Tissue-Eating?

[Ramona's Mommy]

My kitten, Ramona, and I are new to this forum. I was hoping somebody could answer my questions (reading some of the posts here, you all seem to know a LOT more about kittens than I do!).

I adopted Ramona about 3 months ago (she was about 6 weeks old). She went through the whole routine of biting my ankles constantly as I'm walking around, "marking her territory", etc. But recently she has picked up a rather strange habit... Eating tissues! One day I came home from work, and there were shreds of tissues EVERYWHERE! She pulls them out of the box, one by one, and proceeds to wrestle them around and tear them into tiny pieces. She even turns over the trash can and pulls out used tissues! (Gross!) So I got a new trash can with a lid (solved THAT problem). Then I started stuffing the tissues inside the box, and turning them upside-down. But of course, she figured out how to flip them over and actually dig the tissues out! I need to have the tissues around because I have bad allergies, but it seems no matter how high I put the boxes, or how I try to hide them, she always manages to get to them. (It's pretty impressive, actually.) Basically, I just want to know if this is normal behavior, and more important, if this is DANGEROUS behavior. I don't see how a box of tissues could propose a danger to a small kitten, but I don't want to make any assumptions there. Does anybody have any comments or suggestions?

Thanks!
Ramona's Mommy

[Edwina's Secretary]

I'm sorry...I can't stop laughing at the mental image of Ramona wrestling the tissue long enough to come up with a suggestion! Does she swallow much of the tissue? Or do you just have to clean it up?

[sasvermont]

Well, my guys never got into tissues, thank goodness, but I have heard of lots of kittens doing it. I don't think it will harm the kitty, but if you want to stop it, I think you'll need to keep the tissues out of her reach. Maybe behind a closet door or covered with something - and of course, if all else fails, then get out the water gun and every time she goes for the tissues, squirt her. I guess she is having so much fun that she can't contain herself! It does sound like fun. I have heard of children shredding papers/magazine/tissues....too! IT MUST BE FUN. I bet she out grows it before you out grow your allergies!

Keep us posted!

P. S. I had a cat that loved my makeup kits and would roll around in/on them every chance she got. It took me awhile to figure out why she had such a pink/red chin. Here she was rubbing her chin in the blush and lip gloss. She would also lick my neck if I had on perfume. She just loved my perfume so! The Vet used to get a kick out of watching her lick my neck.

[kitten645]

ROFL! Aren't kittens the best? I'd say as long as she's not eating a significant portion of the tissues, she's just being a regular furbaby and finding out what entertains her most. Fingers crossed she doesn't figure out the neato TP roll trick where they unroll entire rolls of TP onto the bathroom floor! I can't even count how many rolls Bruce went thru before he out grew that phase!

[catland]

My Sidney, now six, loved tissues when he was a kitten. I thought it was cute and indulged his habit. He would sit up on his hind legs and hold the tissue with his front paws and shred and shred and shred. (and occasionally get the tissue stuck to his tongue)

Of course, it did leave quite a mess to clean up - but as you will soon discover on Pet Talk - most of us love to spoil and indulge our pets

If you don't hide the tissues, then probably the only thing I would recommend is to make sure that you're using tissues that don't have lotions or other scents or chemicals in them.

Also, you could try to keep the tissues in a box so that your kitty would just do her shredding there - it would be much easier to clean up.


Oh, Sid did eventually outgrow this obsession - but I can still give him the occasional paper tissue or napkin or paper towel and he will still shred it.

Welcome to Pet Talk and enjoy your kitten - they grow up way too fast

[krazyaboutkatz]

Welcome to Pet Talk. I'm sure you'll love it here. I don't think that there's anything to worry about. She's just being a kitten. My cat Sunny, who just turned 2 not long ago, loves to shred paper napkins. I have to keep them up on top of the refrigerator. He also likes to knaw on cardboard. My cats sleep in cardboard boxes so there are teeth marks on all of the boxes. When Storm was between 1-2 years old he started playing with my tp roll. Then as suddenly as he started he stopped. Pepper also went through a teething stage where he would chew my foam on my workout bench and he'd also knaw on cardboard boxes. In time they'll just outgrow this behavior. I hope that your kitten will too. Good luck.

[lynnestankard]

Big welcome to Pet Talk Ramona's Mommy - hope you enjoy it with all us cat-mad people!

Your sweetheart sounds so normal - she's found something she adores to do - and no-one's gonna stop her! Not even her Mommy's crafty idea of turning the box over!!

