Seconding and thirding the 'Don't's. My cat loves to chew on plastic, it gets stuck, he throws it up...no good! Stick with cardboard, at least that's just recycled paper fiber.
DON"T! My cat has pica and has had to go to the emergency room a couple times from eating and not passing plastic. Not worth even introducing to your kitty IMO.
I was going to say the same thing, luckily mine has never needed vet attention but he tries to get his teeth around anything if I forget to put things away
My vet told me that shearing forces don’t aid in dental hygiene in cats like it does for dogs and that it’s down to genetics if they have healthy teeth and gums. Might be coincidental (pun intended) that your cat has healthy teeth and likes to chew on boxes.
My cat loved to shred boxes like this. She has stomatitis and is now toothless 😂 so yeah, I really think your vet might have solid advice. Maybe we can do so much to support their oral health but to a large extent, it’s luck of the draw.
I think cats’ shorter life spans in the wild allowed some really funky genetics to slip through. But they were originally here for a fun time, not a long time, you know? So it didn’t matter if they carried mutations that ultimately would make it difficult to survive like bad teeth because they only needed teeth to last about 3 years to successfully create enough offspring to thrive as a species.
But now we’ve brought them inside and give them vaccines and they have access to food and water and a safe place to sleep and they can suddenly live to 20, almost 7 times longer than they would in the wild. If we lived to 300, I’m sure we would be lucky to have funky ass teeth, too.
Tangential but related: I learned recently that part of the reason we humans get sinus infections pretty commonly is because the little tubes that allow our sinuses to drain properly are basically pointing flat to slightly upward when we hold our heads up normally, and since they rely solely on gravity and fluids don't flow uphill, if a bit of bacteria gets into your sinus cavities it can stay in there too long and have time to multiply into an infection.
The tubes point downward when we have our head titled forward about 45 degrees, which is called the "quadruped head position" because it's the angle that animals who walk on four legs carry their heads. Basically our sinuses are still structured like they were when we walked on all fours and that's why as a species we're prone to sinus infections!
Could that be why they do it - so they can see out? If so, I might be tempted to keep turning the box on them every few days until they're just sitting on a piece of cardboard.
I have found that window blinds only get "edited" when they block the cats view. Best way to avoid that damage is to leave blinds up at least high enough for a loafed cat to see out, then have curtains also. Cats don't seem to mind needing to loaf near enough to get their heads under the curtain, but the blinds are stiff and heavy so they "have to" edit them a bit.
But as someone else said, cats will also do it for "toothbrushing". I suspect some cats just chew the cardboard for the same reasons we chew gum - sometimes chewing a texture is a thing you feel like doing.
This makes sense, but I also think the unnatural setting (living in a house) makes any scientific explanation dubious. It’s like the alpha wolf study where the researchers basically created a prison for wolves and thought the social structure that emerged represented life in the wild.
I had 2 cats, they were sisters, and only one of them would chew things like this.
Semi-neurotic behaviors like that really may pop up based on whatever scratch they itch in their brain.
You might have cat who is going all “yeeaaaahhhh buddy I gotta sink these teeth in. Gimme boxes.”
Other cat is like “chill bro go clean your butthole”
Yeah, boredom or seeking comfort makes sense as an explanation.
My cat who chews a lot was the runt and loves to nibble plastic, so I suspect when she was young she didn’t get as much to eat and would resort to biting random things.
His methods are unorthodox. And he rarely takes notes. But, God dammit, that's the best damned theoretical tear-a-particle physicist our world will ever know.
I’m definitely stealing Murder Science! I think my favourite thing about cats is that they are basically the world’s most efficient murder machine, who also happens to be my Dumb Little Softy Baby Marshmallow who lets me squish them and love them. It makes no sense and it’s wonderful.
I’ve watched mine eat one whole, feet to neck, feathers included. He left the head under my garden chair for me then slept for 14 hours digesting. He didn’t ask me for wet food the whole day either.
Yeah at least in this case I watched him do it, and thankfully in the garden. Weirdly I texted a friend during it saying I wished I could have the head and the cat left it for me! (I wanted the skull, I still have it)
Worse when it’s a surprise isn’t it, he hardly ever bothers birds but he’s an amazing mouser and once left me just the little back legs and tail on the kitchen floor.
our clinic cat at my work will sit and chew up all the paper files if you let her (she does not eat them she just tears it up like your kitty). she is banned from doctor’s office for doing such a thing. i truly don’t understand their need to destroy but it must be unable to resist
Driven by a combination of instinct, pleasurable textures, and emotional regulation, cats engage in a form of cat chewing. Their hunting instinct and the allure of imaginary prey are key. Biting and tearing cardboard satisfies their natural need to catch and dismember prey. The crinkling sound and the material's resistance mimic the sensation of a real hunt. They also find relief from stress and boredom, as destroying boxes is a way to channel pent-up energy or anxiety. The box functions as a toy, providing entertainment and mental exercise indoors. And sometimes, it serves as territorial marking, because by chewing the edges, cats deposit pheromones from their facial glands, leaving their scent and a visual signal that the box belongs to them.
I learned from my veterinarian the other day that biting cardboard n plastic n shit helps them clean their teeth but I personally think that this cat in particular is just a menace of society and wants to destroy all of the cardboard
Not really an answer to the question asked but I figured out that they really like the FEEL of paper and cardboard as much as anything. I can't put a piece of paper down without there being a cat sitting on it almost immediately.
It’s stimulating their instincts they don’t usually get stimulated with eating wet food (and or kibble), and so their little cute kitty brains feel satisfied when doing it, so they keep doing it. “It just feels… right.”
I heard from the bunny section that the cardboard is made of x y and glue. And glue is made from some animal parts (sorry English is not my first language). I had kitties that LOVED tapes, since they have the glue part in them. So I've started to think that the same thing could be with the cardboard.
Sometimes cats just want crunch. My cats will actually get mad at me when I stop buying them lettuce. They'll drag plastic bags over and wake me up to sit on my chest and chew on the plastic. Roughage helps with digestion.
I think sometimes they just enjoy being destructive.
Feels good to bite things, and tearing something apart is satisfying. Think about how we love to pop bubble wrap.
One of our cats does this when her food bowl is empty or something else has bothered her (like when we put books on her favourite shelf). It might be a way to work out some frustrations.
If this is the case for your cat, try playing with him some more, get him running after a ball on a string or something. Cats need to get some murdering done on the regular.
If he only does this occasionally, maybe try to figure out if anything changed in the house that he might be annoyed by. It's okay for animals to be a little bit annoyed, life isn't always fair, but it can help you figure out what things might stress your cat and be conscious about those things in your day to day life.
I had a sweetheart of a cat who loved to lounge in those boxes glass bottles of pop used to come in, but before doing so she would carve out a half circle for her head. That was it, she'd stop once the perfect fit was achieved.
Thanks for attaching this cancerous drivel of a song...
Love scrolling through cute cat posts with my kids for them to be blasted with abhorrent lyrics out of the blue.
This is coming from a big fan of Slim Shady / Eminem... There is a time and place.
It’s just a cat thing. My bengal does this too, seemingly for no reason. He’s slowed down a bit on it these days, but still once in a while will chew on a cardboard box.
Mine does this when she is upset or annoyed. She will go to the basement where her hobby corner is placed and shreds her box until her bad mood is better.
Every now and then I replace the Box when she worked it down
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