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Old 01-20-2017, 11:19 PM
 
Location: Edmonds, WA
8,975 posts, read 10,111,398 times
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This is probably the most bizarre question I've ever asked... but recently one of my cats, every morning, LICKS the blinds. I have the cheap vinyl horizontal blinds. He licks them most mornings before I wake up and has been doing it for the past few months. I have to think it's a behavioral thing. I'm a heavy sleeper so his morning feeding meows do not always wake me up as early as he would prefer. However, the abrasive sound of a cat's tongue on the blinds is the grossest sound in the world and ALWAYS wakes me up. How he discovered this as a way to wake me up defies logic to me which makes me wonder if it is truly an attention-seeking behavior. Still, that he only does it in the early morning and never at any other time of day is interesting.

Now of course, the simple solution is to just put up those cloth blinds. However, those additions require installing additional hardware into the wall and I'm moving out of my place in a few months and would have to restore to original condition and would rather minimize the wall damage.

So barring that, I'm wondering if anyone else has had this rather strange problem and if you have found a way to address it. And if not, I'd welcome any suggestions on behavior modification besides throwing a pillow in his general direction which is obviously not the right thing to do and moreover only stops it for about thirty seconds. It's not just that I think it's gross... I've cleaned those blinds before and they can get a bit of dust and other gunk that I'd rather not have him ingesting. I'm truly at a loss.
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Old 01-21-2017, 07:26 AM
 
11,187 posts, read 19,346,707 times
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If you think he's hungry, get a timed feeder, they come with ice packs for wet/raw feeding. Set it for an hour before you get up.

He was probably messing with them once, and it woke you, so he did it again, and since it worked he has kept on doing it.
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Old 01-21-2017, 07:59 AM
 
11,187 posts, read 19,346,707 times
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He may be doing it at other times of day, when you are not there. Could be a form of Pica.
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Old 01-21-2017, 11:08 AM
 
Location: Edmonds, WA
8,975 posts, read 10,111,398 times
Reputation: 14246
Quote:
Originally Posted by catsmom21 View Post
He may be doing it at other times of day, when you are not there. Could be a form of Pica.
Yeah, I don't know... I was recently sick with a cold and stayed home with them for a few days and he didn't do it. I would be surprised if it's PICA since he's an extremely picky eater even with cat food and has otherwise shown no interest in anything else, edible or otherwise, besides the blinds of course.

I do have automated feeders so I might just do that.
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Old 01-21-2017, 10:16 PM
 
98 posts, read 196,823 times
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My older female would lick one of my lampshades nearly every day; I just figured it was some quirky thing she did. It didn't make her ill or anything. Eventually I had to replace the lampshade and she stopped doing it. I would suggest replacing the blinds.
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