
Dealing With Dominant and Anxious Cat Behavior
Cats will wrestle and play with each other and sometimes even get a little rough, but tha...
While it's normal for cats to chew on everything—even things that aren't meant to be chewed—sometimes, the behavior can get out of hand. It's potentially dangerous to the cat, not to mention damaging to your belongings.
However, since cats explore with their mouths, they're going to chew on things. There are a few possible medical conditions that may cause excessive chewing in cats, including teething in kittens. Yet the top cause of chewing in house cats is boredom, which is relatively easily remedied.
Before settling on boredom as the reason for your cat's chewing habit, take it to the veterinarian to rule out a medical issue.
If there's no underlying medical cause, chances are you've got a bored cat on your hands. It may not seem like a kitten could get into too much trouble chewing, but there are some serious hazards around the house you may be overlooking.
The most common objects of kittens' chewing are wires, cords, houseplants, and fabric or leather furniture. Each item requires a slightly different approach to prevent the cat from chewing.
The Spruce / Melissa Ling
Cats usually find cords and wires to chew on, especially if left alone during the day. Try to provide plenty of "play alone" toys for your cat or kitten, including wall or door-mounted toys they can swat or bat around, cat towers to explore, with attached toys for added interest, or even an arrangement of cardboard boxes on the floor to form a tunnel, with holes cut through the sides. Toys that dispense treats are a great way to satisfy their hunting instincts.
To handle the cord situation itself, you need to devise a way to cover the cords, discourage access to them, or make them unpalatable for chewing.
Cats have a natural desire for greenery to chew, and your live houseplants might become a target. Some of these plants can be extremely toxic to cats, and for your cat's safety, you need to learn to recognize and get rid of these plants.
Check this list of toxic plants to see if any of your houseplants are on it, then either discard or make those plants completely unavailable to your cat.
Wool chewing falls under the realm of OCD. For the kind of chewing behavior we're discussing here, the best way to discourage such behavior is to offer other "legal" chewing sources for your cat, e.g. chewable soft toys.
If you can't put away all the fabric and leather items your cat likes to chew on, try some bitter apple spray on the area where it usually chews, but test it first on a small hidden seam to ensure it doesn't stain.
There's one item that works wonders with kittens' teething: plastic drinking straws, especially the large ones used for milkshakes. They provide the crunchy contact kittens need, and they make a great interactive toy.
You can derive lots of interactive play by teasing your kitten with the straw, then letting him "capture" it and watching him proudly carry around his "prey." Adult cats may remember their straws, so it's not unusual to see one of them batting one around the floor.
Although most often effective with dogs, clicker training can be used in cats. Usually a small, hand-held device, the clicker can be used to make a clicking noise when the animal performs the desired behavior. For clicker training to be effective, the click must be immediately followed by a treat for the animal, so it learns to associate the action and the click with a positive experience. Eventually, the treat can be phased out.
Hitting and yelling are not effective in most animals, particularly not in cats, who will not associate bad behavior with the negative reinforcement you intend.
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