Let’s be honest here. Don’t we love those little kittens in our house?, Yes, we do. All creatures born into this world come with characteristics and distinctive traits. If you are a pet owner, you may already experienced a trouble caused by kittens chewing behaviour. These curious little things tend to chew loose and dangling cords, as a chew toys. In order to save your tabby from electric burns, and injuries you need to keep a close eye on what your feline is embarking on and which habits she is proliferating. Let’s explore the reasons & how to stop cats from chewing cords and what to avoid.
Why Do Cats Chew on Cords?
When it comes kittens, there are very specific about their needs. Cats are adamant, and they are stuck in troubled teenagers’ headspace all the time. Here are the some of reasons why does my cat chew on everything? and how to get kitten to stop biting wire? Let’s get into it.
Obsessive Nature
The root of this obsessive trait is the presence of a condition called OCD(Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). It involves repetitive actions that can also prove harmful if left unchecked for a long period. Symptoms of OCD include over-grooming by licking, twitching eyelids, sucking on power cables, hanging on loose cords, scratching on dangling cords with their nails. Proper diagnosis and medication should be provided to the cat based on the certified veterinary doctor’s prescription.
Worked Up
Usually, kittens face the symptoms of growth and often feel they are on edge. They experience a tingling sensation on their teeth. Cats usually start chewing on anything they can grasp in their mouth. Cats prefer to chew on a firm, rigid and flexible object and wire perfectly with the description. When they feel worked up, phone cords are the cat’s favorite go-to item.
Intuitive
Cats spend a lot of their time playing with fellow mates or siblings and practice the art of hunting prey and chasing them down. But when cats are placed in an intimate environment where there are limited options to pursue their intuition, they make the best of whatever is available, including your shoes, charger’s wires, TV wires, or even fridge’s wires which are not easy to get to.
Exploring
Indoor lifestyle is something humans, too are adapting. Cats feel out of place when they are kept at a home, which feels like a confinement curse. Lack of exploration pushes cats to take excessive interest in whatever is available to them. Cats seek great pleasure in playing with shoelaces, hair strands, pillow covers, toys, wires and hanging themselves on the kitchen shelf or in owners’ clothes. Cats never run out of activities to amuse themselves.
Anxious
Anxiety and grief-stricken cats develop a few aspects in their behavior that are problematic. Anxiety symptoms in cats include hiding, anger, constantly making sounds, vandalizing the owner’s property, and in some cases, being physical. Anxious cats are often looking out for activities that reduce their anxiety, the methods they use sometimes cost a fortune to the owner. WIthout much afford you can opt for a best scratchers for kittens to save your furniture from those little tiger paws.
Problems From Chewing on Cords
If your cat won’t stop chewing cords, it may lead to internal organ damage caused by electric shocks. Here are some of the electric cord bite injury signs and symptoms.
Dribbling
Excessive saliva collected in the mouth directly results from biting or chewing something out of habit instead of necessity. Drooling continuously may lead to dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, and loss of senses in rare cases.
Indolence
Eating is one of those few activities that the body takes way too seriously. It is the only source of energy, and many mechanisms in the body are initiated when a cat chews. We won’t get too much into biology here, but it is important to know that when a cat chews, saliva is formed and keeps on forming to aid the chewable material for reaching the stomach. If a cat chews and swallows a cord, it can be life-threatening.
Stomach Issues
Chewing pushes forward a clear, direct message to the body to release gastric juices solely for digesting food currently in the mouth. So even before the food reaches the stomach, the juices get into their place to aid digestion. But in the case of mindless biting, false alerts are generated. Chewing for too long can lead to the accumulation of gastric acids in the stomach, which can corrode the linings of the stomach walls if they remain too long in the stomach.
Cuts in the buccal cavity
There is a difference between actual food and wires, which are not supposed to be near the cat’s face. Wires specifically are hard, pointed, abrasive, scratchy, and harmful. You can check the inner lining of your cat’s mouth and observe if there is any cut or deep wound in the buccal cavity. Generally, there is a clot or mouth reddish-brown mesh-like lining which is a sign of wounds in the mouth. Prolonged chewing and injuring the same spot repeatedly can lead to severe damage, including painful ulcers, permanent damage to the brain, and loss of sensation, which can be fatal.
