This is the first cat I have ever had who eats things: if it falls on the floor, even if it is not food…Sei will possibly nab it and eat it.
We had a strand of green corrugated Christmas ribbon turn up when we moved the chairs. Eight inches of green 1/4 inch corrugated Christmas ribbon. I chased that cat through three rooms and couldn’t get hold of him to prevent him swallowing that ribbon.
When I did finally catch him he was licking his chops and quite smug about it all.
24 hours later, yep…
Long as the ribbon and not just its colors comes out too….
Luckily Mao tse-Tung and the Foxtrot brother kittens don’t seem particularly inclined to eat string but “Mousie” loves grass and therefore hacks up his dinner at times after a nice, grass “chaser” like this morning.
Naughty kitty spawn! 😀
I really dislike the cricket legs that are spewed up after crunching up the cricket. It’s just the legs, mind. Wings, thorax, heat, etc seem to be digestible.
Head, of course, not heat.
The problem of cats eating inappropriate things is more common than one might think. Our vet explained that cats that are taken from their mothers too soon are particularly vulnerable. So far, one of our cats has undergone two operations to remove things that he has eaten. He is particularly fond of baby pacifiers and string which, fortunately, don’t require operations. However, a foil wrapped package of almonds eaten as a single unit almost did him in.
We have learned to be VERY quick and careful about pills with this cat lurking near. That is serious stuff.
OTOH, Sei’s—performance—did really worry Shu, who followed him about howling mightily that something was really wrong with Sei. It took the ribbon hours to, ahem, exit.
with all of the medications I have in my medicine cabinet, I cannot be too careful around the cats. It’s one thing if it were easy to spot, but some of them are small, but no less dangerous for felines. I do all of my pill pouring over the bathroom sink. that way, if I drop one, well, either I can quickly recover it, or it’s down the drain and of no potential danger to any of the cats.
On the good side, when it comes time to pill-the-cat, Sei may be the exception to the rule that says that cats are almost impossible to pill. As my vet days, “The easiest cat (to pill) is harder than the hardest dog …”
Lol—that’s for sure. Cats have the ability to retain a pill in their cheek, undissolved, for an amazingly long time—then spit it into a potted palm when you’re not looking.
Be careful. The cat belonging to a friend of mine swallowed the string that had been on a roast. The next day she had one end hanging out of her mouth and the other out of her rear end. Fortuitously she did it the night before she was to go into the vet to be spayed so both problems were taken care of with one visit.
Another friend had a dog who ate her pantyhouse and unfortunately did not survive the encounter; she died after the surgery.
one can think of all sorts of nasty images…..spin the kitty?
I have the opposite problem. While mine will occasionally go after odds and ends as toys and curiosities, they hardly ever go for any table scraps. Bacon is one exception. Why they wouldn’t accept cooked meat scraps or eggs, though, puzzles me. I have had other cats that didn’t like eggs, though. I did have one cat who had a strange thing for potato chips, which I thought were probably not good for him.
Anyway, very glad Sei is fine and Shu is no longer howling that Sei is not fine. Good indicators both.
Glad everything is o.k. with the kittehs and that they are buddies again.
Kiki and Friendly are “normal” (Is there really such a critter?) kittehs. They just want to eat continually. As I have said before this is this first group of pusses I have had who are all rescued. I think the overeating is due to times spent in the wild where food is chancy. Aloysius will eat anything as long as it resembles food. A potato left out by mistake, chewed through the skin, eaten and left on the floor for me to step on in my bare feet. Excitement ensued! Winter-pup wants to eat anything and everything, in particular toys and the high density foam couch cushions. There’s something about the mouth texture she likes, but we have to watch her carefully….heaven knows what Christmas will bring!
The woman at the shelter where we adopted Winter told us of her cat who ate a bag of jelly beans which congealed in the cat”s stomach. Surgery was needed to remove the mess. But the cat did not learn any lessons from it!
@Ben….kittehs do have odd tastes. Kiki doesn’t like clam juice or clams. One of our previous guys would not touch chicken…..did not even chase birds!
