Cat gnawing on wires

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!

Hi
try putting rubber tubing around the wire or wrap foil
paper around them cats don't like foil wrap.. my cat is afraid of it
Linda

In article ,
says...

Hi
try putting rubber tubing around the wire or wrap foil
paper around them cats don't like foil wrap.. my cat is afraid of it
Linda



Or do what I did. My first cat had a cable/wire chewing thing. So I went
to Home Depot and bought several lengths of split blue conduit. You
could tuck the cables inside and then close the split. He could chew on
those all he wanted, he wasn't getting through.

"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!

"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

On Apr 14, 8:27*am, "Spider" wrote:


I put all my kittens through cable, chemical and car training, in the hope
that they'll live longer. *

Please describe car training. My cat is but I don't know how I did it
other than being out there with her and watching out for cars. There
are few cars except during rush hours. When she was young she would
leisurely cross the street even when a car was coming down the road.
I would of course call her and made sure the driver saw her. When she
was young she would try to follow me into my car. I had to make sure
I can see her far away before starting the car.

"James" wrote in message
...
On Apr 14, 8:27 am, "Spider" wrote:


I put all my kittens through cable, chemical and car training, in the hope
that they'll live longer.

Please describe car training. My cat is but I don't know how I did it
other than being out there with her and watching out for cars. There
are few cars except during rush hours. When she was young she would
leisurely cross the street even when a car was coming down the road.
I would of course call her and made sure the driver saw her. When she
was young she would try to follow me into my car. I had to make sure
I can see her far away before starting the car.


Hi James

Thanks for your interest. As I'm sure you've discovered, any form of
outdoor training is more difficult than indoors because the little dears can
scarper at will, so you need to be sure of their indoor training first. It
gives you a much stronger hand outside. Because my kittens couldn't go out
until all their innoculations were done, and then had to wait for their
spaying wounds to heal, I had heaps of time to concentrate on their indoor
training. This is important, because it means they were fairly biddable
when I took them outside.

I always use a harness and lead on each kitten for the first week or so,
just to have overall control and see how they react. Most kits react badly
to noise at first, so I use this reaction (and others) to reassure them when
they're safe and when there's a danger, and to encourage them to trust me.
Also, by the time they're outdoors, they've already learned words like
'hurt' and 'dangerous' and, obviously 'stay' and 'leave'. They know I'm in
charge. I don't take them too close to the road at first but, as they peer
at it curiously, I warn them it's dangerous; cars pass, and I say 'stay, it
would hurt you'. This is one time when noisy cars are helpful, because
they frighten the kits and reinforce what I'm teaching them.

Once they're off the lead, but still learning, I wait for them to veer
towards the drive and road and say 'stay, don't go in the road'. Naturally,
sometimes they wander out, but I call them and warn them until they come in.
When they do, they are thoroughly praised for returning. These days, if I
see them near the gate, I say 'Cheetah (or Panther) - don't go in the road'.
I may have to say it a couple of times, but they respond more often than
not. Right through training and beyond, I find it helpful to watch their
behaviour and encourage them when they even start to move in the right
direction. Once they've willfully gone their own way, it's difficult to
turn them around, so I find it helpful to encourage their slightest
inclination to obey. In truth, safety training of any sort is never really
over, because we're dealing with nosey little critters, so I just keep on
warning them and calling them to me.

No doubt, in your own way, you've done something similar. I knew someone
once who always took their kitten to the road's edge and, quite simply,
taught it the (human) Highway Code: look right .. left .. etc. ! :~)

Cats are amazingly clever creatures.
Spider

"Spider" wrote in message
...
Also, by the time they're outdoors, they've already learned words like
'hurt' and 'dangerous' and, obviously 'stay' and 'leave'.

And how, exactly, did you accomplish this? If I could do any of this, then
training my cats to avoid cars would be duck soup.........

I suppose you could keep a spray bottle of water in the bedroom and
spray him in the face whenever he menaces your wires. Or...you could
just get up out of bed and start the day like he wants you to do.
When all Snappy's ploys fail to get me out of bed, he reaches under
the covers and tries to pull my feet out onto the floor with his
enormous claws which I always think is kind of funny. He knows the
feet have to be on the floor so he can get what he wants. The other
really bad but funny thing he does is when he wants to play and he
catches me knitting is he jumps up on my lap and bites the yarn in
half and then immediately jumps down. Hes done this twice. Today I
spotted him trying to pull the knitting off the table. He's very
bored because its been raining and cold for days on end.

"Bill Graham" wrote in message
...

"Spider" wrote in message
...
Also, by the time they're outdoors, they've already learned words like
'hurt' and 'dangerous' and, obviously 'stay' and 'leave'.

And how, exactly, did you accomplish this? If I could do any of this, then
training my cats to avoid cars would be duck soup.........


Hi Bill,

Cats are very clever. They may have some difficulty learning English (or
American), but they are experts at reading body language; that's how they
communicate and read each others' behaviour. Hopefully, it is not difficult
for you to see that, after word and behavioural repetition, cats can learn
to understand what we mean.

For instance, if I'm scratched by my kitten when playing (or play-fighting),
I say "Ouch, that hurt, Cheetah". I emphasize the 'hurt', lick my hand
(cats lick their paws when injured, so it's behaviour they understand), and
look more pained than I really am. I will then say "Gentle. Don't hurt
your person". Yes, all my cats have understood the word 'gentle', too. It
is very helpful when kitty is in mid needle-claw kneading prior to snoozing
on my lap! :~) I often say "Gentle paws, Panther" when that furry minx is
making a blood bath of my lower limbs. She understands and obeys.
Occasionally, she gets so carried away that she hurts me again, but a
repetition quickly calms her.

They gradually learn quite complex language. My first beloved cat,
Tiggypuss, used to beg for scraps while I was cooking. Sometimes, I
couldn't offer him something, so I would say "No, you wouldn't like it,
Tiggy". Because, previously, if he was purring over a favourite dinner, I
would say "Dear puss, you like that, don't you?", he'd clearly learned what
'like' meant and seemed to understand the negative. This became clearer to
me when, once, he backed off as I offered him a tasty treat he'd never had
before. I simply said "Try it .. you'll like it". He looked at me with
such a warm look of recognition and purred heartily, even before he started
tucking into it.

It is very clear to me that they learn some of our words. Tiggypuss learned
the word 'naughty' quite early in life due to his mischievious nature. One
day, when he was sadly mewing because he'd lost a toy under a cupboard, I
pulled the cupboard out to help him and said "It's not here, Tiggy". He
immediately flinched and became wide-eyed and anxious. He thought I'd said
'naughty' (rather than 'not here')! This was *my* big learning curve; after
that, I selected training words much more carefully.

I hope you now see how cats learn words for training and for repeated
behaviour situations. Most cat owners I talk to say their cats understand
at least some of their words/instructions. Cats are immensely clever;
patience, empathy and willingness simply make it easier for both sides. Try
it, and remember to share that duck soup with your cats :~).

Spider