Edit: I have decided, as we have no guests, to store it in the guestroom cupboard, which has 2 doors!
Zaz has become obsessed with chewing my exercise mat, even rolled up. She finds wherever I hide it, no matter where I put it. If I can reach it, so can she, only more easily. I don't have a cupboard with a door (if I did she would work out how to open it or scratch the door to pieces to try to get in).
Help! #ZazTheCornishRex#caturday#EllieKPosts#CatsOfMastodon
@EllieK
You may want to find out more about 'Pica' in cats.
"Behavioral Disorder: Pica is a learned behavior that cats do out of boredom, stress, or to satisfy a primal urge (such as to relive the sensation of nursing as a kitten)." https://www.gallant.com/blog/feline-pica-need-know
@EllieK there's research suggesting that cats experience a stronger effect from sniffing thinners. like with the glue of cardboard boxes, grocery bags and so on. they basically hotbox these fumes whenever they can. maybe hanging your mat unrolled outside for a while might help. reply with results if any occur.
@EllieK does she like chewing anything else? Like a catnip toy? The only thing I can think of is to give her something more tempting to chew and reinforce the behaviour with that other object. Whenever you see her about to do it, give her something tastier. Do it every time and maybe she will go for that item instead!
@Meznor
She's terribly single minded. She doesn't usually chew anything else. Except for aluminum foil if i leave any out!
I can't keep an eye on it and her as it's upstairs in our bathroom. And if we don't leave the door open, there's no heating !
@EllieK We've had reasonable luck with Grannick's bitter apple spray as a deterrent. These days they only seem to offer a version branded for dogs (years ago they had a branded cat version), but we got our current bottle from our cats-only vet.
The smell can be quite strong when fresh, so applying it outdoors (possibly with PPE on) is good when possible, to see how strong you find it. We stopped noticing it fairly quickly.
@ysabet
I've had that, for Joni. Let me check to see if we didn't throw it out when we didn't need it any longer. Good idea.
So it's not toxic for cats then?
@aetataureate
She is lovely... thank you.
Thanks for the idea, but it's too wide and big and I wouldn't have the room to put a bin that size in the little room.
It can't be good for her, I'm sure.
@EllieK@aetataureate it's definitely not. One of our cats die the same and she needed a surgery two years ago. You could try aluminum foil. I don't know why, but cats really doesn't like this stuff. We used it for our bedroom door, to get our other cat rid of scratching at it in the middle of the night. It really worked well, in the first night she abandoned this behaviour and i apologize my poor english
@mummynurse
No need to apologize, your English is perfect.
She loves aluminum foil, I have to hide that too! Ha ha! But that's easier to hide being smaller.
@EllieK oh,wow. That's bad and unusual. The only other things i know, are vinegar ( but i don't think you would like to have a gymmat which smells heavily) or spraying the cat with water. But this is a mean method. Maybe she is bored and needs more exercise or challenges?
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