Conference misery::feline_v1

    Hi Paula Beth, I have two plastic eaters:  Yurii & Alexander!
    If I bring in sacks from the grocery and turn my back to set
    down my purse, both of them are chewing on them within
    nanoseconds!  I have learned to really pick up after myself,
    empty the trash freqeuntly and just watch and listen for the
    chewing and crackling of the bags!  I don't know why they
    crave it, but they do.
    Sorry I can't help more...
    
    Elaine
    

    McCafferty is also a plastic chomper!  I think she likes the sound
    that it makes....luckily I've been able to stop her before she actually
    eats the stuff, but one of these days I'm not going to be that quick.
    
    Another thing all three of them *love* to do is attack the toilet
    paper....not on the roll, but when its in its plastic bag...I've
    gone thru 8 rolls of toilet paper this past week!!!! UGH, they just
    sneak in there and before I know it, the toilet paper is in shreds
    and what a mess to pick up! oh well, the price you pay for furfaces...
    
    Erin

The brother of my little one, Selina, loved to eat plastic.  However
    at one point, he ate too much.  He had to undergo surgery to have
    the plastic removed.  The owner showed me in a bag all the plastic
    that the vet removed from him.  It was incredible.  If it weren't
    for the fact that they owner was quick in bringing him to the vet,
    he would not have survived.  Now everything has to be hidden from
    him.
    
    My advice to you is please, please be careful. The owner named
    the kitten, Champ, after all he went through.

    Ah , another TP shredder - My Lara is a super shredder - she can't
    reach the TP any more so now she is into paper towels - really 
    loves the scent from the bounty towels - plain generic white
    cheap towels aren't her style!  My TP holder is hanging so high
    now, I can hardly reach it!  At least I don't own stock in
    TP companies any more.....
    
    E.T.

    Tristan doesn't eat it, he just plays with it.  He mashes his head
    into the plastic, smearing it all over his face.  He looks, from
    the outside, like some bizarre super hero comic.  Needless to say
    we watch him very carefully and never leave plastic around for him
    unattended.  After all, wouldn't want the little freak to suffocate!
    
    Karen, Tristan and Tenzing.

    Jasper loves to lick plastic bags of all kinds.  Fortunately, he's
    never tried to *eat* any (knock on wood!).

    I wonder if there's some nutrient cats crave that's in plastic?  :-)

							-- Nina

    Kalliste trys to breed toilet paper packages and paper towel rolls.
    We have to lock them up so he won't be able to do it.  I guess he
    is just practicing for the real thing.
    
    Jo

    
    
    	Bandit is a plastic chomper too.  Its really annoying....
    
    	I read in this notes file once that some cats like plastic
    	because it has a sweet taste.  I think I'll have to go
    	home tonight and chomp on some plastic to see if it cures
    	my sugar cravings.....
    
    	Karen

    Has anyone ever found out if plastic satisfies any nutritional needs?
    Freebe is a real demon with plastic. She is always stealing packages
    of cigarettes(they have to be brand new, unopened) and licking the
    sides. Also, we just bought a vcr cover that has a plastic window
    in the front. Her little teeth marks were all over it on the first
    day!! 
    
    Kim

    re: plastic
    
    I don't know about it's nutritional value, but Tristan has always
    been a plastic fiend.  He likes the large plastic bags which stores
    often give out.  He jumps inside and mushes his face frantically up
    against the plastic.  From the outside he looks like an alien being
    trying to escape from something.  We never leave him unsupervised 
    with them because it always looks like he could suffocate in them.
    I don't think he's that stupid, but we're not taking any chances.
    :-)
    
    Karen, Tristan, Tenzing and Max.

Re: < Note 1649.9 by SCRUZ::SARENIUS_KI >
                             -< The plastic diet >-

I also have a plastic lover, Curious George loves to chew anything
plastic -- his current favorite is the disposable dropcloth we are using
for some interior painting.  We definitely keep them separated since he
really seems intent on EATING the stuff and any paint he might get into
certainly isn't any better for him!

Mind you, this is the cat who ate a wad of aluminum foil while still a
kitten and required surgery to remove the obstruction (before we got 
him, but no foil is ever given to any of our cats to play with as a
result of his incident).


Jan  who_really_does_feed_her_cats_daily

    Ah-ha!! And I thought I was the only one with a "petroeum cat"!
    
    Boogie *loves* plastic!!! Grocery bags, wastebasket liners, wrappers
    saran wrap - if it's plastic we have a happy kitty! We try to keep
    it away from her, especially since she can have digestive trouble
    if she eats it, but she mostly licks it.  I asked my vet about it,
    and she said that since Boogie's diet is very nutritionally balanced,
    it's probably just a fettish.  Just my luck, three out of four are
    fettish-kitties!
    
    Boogie - plastic
    Dream  - brush bristles
    Niniane - string
    
    Mary-Michael

    About the cigarette packages:
    
    Do these things still come with cellophane coverings?  I read somewhere
    that cellophane turns glassy in cats' stomachs.
    

    
    Be careful about plastic/cellophane eating. I adopted Argus shortly
    after he had eaten his way through one of those hefty, reinforced
    plastic trash bags. (His owner had been taken to the hospital and it
    was 4 days before any one came over to feed Argus and Pip). In addition
    to his FUS problem, he was throwing everything up. The vet X-rayed him
    and saw something strange in his intestinal track that he couldn't figure
    out what it was, but that the intestines appeared badly inflamed
    (probably cut). We thought we were going to have to operate. In the interim,
    I force fed him olive oil and he passed a big piece of plastic and we
    avoided surgery, but let me tell you, that cat was in a lot of pain from
    it. 

    Deb