How can I stop my cat from eating plastic?

Question

One of my cats will eat anything that is soft plastic. He will eat shopping bags, cellophane wrappers, anything. Fortunately, he hasn't had any issues. I've seen plastic in his poop, so when he eats it, at least it passes. Once I heard him gagging somewhat in the middle of the night. I got up and saw him with a couple inch strip of plastic hanging out of his mouth. He was happily munching it down. I grabbed it and started pulling it out of his mouth. It was 3-4 feet long. He had gotten into the trash and ate the cellophane wrapper from a large box.

I have gotten in the habit of making sure there is never any plastic around, but every once in a while he finds some.

How can I teach him not to eat plastic?

Also I want to know, what is causing my cat to eat plastic?

Answer 1

That can be very dangerous....

Removing any items of plastic that could be of interest is your best bet.

After that smearing other ones with obnoxious stuff might help but takes more effort and may not work as well. Most cats find citrus oils to be "obnoxious" so rubbing an item with a citrus peel can make it seem "disgusting" to at least most cats.

I think it will be very difficult to "teach" him not to eat plastic. I think he smells it as some fatty substance (which cats love). You may be able to get him to associate the sheets and whatnot with something not to deal with. You can scold him when he goes after an item (has to be immediate or he won't know what this is about).

Good luck.

Answer 2

This is a medical order disorder called "pica" (humans can have it as well). You will find plenty of advice Googling for pica in cats. I have a pica cat myself and unfortunately I don't think you can get rid of this behavior.

However it may possibly be connected to malnutrition and if not doing so already, feeding high quality cat food may help, and wont hurt your cat in any case. What high quality cat food is, is an entirely different topic though but, for starters, avoid any food with sugar.

Answer 3

I have a cat that does that too...I just try not to leave things like that out. Because he is a total nut. He loves tape. and plastic bags. And he is very healthy. the best thing is try not to leave that kind of thing out for him to get into.