WHY does the cat eat plastic bags???

[Kirsten]

Ugh.... someone tell me how to fix this! Ok, we adopted a cat six(?) months ago. She is our second cat currently, and the fifth cat we've had. None of our other cats have done this, and it is driving us crazy!

She eats plastic bags, and other similar items like candy wrappers or pieces of plastic from toy packaging. Also leaves from our plants. Then she throws up. On every possible item in our house... My dp is SO mad and wants to let her live outside. That ISN'T happening, but the puking is really, really annoying and gross.

Background on her in case it is helpful. She is approximately 1 1/2 or 2 years old. She was found abandoned and pregnant. Had her litter when she was only about a year old. Assume she was fending for herself for a few months, and eating who knows what. She is the absolute SWEETEST cat.

We are of course trying to keep all plastic behind closed closet doors, but I'm hoping to be able to keep my plants. She just seems to find non-edible things to eat. She also will drink out of the toilet if we forget to close the lid, though we are getting our three kids to remember to do that. Food and water is out all the time.

Help!!

[buttercups.nest]

My cat that we've had for 5years constantly licks anything plastic...grocery bags, diaper bags etc. Drives me nuts....I have no idea why or how to stop. Just letting you know you're not the only one!

[lovebug]

mine loves tape, like plastic packing tape.

i dont know why, but here is what i found...

it is from this site: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...4081422AA0BmRL

Not now, but I used to. Then medical term for the voluntary ingestion of non-edible materials is Pica (“PIE-kuh”).

An attraction to plastic is a common scenario encountered by felines. Exactly why cats like plastic remains unknown, although several theories are around. Some people have speculated that cats like the coolness of the plastic, or the texture on their tongue, or perhaps the sound it makes when they lick. The most logical reason I’ve heard, however, is that cats like licking or eating plastic bags because rendered animal fat (also called “tallow”) is utilized during the manufacture of some plastic bags, and that some cats can detect the smell and enjoy the taste. Other versions of this explanation have implicated petroleum products and gelatin as the enticing ingredients. Gelatin, in fact, is used in the manufacture of many items including the emulsion used in photographs, which may explain why some cats enthusiastically lick photos. This has never been confirmed the, tallow-petroleum-gelatin theory, so it could be false. But it sure makes sense.
Source(s):
Am studying to be a doctor

Had a cat with pica

Websites about pica:
http://www.manhattancats.com/Articles/PI…

http://www.vmth.ucdavis.edu/home/beh/fel…

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?…

[Kirsten]

Well, good to know my cat isn't commpletely bizarre and I'm not the only one dealing with this. WISH she would just lick it and not eat it - or else figure out how to more appropriately digest it anyway! Good thing she is such a sweetheart and we've already had three kids and multiple animals. The carpets aren't what they used to be... and I'd be a good ad for the little carpet steamer we have! Ha!

[Theia]

My cat used to love to eat the plastic tab you pull off of a new milk jug when first opening it. I couldn't even do it in secret, he'd hear it and come running and meowing. It started simply with him playing and swatting it across the linoleum floor, and then at some point he started eating them. So my compromise was I'd let him play with it when I first pulled it off but once he started eating it, I'd just throw it away.

[Kirsten]

Oh when we catch her, we definitely take it away! But although we've scoured the house for any small inedible plastic items, she seems to find them... She'll dig them out of the garbage in the bathroom, so anything plastic has to go in the kitchen garbage (behind a closed cabinet). Honestly, that cat can find plastic anywhere.... And with two adults and three kids, things get accidentally left out.

I told my dp that it is the universe trying to help me control my clutter problem...

[_betsy_]

My cats love licking certain types of plastic grocery store style bags. I read somewhere that some plastics are made with fish oils, and the cats like the taste.

Which explains why one of our cats can't be trusted with any clear plastic packing tape!

[Krisis]

We have one cat that does this, our other one is fairly normal

The cat that licks plastic also FREAKS out at aluminum. Like, if I am eating Hershey Kisses and unwrap the foil, that cat is at my side doing that clickclickmeowmeowclick thing that says FEED ME THAT SMALL DELICIOUS ROLLING PIECE OF FUN.

Yeah, I don't get cats. Good thing they're cute.

[MrsMike]

We have the exact same cat. I always figured that mine is a reincarnated labrador puppy.

[buttercups.nest]

Originally Posted by Theia

My cat used to love to eat the plastic tab you pull off of a new milk jug when first opening it. I couldn't even do it in secret, he'd hear it and come running and meowing. It started simply with him playing and swatting it across the linoleum floor, and then at some point he started eating them. So my compromise was I'd let him play with it when I first pulled it off but once he started eating it, I'd just throw it away.

he he mine does this too they don't eat them though! i have found these tabs in my shoes, a stockpile of them under the couches, under the bed etc. cheap toys!