PSA: While chewing plastic is usually benign, silly cat behavior it can sometimes indicate something is off/wrong

Pulled from Purina’s info page on plastic-chewing:

• Although unusual, diseases like hyperthyroidism in cats, feline diabetes, anemia or dental issues might cause a cat to chew on plastic.

• Stress or anxiety can cause cats to show changes in their behavior and chewing plastic can be one of many signs that your cat is feeling anxious

• It is natural for cats to eat things that they can gnaw and chew. If they do not have this in their diet or provided in appropriate enrichment opportunities, they might be feeling the need to exercise their teeth and jaws on inappropriate items.

• Many unusual behaviors are driven by pain – and chewing, gnawing, and eating often inappropriate things can be one of them

• Cats can show compulsive cat behavior patterns, similar to OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) in humans.

• Your cat might be telling you that they’re lacking some nutrients by biting plastic. If they feel like they’re missing out on something, they could resort to biting and chewing on other things

Learned this lesson the hard way once, so spreading the knowledge just in case :)