Even if you cannot change the source of stress (you’re not giving the new baby back, are you?) there may be steps you can take to ameliorate the stress your cat is experiencing. If you believe stress or frustration is causing your cat to eat plastic, try to identify the cause and then address it.
Has your cat experienced the death of a family member? Have you recently moved, or even just moved the furniture? Have you changed jobs? (If so, read, “ Separation Anxiety in Cats.”) Is there some kind of relentless, subtle conflict between your cat and another cat or dog in the household? Have there been changes to your living situation, like the addition of new baby? (If so, read, “ Do cats get jealous?”). Look at your cat’s world from his perspective. Perhaps stress is behind your cat’s plastic eating. Tire your cat out both physically and mentally. Consider training your cat to perform a trick. Provide hiding spaces (which is why I make cardboard box playhouses), things to chew on ( like these silvervine sticks), and toys to hunt (like these fishing rod toys). Is your cat batting around the plastic ring from a milk jug? Is he shredding a plastic bag?Ĭreate vertical spaces for cats to perch, like this window seat. Even though they are highly processed, it’s possible they still smell like food to cats. There are also “biodegradable” plastics that are made from corn. These include some strange chemicals like oleic acid and stearamide, which may be made from rendered animal fats. This is because plastic bags are manufactured with “slip agents” to keep them from sticking together. Įven if you didn’t bring groceries home in your plastic bags, they might still smell like good eating to cats. Cats have 200 million odor sensors in their noses humans have only 5 million. Maybe a little of the dried milk from the outside of the jug flaked off into the bag. Maybe a little meat juice leaked onto them from that Saran-wrapped Styrofoam tray of ground beef. If you’ve carried your groceries home in yours, they probably smell and taste like whatever you brought home from the store.
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