cats need at least 6 oz of food a day, and most cans of cat food I've seen are 3 oz cans.

Your kitty might actually be that hungry. Other than that, it sounds like he might have a vitamin deficiency. What food are you feeding him?
posted by winna at 9:24 PM on October 1, 2007

I had a cat that did that as well. He wasn't cured of it until the time he needed surgery to remove the things from his tummy. After that, he left non-food items alone.

On the plus side, he lived for another 20 years after that, even with all the people food he filched.
posted by Peecabu at 9:34 PM on October 1, 2007

Does he have pica? In the article it also says something about pica in pets as being a sign of Warm Antibody Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia.
posted by GooseOnTheLoose at 9:49 PM on October 1, 2007

winna: It's Friskies (I just ran and grabbed a can and it is 5.5 oz, so I think it is okay). We used to feed two cans, until our other cat started going nuts acting like he was starving all the time. We took him to the vet who said he was overweight and we were feeding him too often and too much. He said only one can at night. Ever since then, they act nuts at 8pm but not all the time. (you know, besides regular cat-crazy.)

Every vet we have ever seen says both cats are healthy weights, and they are pretty much in good health. Muscular, but not bony. I think the other one is 11 lbs and this one is about 9lbs but he is still not full grown, he's almost a year I guess. He's pretty small framed.

peecabu: That is amazing, and so good that he was okay in the end.
posted by jesirose at 9:52 PM on October 1, 2007

GooseOnTheLoose: Thanks for the link! I had heard of that but I didn't make the connection that it might occur in animals too. I guess I thought it was more of a mental thing than a biological problem.

I think it's time to take him back to the vet and ask for some tests I guess. I don't want him to have that anemia problem :( I always feel like the vets we see think I act like a nervous mommy, but I want our pets to be healthy just like a mom would her human babies, so I don't care if they think I'm nuts, lol.
posted by jesirose at 9:56 PM on October 1, 2007

(Not a vet)

Lidded trash cans help, along with being disciplined about keeping potential edibles away from the cat. My two girls are nuts about plastic bags and zip ties, so I keep those things away from them.

Chewing electrical cables can be very bad. You may want to apply bitter apple or 1/2" diameter "wire loom jacket" to the cables. Wire loom jacket is that corrugated plastic tubing with a slit along one side, used for cable management, via:
http://www.vetinfo4cats.com/catchew.html

Regarding the carpet, long fibers, such as string or yarn, can injure a cat by tangling in the gi tract and then cutting it up. You may want to start trimming the long dangly bits.
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:27 PM on October 1, 2007

Question: when he's eating the carpet, is he also kneading with his paws? I wonder if you can give him some sort of safe"binkie" as a substitute, if he's behaving as a kitten in this way.

We need a "odd behavior of cats" tag, don't we? Mine puts his favorite toys in the food bowl, and then pretends that he's eating them.
posted by thebrokedown at 10:40 PM on October 1, 2007

We need a "odd behavior of cats" tag, don't we? Mine puts his favorite toys in the food bowl, and then pretends that he's eating them.

He's treating the toys as surrogate prey. Kibble tastes better if you've killed it yourself, apparently.
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:52 PM on October 1, 2007 [2 favorites]

We're convinced that our cat has pica. He certainly gets enough to eat and the vet always wants us to put him on a diet, and yet he continues to eat inappropriate things like blankets and clothing. He's always hungry and would never turn down a meal. He would also get annoying when he thought it was food time. (We think this is related to his time being a stray as a kitten).

What has worked best for us is multiple small meals throughout the day. We bought the Petsafe 5 meal feeder and load it up with wet and dry. Now he doesn't pester us for food anywhere near as much and has mostly stopped with the pica issues.
posted by dereisbaer at 4:29 AM on October 2, 2007

One thing you might want to try is to give him grass. My kitties used to eat plastic bags like crazy until I started keeping a little tray of sprouted wheat grass around. Now they crunch on that and leave the other stuff alone. I suspect they just needed a little bit more fiber, and something about the texture of non-food items suggested it.
posted by TheNewWazoo at 4:30 AM on October 2, 2007

sebastienbailard: We have lids on the ones we use for food, he opens them sometimes. My husband doesn't want to spend $100 on a trash can. It's not the food so much I'm worried about as the non-food things like the plaster.

thebrokedown: No he's not kneading, he does that plenty on his beds and blankies. (as I said he's not quite a year old, but I think he still does this a lot more than most cats. He is a little baby.) He actually pulls it up with his teeth and eats it, instead of sucking on it like a blanket. It's so weird. Also, my dad's cat used to do the same thing with his toys, only he'd put them in the water bowl too. That is so funny!

Hopefully we're going to get hardwood in the near future.

dereisbaer: I know what you mean, he acts like he's starving when it's food time but I know he's getting enough to eat. Thank you for the suggestion, I will see what my hubby thinks about trying the 5 meal thing.

Thanks TheNewWazoo, maybe I will try that too!
posted by jesirose at 6:28 AM on October 2, 2007

I ditto the catgrass idea. It may redirect his behaviour and help with the carpet chewing.

Some cats, most cats, like to chew on green stuff. I grow pots of oats and barley for them to chew on. It's cheap as anything---a couple of 1$ packets last a year---but keeping the plants healthy is a bit of challenge with the constant grazing. It also doesn't help that one of my girls likes to lie on the grass.
posted by bonehead at 6:43 AM on October 2, 2007

I really disagree with your vet's recommendation to feed him once a day. I'm not a vet, however it's generally accepted by most veterinary professionals and those knowledgeable about animal nutrition (which often does NOT include vets) that twice per day feedings are preferable for almost all companion animals, especially those who eat too quickly or who seem hungry all the time. If your cat is doing this because he's hungry, I suggest you start feeding him twice a day (which means splitting his daily ration into two meals, not feeding him twice as much), and put him on a higher-quality food. You might consider something with a higher fibre content like w/d (which is a prescription diet) or adding fibre to his diet (like canned pumpkin, not pie filling just plain canned pumpkin), which might help him feel more full.

I'd also find a better vet (yours sounds like he might be a few years behind the times to me) and get a thorough exam and blood workup to make sure that this isn't a medical problem.
posted by biscotti at 9:47 AM on October 2, 2007

I have a kitty with the same problem. She ate some thread one day (right off the sewing machine!) and it got caught up in her intestines and started cutting her from the inside. She made it through surgery and beat her way through nearly impossible odds and is back to normal a year later. Well, too normal. She's still eating everything that she can get her mouth around.

When I asked the vet about this, he said that she simply cannot be allowed to chew on anything that's not in her food bowl. I also can't give her cat grass because the vet feels that would confuse her if I allowed that and disciplined her for chewing the carpet. He said that she will probably always have this habit and that the best we can do is discourage and discipline. Most of all we must keep small items off the floor and put trash cans behind doors. If we see her pulling up carpet threads, we have to swoop them up and throw them away.

Anyway, that's my situation at the moment and I thought I'd share the info the vet gave me. I hope that you find a more simple solution to your kitty's habit!
posted by bristolcat at 11:55 AM on October 2, 2007