Cheerless
Excessive indulgence in any activity many times leaves us down in the dumps. You may observe your cat sitting lifeless in the remote area of your house. Your cat might not welcome your advances for a fun play or not be too excited for a treat that your cat earlier could not stop meowing about. Being lethargic, dull, loss in overall energy, and being quiet all the time is a clear sign of drainage of energy.
Respiratory Issues
Chewing plastic and lead-coated wires creates a reaction in the cats’ body. This type of reaction is an allergic reaction, and it shows several effects on the cat’s body. It may leave the cat anorexic, weak, coughing, watery eyes, difficulty swallowing food and water, gasping for air. Both are observed short breath and breathlessness, which indicates either an infection in the respiratory passage or some neurological problem or brain-related diseases. Dyspnea is a struggle to breathe. Cats suffering from this can be seen doing labored breathing, purring a lot, and coughing.
How to Stop Cats from Chewing Cords?
Worried about how to get cats to stop biting wires? how to cat proof wires? Follow these simple steps to avoid electric burns and injuries.
Tire them out
Cats with a lot of unsettled energy often find everything amusing and try to draw the owner’s attention to themselves. You should join them because the only thing better than one happy cat is two happy cats. In all seriousness, play with your pet animal. If you shower your pet cat with a lot of attention, you will find them napping in the corner of the house at the end of the day and not chewing random things just to kill boredom, and quite frankly, that is the point.
Place wires out of reach
In order stop cats chewing on cords, son’t let them be around electronic devices. Make sure to keep wires far away from the reach of the cat by placing gadgets in one separate room or any fixed place and making it off-limits for your little munchkin. You can simply cover the cables with a cloth to hide them. Or, you can place them high above the ground, a distance wide enough not to be crossed by the cat.
Mask the chords with a rubber
If your cat bites on a live wire conducting current, it will result in a direct shock that can potentially be lethal for the cat. Direct shock in the mouth can damage the buccal cavity, stomach, nose, lungs, and brain. It can also damage the appliance or result in a fire breakout which can burn the whole place down and reduce it to mere ashes. So it is advised to cover or wrap the wire with rubber. Use fine quality rubber, which is efficient and can withstand a lot of pricking.
Avoid letting any wire hanging
Dangling of wire is a direct lure for a cat to attack. Cats have an instinct to pound on anything at a certain height from them. They intuitively run after flies, butterflies, and other insects. Cats are predators, and they notoriously hunt birds and raid on their nests in search of food. So when cats find anything up in the air, cats confuse it for food, and their desire to hunt it down makes them chase it.
Block the wires with huge objects
Sometimes even masking does not help to keep the cat away from wires. In that case, create a No-entry zone or a block and let the wires sit in its protection. Use a double-sided tape and then pull together a couple of wires, making it one unit. Cats hate sticky items, and a cat won’t chew or touch the cord. In case of a lengthy wire, fold it and place a huge weightless object on it. This will protect the cord from weight as well as from the cat.
Spray with repugnant spray
Thisis a bit of a devilish way to stop cats from chewing cords, literally. Citrus scents are often frowned upon by cats. The same logic goes with the Aluminum foil. Cover the wire with aluminum foil as cats dislike pressing their teeth against the aluminum foil. Foul-smelling sprays also push them away, so using them is advised when a cat won’t give up.
Conclusion
Cats are highly inquisitive, which makes them irresistibly drawn towards wires. But chewing wires will only attract more troubles like mouth ulcers and damaged wires. It is important not to let them destroy expensive tools. There are so many cool interactive cat toys available in the market. These will helps your cats with anxiety and boredom and is a great replacement for wires. Also, it is advisable to take a trip to the vet with your cat once every month. Hope now you found the exact solution for how to stop cats from chewing cords, through our guide. This will ensure that they are not in any medical crisis that can go unnoticed and that working professionals rarely evaluate symptoms if they are the proud owners.