Stuff it down, carry it home, throw it up behavior. Comes of living without pockets, I swear.
We are duly warned: I think I will grow some grass for Sei. Animals don’t see color as we do, but that was green ribbon. And he was very determined about it.
Shu will eat just about any green vegetable, prefers broccoli and green peas. He also favors chips and rice puffs. And any kibble ever made. Not so keen on Sei’s canned food served in the evening, however: he doesn’t feel he’s had supper unless he’s had a few kibbles.
I had a friend whose cat ate some embroidery thread with a similar result a la Sei, but her cat totally flipped out over the trailing effect. She had a miserable time repeatedly catching cat and snipping bits of floss — and threw away the scissors when it was all over.
I make sure no thread is ever left out — too many other stories of blockages.
Marley in my picture will try any people food. I swear he was a dog in a past life — peas, potatoes (diced, raw out of the can on the counter that were going into chicken pot pie — impressively he didn’t knock over the can but a good inch was missing), pineapple chunks also out the can on the counter for an Asian dish (we no longer leave stuff on counter unattended), and will mug you for that cantaloupe or watermelon. I had one other cat who loved cantaloupe, but pineapple? He wasn’t impressed by a corn kernal. Thank all the small gods non-organics are playthings only. If it’s not meat or official Kitty treats the girls aren’t interested.
OK. I will ante up. I have a cat that eats paper (Gobi, AKA Pu). Any kind, but he seems especially fond of tissues and toilet paper (for which reason I have to keep my bathroom doors closed). If I leave paper in the printer tray, I run the risk of having the corners munched, and he can recognize the sound of scissors cutting paper at a surprising distance. He practically goes nuts wanting the cut off bits to munch. I have fond memories of having to call up the telephone company to find the amount of my bill because the little schmu had eaten more than half of it, including the part that contained that relevant bit of info. Needless to say, the phone rep got quite a good life out of that. When I first got him as a kitten, I got a package of little felt balls because they were light and seemed appropriate for a small kitten to be batting about. They kept disappearing. I just happened to be in the kitchen when he ralphed up the lot — must have been at least six of them! — Didn’t buy any more of those! My first two kittehs, littermates, loved refried beans, especially my sweet Jett, and his sister Shadow was mad for fried chicken. Jett also had a sweet tooth for margarine. I learned the hard way not to leave any kind of buttered bread unattended. More than once I discovered that “someone” had licked the margarine off. Both those sweet kitteh souls have since crossed over the Rainbow Bridge, but ol’ Pu just turned 13. He’s never been much of a jumper, but it’s now taking a noticeably more concerted effort for him to get up on the bathroom cabinet. Stormy always seems to know when I’ve been eating crackers or bread, and takes it upon herself to leap up into my lap and clean up the crumbs. Jaks T. Hoover is so named for his habit of hoovering the rug. . .He has learned the dead bugs are not worth eating, though –thankfully! I have heard people mentioning that one of their kittehs is a wool eater, so evidently it’s a fairly common phenomenon, but my boys seem to have a thing for twist ties, and Stormy has tried repeatedly to eat my “loose” tape measure — the kind you have to coil up manually. Seems like the kitteh motto is eat first, you can always barf it up later if it’s “unsuitable.”
Oh, and it’s only a matter of time until we get a rewrite of the lyrics to “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” . . .
Froggie Cat, who passed away at the end of February, loved eating tissue paper. He then used to barf paper mache! For years, we didn’t have any toilet paper out but tucked it in under the sink cabinet an easy arm’s reach away. Perhaps the hardest habit to break right now with him gone is automatically reaching under the sink rather than to paper holder on the other side of the user. Mousie, on the other hand, is a confirmed “fiber artiste” and is always digging around looking for my knitting yarn. The installation art he then does around the table and chair rungs is quite, ah, impressive… unless it is your knitting project!
“Why Cats Paint: a Theory of Feline Aesthetics” 😀