Cat Wool Sucking
by Michael
(London, UK)
Chewing Mania but see note below
Cat wool sucking is unnatural and is caused by an interruption to the natural and gradual process of a kitten coming off drinking mother's milk and turning to solids. If this process is stopped unnaturally the kitten might continue by finding substitutes and alternatives. Wool is one such example.
The earlier the cat is weaned unnaturally the more severe the wool sucking is likely to be. Cat wool sucking might fade away in time and resolve itself or it might develop into something worse; eating the object that is being sucked (wool is one of a range of things that a cat might turn to which might, in fact, include themselves and acrylics). In other words, rather than progressing to eating solid food a cat who is wool sucking might progress to eating non-nutritional objects. Also stress can aggravate the condition as nursing at mother's nipple is in part a comfort process as well as nutritional.
The picture is just for illustration purposes and it not meant to suggest that this cat has a disorder!. Nice picture. Very nice job demolishing the box. Photo by Malingering and published under published under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs creative commons License -- this site is for charitable purposes in funding cat rescue.
How to fix cat wool sucking?
- Mild condition - this will probably resolve itself and most likely will not require treatment.
- Progressing to eating the wool clearly requires veterinarian intervention as it can be dangerous.
Prevention tactics?
- Create a calm and de-stressed environment. Possible sources of stress are (a) cat separation anxiety (b) fighting between cats in a multi-cat household - Introducing a New Cat (c) frequent strangers visiting and (e) frequent noise. These are examples.
- Try and get your cat to chew on something safer such as a cat chew toy.
- Offer up a real alternative of high fiber diet and encourage him/her to eat that rather than the wool.
- Last resort: your vet might prescribe anti obsession drugs such as Prozac. These are often human drugs. This must be a last resort, surely as long term drug use cannot be good for anyone
Cat wool sucking tells us about the importance of the early years. In the first 6 months of life a cat can become a well balanced animal able to mix with people or other animals (dogs for example - Cats and Dogs Living Together) or become unbalanced, which can only lead to a less content life.
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