Cat Eats Paper

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~ narnia ~ - 06 Sep 2004 23:04 GMT

My 3 year old male cat has developed a paper-eating fixation and he's
driving me crazy. He is well-fed, has a sister to play with, and gets
a lot of attention and love. All the papers on my desk have teeth
marks on them.

Has anyone had this problem and solved it? Thanks!

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Cheryl - 06 Sep 2004 23:20 GMT

In the fine newsgroup "rec.pets.cats.health+behav", ~ narnia ~
<narnia@nyc.rr.com> artfully composed this message within
<news:01opj01gp6tm33cr9q5e85j5ta1rarir1f@4ax.com> on 06 Sep 2004:

> My 3 year old male cat has developed a paper-eating fixation and
> he's driving me crazy. He is well-fed, has a sister to play
> with, and gets a lot of attention and love. All the papers on my
> desk have teeth marks on them.
>
> Has anyone had this problem and solved it? Thanks!

I'd kind of hate to state the obvious, but how about put the papers
away? ;) Seriously, though, whenever mine (usually Shamrock)
developes a fixation on something, I just remove all temptation and
then he forgets about it for a while. But being the smart creatures
that they are, if they start to see the object of their desire
again even long after the "fixation" has ended, it could start up
again. Shamrock's "fixation" is anything up on a certain table top,
or my dresser, that is small enough for him to knock over and watch
fall to the floor. Usually jewelry. It used to be my living room
coffee table that he couldn't stand to see anything on top of. He's
better about it, but still sometimes insists anything on it needs
to be on the floor.

Signature

Cheryl

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~ narnia ~ - 06 Sep 2004 23:46 GMT

>In the fine newsgroup "rec.pets.cats.health+behav", ~ narnia ~
><narnia@nyc.rr.com> artfully composed this message within
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
>better about it, but still sometimes insists anything on it needs
>to be on the floor.

You can't imagine how much paper you have around your house until you
have to hide it! Whatever can be put away was hidden after the first
teeth marks started to appear. Newspapers are thrown away immediately
after being read, and I have to fend the demon off from eating as I'm
reading! He even eats the mail as I'm opening it. It's a race to see
who gets to it first, and he usually wins.

I guess I have to wait him out and hope he gets bored with this
eventually. I can't wait to see what his next obsession is...

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Karen Younge - 07 Sep 2004 02:10 GMT

> >In the fine newsgroup "rec.pets.cats.health+behav", ~ narnia ~
> ><narnia@nyc.rr.com> artfully composed this message within
[quoted text clipped - 29 lines]
> I guess I have to wait him out and hope he gets bored with this
> eventually. I can't wait to see what his next obsession is...

Well, if it isn't practical to hide all the papers, perhaps you could
"hide" the
cat (shut in the bathroom for a short time) while you are opening mail
that
needs not to have teethmarks in it, or reading the paper (if his chewing
on
it while you are reading is annoying).

Are most of the papers in a home office or other room that could be
closed
off from the cat so he just has no opportunity to eat them?
Karen

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Theresa - 07 Sep 2004 16:03 GMT

> In the fine newsgroup "rec.pets.cats.health+behav", ~ narnia ~
> <narnia@nyc.rr.com> artfully composed this message within
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
> better about it, but still sometimes insists anything on it needs
> to be on the floor.

My sweetie, McDuffy, is part goat, I swear. We have to keep all
important papers up high or he will eat them. he especially likes
toilet paper but has trouble getting it off the roll. I'm an enable.
If I see him looking longingly, I'll roll it down a few inches so he
can chew away. My husband is a teacher and he has had to return
student's work with teeth marks. thank god, kids have a sense of
humor. someone here mentioned a fixation with underwear. smitten loves
socks but, if she can't find socks to carry around, she'll go for bras
and panties.

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Bill Stock - 06 Sep 2004 23:39 GMT

> My 3 year old male cat has developed a paper-eating fixation and he's
> driving me crazy. He is well-fed, has a sister to play with, and gets
> a lot of attention and love. All the papers on my desk have teeth
> marks on them.
>
> Has anyone had this problem and solved it? Thanks!

Both our cats have a thing for cardboard. They love to chew the edges of the
box, although they don't seem to actually swallow it.

We had given Cali a paper ball (crumpled up paper) to play with one time.
She started ripping of strips of paper and spitting them out, Ptooey. The
more we laughed at her, the faster she did it.

As for your problem, like Cheryl said, hie the paper.

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Cathy Friedmann - 07 Sep 2004 00:04 GMT

Not paper; I have 2 cats who are into plastic. My shower curtain liner has
tons of teeth marks along its edges from my male cat, & I need to keep
plastic bags away from my female cat.

Cathy

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Karen Younge - 07 Sep 2004 02:04 GMT

I have a cat who loves plastic grocrery bags. Fortunately she only licks them,

rather than eating them!

The weirdest feline obsession I know of, though, was a kitten I had years ago
that couldn't leave underwear alone. This kitten was a purebred alley
cat--born
in an alley (behind the apartment I lived in my senior year in college), his
mother
was an alley cat, and we have no idea who his father was. Anyway, after I
grad-
uated the kitten and I lived with my parents. My mother kept finding underwear

left at odd spots around the house, and would think to herself that my
personal
habits had gone down the tubes during my college years. When my younger
sister came home on a visit, we finally discovered who the culprit was by
catch-
ing Boots sneaking up the staircase with my sister's unmentionables in his
mouth.

Karen

> > My 3 year old male cat has developed a paper-eating fixation and he's
> > driving me crazy. He is well-fed, has a sister to play with, and gets
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>
> Cathy

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Sherry - 07 Sep 2004 03:43 GMT

>Not paper; I have 2 cats who are into plastic. My shower curtain liner has
>tons of teeth marks along its edges from my male cat, & I need to keep
>plastic bags away from my female cat.
>
>Cathy

I have one chewer. She chewed the mouse cord in two on my computer. We have to
hide electrical cords or cover them. Most recently, my blood pressure was down
to 70/30 and couldn't figure out why. DH figured out why. The blood pressure
cuff cord had about a hundred little holes in it, and if I were to take a
sample, I'd find Bootsie DNA all over it.

Sherry

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