Why does a cat do this?

Question

Our feline keeps chewing power cords. She just chewed through a headphone power cord. She chews the metal around erasers. So far she has not chewed through anything plugged in.
Any suggestions?

She's teething? At almost 4 yrs old?
Wow!

I looked at web page and the closest I can come to it is Maine Coon. I didn't get her until she was @ 1yr old.
I do not know if she did this before that.
We have noticed that there are times she will do it specifically to get our attention to feed her. When she thinks it is time.
We used to have a clock with metal hands... and if she felt it was getting close to time to be fed she would jump in front of the clock and bite the hands and move them.

By the way she was usually within 15 min. of the time to be fed.

Answer 1

Pica is the name given to the craving to eat bizzare items and is most commonly experienced by pregnant women. However some cats develop this strange behaviour. Usually it's fabric that they like to chew and eat, but there are those who like to chew cables.

You don't say how old your cat is, but as a kitten did she like to play with cables or similar items? It's possible that an early interest in playing with cables has developed into predatory handling, the end sequence of which is to consume the prey. It's possible that your cat has gone straight from stalking to consumption.

There are a couple of things that you can try to break the habit;

1) Don't allow your cat access to any cables, either cover them with a cable tidy or better still, coat the cables with eucalyptus oil. The smell alone should be enough to deter the cat from wanting to get near the cable let alone chew it. Sometimes doing this for a couple of weeks can help resolve the problem. When you go out, make sure that no electrical cables are plugged in.

2) Shouting at the cat or squirting water at them when you catch them in the act, isn't advised as you may just find the cat resorts to cable chewing in secret.

3) If it's the chewing sensation that your cat enjoys, then try providing her with tough chunks of meat to eat which means she will have to spend more time focused on eating her meals.

4) Try to focus her interest elsewhere by providing her with an attractive range of toys. Those laced with catnip can be irresistible to some cats.

5) If your cat is allowed outside at all, encourage her to spend a little more time in your garden as this will obviously focus her interests elsewhere.

Out of interest, is your cat an oriental breed? Pica is most commonly experienced among Siamese and Burmese and is thought to possibly be an inherited disposition in the oriental breeds.

Hope some of these suggestions help. Good luck.

Answer 2

Has she been doing it for long? She's obviously not teething at the age of 4, but may have a problem with her teeth and chewing on cords helps alleviate the irritation. I'd get her checked over at the vets just in case.

Answer 3

They a attracted to stringy things thanks ceevee I used to buy a new mouse
( back in the day when no cordless were available) every two or three weeks as My cat midnite loved to play with and bite any cord he found. The last cord he played with was when he played with set of us army issue WWII dog tags he was flipping them up in the air randomly and he would run after them. He did a nice toss behind a chair and when He grabbed the chain it dropped onto a electric plug that wasn't pushed in all the way and the sound of a arc welder with flash came from behind the chair, Out he came smoking and smelling like burnt hair. That was the last time he messed with cords of any type. He stuck with string and small rope from then on.

Answer 4

I had a cat that did that too. But she liked anything that looked stringy, like shoelaces, electrical cords. Since she never chewed all the way thru, she never got shocked, but it always worried me. I kept unplugging cords, or hiding them. My vet gave me some stuff to spray on the cord (if they are not in terrible, exposed condition) that he uses to keep animals from chewing on their bandages. It worked. I also heard there is some thing called Green Apple, I thought, at health food stores, but I couldn't track that down. Good luck!

Answer 5

If she's chewing electric cables and might get electrocuted then think about aversion therapy - you can hang around with a plant mister and spray her with water when she starts (try not to let her know it's you, it's not punishment, it's just "bad things happen when I do this").

You can also buy bitter apple sprays (like this: http://www.petplanet.co.uk/product.asp?dept_id=477&pf_id=0957 ) to stop pets chewing things by making them taste really bad - these might work too and are probably easier than misting your cat.

Our cats like to chew random things too; they've not moved on to cords yet, but they do chew houseplants, pencils and anything made of rubber... Good luck!

Answer 6

She must like the taste of metal...
If she happens to chew on a cord that's plugged, I'm sure she won't do it no more...

Answer 7

You might want to go buy that kitty a few toys and maybe she will chew on those instead of your cords

Answer 8

She is teething ask your local vet for something for her to chew on.Best of luck Sam

Answer 9

I know how annoying it is to have your cat eat things that are dangerous, just try and see if you can sort of hide the wires from your cat.

Answer 10

Maybe she thinks you spend too much time with electronics..lol Who knows cats do very funny things.