Our female cat Bagel is fascinated by tearing paper - she'll go days without giving paper a second glance - then *BAM* - she sees a certain piece of paper and HAS to 'kill' it!! She's so funny, all claws and teeth, ripping and tearing as though her life depends on it! She's six years old and still does this - must admit she prefers tissue paper to any other.
So I for one wouldn't worry about your Ramona - I know it's annoying, to say nothing of expensive! Hopefully she'll outgrow the habit with the odd slip occasionally - something like Bagel!!

Lynne

[yumyum6970]

Welcome to Pettalk..My Yum Yum does that when we leave them alone during the weekend. She will tear up the tissues that are in the trashcan NOT in the box. We figure she does it to get back at us for leaving them alone. I have noticed though when she got older (1 year) she doesn't do it now. So maybe your kitten will stop when she matures.

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

Welcome to Pet Talk! Hope to hear much, much more about your sweet little Ramona - and pictures too!

Tubby was into paper when he was a kitten too. Although he prefered newspapers to tissues. He only did a day or two of the toilet paper unrolling. But yes, I'd come home and find the newspaper in shreds all over the living room, and undoubtedly this was the day after I vacuumed, so I would have to dig the vacuum out and do it all over again. He eventually outgrew it and now he prefers to just sit on the papers - especially when we're trying to read them. I can get him to play with them if I tease him with the paper, but with anything these days, he tires of it quickly and is more than happy to watch from the couch.

My only suggestion would be to see if you could find something else that might distract her like another toy or something. Maybe she will find out that other toys are just as fun, if not more so, and will start to leave the tissues alone.

Good luck, enjoy it even though it is messy because she will soon grow up, and let us know how she's doing!

[Cataholic]

Welcome to Pet Talk. I have only been here a few weeks myself, but can't say enough about the really great advice and nice people on here.

The worst thing about your post is it makes me want a kitten again! Ok, I am done wanting one now. My two 'kittens' (two years old last month) both did and still do the tissue thing. They have graduated to the TP- and 'type' lovely letters for me to find after a long day at work. Tex loves the paper towel rolls- talk about expensive! I set it upright on the floor (ok, the counter, too) and he takes it down in seconds with the back claws flying. He also graduated -to book corners. Doesn't matter whose book it is. I am forced to return library books after hours only! I don't think any of my five upstairs cats have outgrown their love affair with paper..I am sorry to tell you. Perhaps you could go without paper products for 10-15 years?

[Cataholic]

One more thing...put tissue paper (the wrapping kind) on the floor, maybe five or six pieces, and watch the magic unfold. It is like Christmas morning!

[tuxluvr]

Ritz didn't take to tissues, but like Tubby, has a think for the Sunday paper...she does what we call the BONZAI RUN AND DIVE into the open paper on the living room floor....impossible to read or work the crossword!

[lovemymaltese]

That is a funny mental picture, but what a gross habit. My grandmother got her cat to stop doing that by spraying a little hairspray in the trash can, it stopped. Maybe it will work for you.

[NoahsMommy]

Originally posted by Cataholic
One more thing...put tissue paper (the wrapping kind) on the floor, maybe five or six pieces, and watch the magic unfold. It is like Christmas morning!

I swear that's inbred! All three cats go CRAZY for the wrapping & tissue paper!!! I have to wrap all presents on the counter. It is funny to give them the "ugly" color and watch them have fun!

Welcome to Pet Talk Ramona's mommy! I can't wait to hear all about her, she sounds like a fun kitty!

[Janeway]

My Buddy has a version of the tissue syndrome. He likes to lick the tp roll! Yeah, gross. Try grabbing a partly soggy wad to do your business. Yech. Well, it is only soggy on one side! I've always considered this to be a sign of anxiety. Unfortunately, it's hard to keep him away from it. Oh, well...I've just learned to live with it. Mikey used to love to jump up on to the linen closet shelf and pick out a tampon, unwrap and unravel it and proceed to chew the dickens out of it. Wait til you see a kitty chewed tampon (actually it makes a good furry kitty toy, but better hope yours don't find out!). Finally, I figured out to put the box on a higher shelf. Duh! It took awhile for him to get me trained!
Mostly, that's what I've learned about mischievious cats. Put it up and away or you only have yourself to blame if it gets stolen, broken, or otherwise kitty mauled. Of course, they are blameless and innocent. Yeah, right.