Why does my cat like to eat my elasticated hair bands????

[winkywinkola]

It's bizarre.

I didn't realise why I kept losing them. I'd whip it out at night and leave on bedside table and it would be gone by the next morning.

And then I caught her wolfing one down. What a weirdo.

Actually eating them? That could be dangerous... I'd make sure you hide them away in future.

Hide them. If it's a general plastic thing she might be a pica cat - keep plastic bags hidden.

Mine eats random bits of fluff, and has a good old munch on the Uggs in winter.

Have you heard of pica?

Oops X posted.

Hide them! It could end up being very costly...

Mine is obsessed with chasing them but doesn't eat them. He will
steal them out of handbags. I once found a stash of about 40 behind a sideboard!

I think he like the motion of them - they spring about the place and he preys on them.

Mine steal them to play with them. Especially on the stairs. At 3am. Joyful furry little beasts!

They often go for plain rubber bands as well so keep a close eye on just inside/outside the front door in case your postie ever discards any of those thickish ones which have been round piles of letters. I think there's something about rubber for them, unfortunately.

BorpCat2 ate a chunk of BorpCat1's fur the other day. Just licked it up from the ground where she'd been sitting and chowed down. He's also interested in hairbands so we hide them from him so as to not encourage it.

Oh god PoodleNoodle that's terrible! hope it wasn't your cat.

One of the good things about having cats who use indoor litter trays is that you can actually see what's passed through their systems - and it's brought me up sharply before now. Luckily, none have ever had collywobbles from foreign objects getting stuck/tangling in the gut but that may just have been luck.

I'd be real careful.

My cats love elastic bands and hair bands but luckily they don't eat them or else I would have to be really diligent. I think they just enjoy pouncing on them and the fact they flick away from them.

Royal Mail don't help by having posties who drop the red bands they use to bundle mail together on the streets.

Stop her and hide them. They can get tangled around their insides and cause peritonitis- a septic gut. At best £1000+ vet bill and very poorly cat, at worst a cat dying in agony.

Mine sniffs the emery board when I'm filing my nails. You know how they sniff with their mouth open.

Oh I've hidden them once I realised what she was doing!

Who knew cats could have pica?? Thanks so much for the info.