Hey Pet Parents and Pet Lovers,
If you’ve been reading for a while, you’ll already know I’ve been giving updates about Beau’s chewing habits. Recently we made a number of changes in Beau’s life such as feeding him 2/3 of food instead of 1/2 and most recently we’ve brought it back to 1/2, but feeding a food that expands more in his stomach (Performatrin Ultra Lamb and Brown Rice).
It’s really difficult to find the exact feeding amount you should be giving your cat, especially if they have specific needs. For example. With 2/3 of food Beau was not eating cloth and plastic, but he did become very inactive. He started lying around the house instead of playing and showed very little interest in actually making an effort to run or exercise. This is extremely troublesome to me as Beau is usually a very active cat (one who likes to play on his own and run around the house). Yesterday I started feeding Beau less again, but alas he started chewing on my bed sheets again. Honestly it’s extremely embarrassing to show you what the bed sheets look like, but I’ll probably upload a picture soon (my significant other is currently sleeping.)
I have made the decision to feed Beau a tiny bit more. Hopefully this will be the perfect balance of more food without making him gain weight or make him feel lazy. Tomorrow will be the first day I feed Beau 1/4 of BLUE Salmon and Sweet Potato and 1/3 of Performatrin Ultra Lamb and Brown Rice. Hopefully that will do the trick! Considering how playful he was tonight (now that his food was cut back) I hope he continues being playful even with this slight increase of food.
I’m also considering buying some bitter apple or bitter cherry spray. I tried them at work and man are they gross. My worry is that Beau wouldn’t want to sit in our bed anymore or that he wouldn’t actually get the taste if it’s not sprayed all over the sheets. My other worry is that he won’t relate our bed sheet to ALL cloth items. We want to make sure he doesn’t chew on kleenex, or towels, or clothes, etc anymore and if the spray only deters him away from the bedsheets… well then it’s pretty much useless!
Either way. Anyone else have a cat with a chewing issue? What did you do?
Oaryn says
March 31, 2018 at 8:03 amMy boy kitty Rotell seems to eat anything! Clothes, stuffed animals, his toys, pillow cases!!! He has a sibling to play with, more toys then any cat I have ever had and the cloth eating continues. I dont know what to do. He is about a year old and we have had him and his sister since they were 10-12 weeks old.
Johnny Salib says
March 31, 2018 at 11:28 amHave you tried changing up his eating schedule? I wrote a longer article with some extra ideas you may want to try. Also always more than happy to listen to more specifics like when he chews, how often, etc!
Natalia says
March 6, 2018 at 2:33 pmHi, i was hoping there were more comments here, my cat has the same thing and it has always been tricky, i have been very much trained, im all love with him, but when i find him eating something i go all NO! in a loud and powerful way and it helps him understand something is wrong, and not long after that its all love again. Concerning the toys i have trouble with almost everything thats in the market, my cat plays with bottle caps, i also found a little fishing pole thingy with a plastic worm, he played with that for a bit until it broke, sadly it was too heavy, i also have a few palm tree leaves that were dry in my bathroom out of reach, but i take them out just to play with him, same with tiny string balls, he almost died eating one, so i very rarelly use them, i have to find the ball everytime, so i freak if i cant find it..anyways,i got a second cat and they play in the morning and at night, i have noticed his chewing has gone down, and also i have been feeding him earthborn food for abour 2-3 years and i believe it has helped quite a bit. My vet said he could have a vitamin deficiency more than having the pica itself, ..anyways, those are a few tips i could give you. Oh, from time to time i give him a bit of tuna,ham, chicken or meat, not too much, just to keep him interested in food, and no, he couldnt be more lean, i also check up on his vomiting, and see what he ate, its tough but you gotta be carefull with what you leave behind D:
Johnny Salib says
March 6, 2018 at 7:19 pmAbsolutely and thanks for the comment. I actually wrote a longer post about our situation and how it has been since this post. You can check it out here. We’ve gotten him to a point where he doesn’t chew at all (unless he hasn’t eaten for a very long time.) I find it interesting that your kitty didn’t chew so much when you got another cat. Unfortunately, when Beau lived with Walker the chewing was much worse. I’m really hoping that won’t be true if/when we introduce a new kitty…