Causes of pica in cats
➀. Cats with internal or external parasites, or those suffering from certain endocrine disorders, may develop pica;
② Driven by curiosity, cats will chew on unfamiliar things around them, and if their owners do not stop or correct them, they will gradually develop pica.
③ A deficiency in certain proteins, amino acids, vitamins, and trace elements in a cat's body can also lead to pica;
④. The cat owner's indulgence, or even actively feeding the cat food that it cannot digest or eat, leads to pica.
Cats with pica exhibit behaviors such as chewing on grass, green plants, and other plants.A cat's grass-eating behavior may be related to their need to obtain fiber or trace elements from plants, and is considered normal as long as it's not excessive. Additionally, some cats with hairballs will vomit up the hairballs in their digestive tract by eating grass.
Chewing textiles, clothing, etc.This is a sucking habit in some cats, also considered a transferred form of kitten suckling behavior, often related to breed and genetics. Cats have a particular fondness for soft objects, making massaging or sucking motions with a satisfied expression.
Sucking on the skin of its owner or other members of the same species Sucking is a normal behavior for newborn kittens, but if kittens are weaned too early or are malnourished, this sucking reflex may also appear in adulthood, and their owners' skin, their companions' ears, etc., may become targets for them.
The dangers of pica to cats
① Licking sharp foreign objects can damage the mouth; ② Ingesting foreign objects can cause obstruction or perforation of the esophagus, stomach, or intestines; ③ Licking fur can form hairballs that are difficult to digest and excrete in the stomach. Foreign objects in the digestive tract can cause symptoms such as anorexia or complete loss of appetite, vomiting, etc., affecting health; ④ If they eat the excrement of other animals, they are prone to infection and the spread of diseases; ⑤ Cats with pica are easily frightened, have a sluggish response to external stimuli, rough and dull skin, arched back, teeth grinding, anemia, alternating constipation and diarrhea, progressive weight loss, and in severe cases, systemic failure and death.
Methods to correct pica in cats: ① Increase the stimulation of your cat's games and activities at home, introducing new things to stimulate its curiosity. If possible, allow it more contact with the outside world and take it for walks more often; ② Strengthen feeding management, adjust the nutritional structure of its food, and supplement with appropriate amounts of trace elements and multivitamins. For example, adding multivitamin tablets, calcium tablets, and cod liver oil to the cat's food is ideal; ③ Perform regular deworming; adding fiber to the food can also improve the habit of sucking on plants, such as rice bran; ④ For cats sucking on textiles, you can spray some strong-smelling barrier agents on these textiles, such as eucalyptus oil, peppermint oil, or mentholatum. You can also place some mechanisms under the clothing to scare the cat away; ⑤ Whenever the cat exhibits pica behavior, you can spray it with water repeatedly to gradually eliminate the pica (just scare it away, do not spray water maliciously).
