Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My kitten, Olivia, is 6 months old. I got her when she was 9 weeks. She was spayed in late February.
Since her earliest days, she has bitten blankets (and all cloth items) with her teeth. She doesn't nurse or suck on the blanket. She doesn't knead it with her paws, or hump it. (Two behaviors that I've read sometimes occur in conjunction with blankets.)
She bites it with her teeth, then pulls her head back to pull out some fibers. She has picked my throw blankets, towels, and bathmats to pieces this way. She did it to a straw purse belonging to my mother. She does it to my duvet (and has picked holes in the duvet).
Clearly, it's some sort of entertainment or past-time for her. She enjoys it, I imagine, which is why she does it. When she first started doing it, I thought it was because she was teething, but it has continued into her adult-teeth stage.
It absolutely drives me nuts, ESPECIALLY when she does it in the middle of the night on my bed or early in the morning. I wake up every day to her picking at the blanket with her teeth, and the damage is just getting worse and worse. Unfortunately, short of locking her in a cage, there's no real way to remove her from fabric, at least not in my house. (I used to put her in the bathroom in the middle of the night when she woke up and became active, but she's ruined two bathmats with her picking behavior.)
QUESTIONS:
1. Any idea as to WHY she is doing this? Is this common or something you've dealt with before?
2. How can I dissuade her from this? During hours when I'm awake, I remove her from the fabric and distract her somewhere else with some play. But I can't do that in the middle of the night.
I am fairly certain that my treatment of it up to this point has just reinforced it. For instance, when she used to do it, I would wake up and put her in the bathroom. When she was a kitten, she was very small and she ate numerous small meals, and I would give her some dry kibble when I put her in the bathroom. So... blanket picking = bathroom = food! (Ergo, blanket picking = food.)
As a dog-owner, I prefer positive training techniques over negative ones, but I admit that I am getting so frustrated with this particular behavior that I've turned to a negative "dissuasive" approach regarding the blanket picking. I found a small glass jar, filled it with about 10 dimes, and when she picks, I shake the jar vigorously. The noise startles her and she stops picking.
I have not heard of this kind of biting before, but I applaud you wanting to find positive training techniques instead of negative ones. A couple of thoughts--
Have you tried substituting something she CAN bite on when she does it, maybe a plush toy instead? Perhaps a couple of different toys, so you can have one in the bedroom and one elsewhere.
You said she's past the teething stage, but you could consider buying a mini cat chew toy (yes, they make those). Some of our cats chewed on these when they were kittens.
I don't have any advice for you; just wanted to commiserate. One of our cats is a fabric EATER. We discovered this when we found blankets with gigantic holes in them. I was terrified he was going to have an intestinal obstruction. We tried everything, including drugs for anxiety, but nothing stopped the fabric-eating. We finally put him in a room that has no fabric whatsoever in it. That is the only thing that has "worked". I still catch him nibbling on my clothing -- that I am wearing! -- when he gets the opportunity
Hmmm... Thank you. I appreciate the link to an article focused on my specific problem, but it's not a very helpful article, is it? LOL
Nevertheless, it does suggest growing some cat-friendly grass. She's destroyed all my other plants (except my aloe), but I will try a pot of grass and see if she has an interest in it.
She's on mostly wet food with a little kibble. I may experiment with the pumpkin. If she's not interested, it won't be a loss because my dog will absolutely eat it.
(Interestingly, she doesn't really go after socks, underwear, etc. -- the types of fabrics DOGS go after, because they're so delicious with our sweat and other human leavings. Her thing is blankets, towels, and bathmats.)
Thank you. This article does touch on the fact that sometimes it's not just fabric that the animal will go after, and this resonates. Olivia will shred paper and will occasionally nibble on plastic bags as well.
In her case, she's not sucking at all. Just biting and snagging.
And yes, it's a good idea to let my vet know this is happening so we can be on the lookout for any obstruction issues. (Oy!)
My nearly 14 year old - Miss Lily -from day one has had an affinity to anything which is plush. Slippers, blankets, sweaters, stuffed animals, socks and carpet.
Her carpet fetish is the worst. She pulls each individual tuft out of the carpet with those little front teeth kitties have. Consequently, there's very little carpet in my house. She doesn't eat it.. just pulls it out and leaves it on the floor.
Though she is pure white, her meow is pure Siamese.
My nearly 14 year old - Miss Lily -from day one has had an affinity to anything which is plush. Slippers, blankets, sweaters, stuffed animals, socks and carpet.
Her carpet fetish is the worst. She pulls each individual tuft out of the carpet with those little front teeth kitties have. Consequently, there's very little carpet in my house. She doesn't eat it.. just pulls it out and leaves it on the floor.
Though she is pure white, her meow is pure Siamese.
I had a wool-eating Siamese. My Mom repaired more afghans and mittens and hats for me than I can count!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
LOL 
