"jamina1" wrote in message
...
Thank you all for your recent help with my cat Sylvanas. But now my
problem lies with my current cat, Pagan. She's very spunky - and for
her health I have started feeding her holistic wet food - I've settled
on Merrick brand and she's happy with the flavors available.

My problem is that if I am not on the dot with her feedings (if I
sleep in on weekends, or if I am otherwise not awake) she will come
into my bedroom and start gnawing on things (for some reason she
prefers wires! - predominately the ones behind my computer). So far I
have lost 3 pairs of headphones to her and a charger for my Nintendo
DS, as well as the power cable for my cable modem.

Not only am I worried for her safety - what if she chews through an
actual higher voltage power cable? - I am annoyed at her behavior and
want her to stop. Luckily, I believe she only does this when I am
home!

Even if there is food in her bowl, but it is not a flavor she enjoys a
lot or if it has been sitting for a little while, she will come in and
start gnawing. I know that my behavior has only "trained" her to
continue - every time she does it I get angry, fed up, and end up
feeding her, so technically I'm rewarding her.

As I've pretty much always had her on wet food which requires smaller
portions more often, I'm wondering - should I sacrifice her ultimate
long term health with this natural food and get dry food that I can
put down in quantity? (Which then ultimately means she will overeat
and become fat and unhealthy)

I'm just kind of troubled as what to do here. I am currently
unemployed and can't afford to continuously replace these things she's
eating through - nor do I want to wake up and find her electrocuted! I
tried hot sauce, I tried Curry paste - Help!

Sorry about that .. finger trouble!

Hi Jamina,

I think we all have this trouble, especially with younger and 'spunky' cats.
My Panther was a (loveable) menace as a kitten and she's still full of spunk
... attitude, mischief, however you want to name it!

I put all my kittens through cable, chemical and car training, in the hope
that they'll live longer. With cables, I simply start by having cute,
bouncy kitten in the room while I'm ironing. At first, I don't get much
ironing done :~). After a while, if repeated "no's" and "leave it - it will
hurt you's" don't work, and a *light* slap doesn't help, then I teach kitty
about what is on the other end of the cable. I would never, NEVER hurt my
cats so you must believe this is done with extreme ca I pick kitty up,
make sure no lashing paw can escape, then I carefully bring the hot iron
closer to kitty's nose - this being the most sensitive part, so you really
don't have to get too close. Most kittens learn almost instantly; Panther
took a while longer :~), but both my cats leave cables alone. If my husband
is handling cables so that they 'dance' or 'wriggle' (which is very tempting
to a cat), then I only have to say firmly "leave it - it will hurt you", and
kitty gets the message. If I feel there's still some danger, both cats are
shut out of the room until the work is done. This is not always possible
with open plan homes, so cats need to learn that cables aren't toys very
early on.

I feel sure you will think the above is rather extreme, but it is done with
great kindness (my cats love and trust me) and for the best reasons, and it
*works*.

Don't let her fool you - her cable biting is not about hunger: it's about
getting your attention. As you perceive, it seems to work :~).
I'm sure there is nothing wrong with the wet diet you already give her. If
she eats it, she's happy with it so if it ain't broke, don't mend it.
However, you could supplement it. Cats are natural 'browsers'; that is,
they like to snack lightly, little and often. Continue with the wet food,
but make sure she always has a bowl of (yummy flavour) biscuits which she
can chomp on at will. There are plenty of 'light' (low fat) biscuit recipes
out there which are also good for urinary health and even teeth.

It would help, of course, if you could close the bedroom door and exclude
her, but that may not be possible. Make the most of your unemployment and
use this time to train her. Good luck.

Spider