Cat loves electrical wires

[ahart44]

Does anyone have any ideas for how to stop a cat from chewing on wires??? She will not stop. She has already destroyed a compter, a cell phone charer and some speakers. PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!

[DJFyrewolf36]

I've had this issue with ALL of my cats at one point (I think alot of us have with kittens lol) What really worked for my cats was loud noises. Take an empty soda can and put something that will make a loud rattling noise. For my cats, the noise was unpleasent enough that they ran off from what they were doing and eventually stopped chewing entirely to avoid the noise. It is really important to catch them in the act too, as punishing them after the fact really does no good, at least in my experience.

Edit: I just remembered too, if she is chewing on live wires this can be REALLY dangerous. Try to keep her out of areas where she can chew on wires when you are not at home as she can really hurt herself. I got lucky with Remus, as he chewed on a computer wire and got zapped a good shot, but it didn't do any harm. While it did teach him that wires were a bad thing, I don't reccomend this method of training .

I hope that helps!

[ahart44]

I have tried a spray bottle but that has not worked and, I tried rubbing soap on the wires (vet recommened it) but nothing works. I have taped up all the wires that she can reach while we are not home (but she likes to try and chew that to ) I really want to break her of this so that she does not get hurt

[DJFyrewolf36]

Try noise. Ive delt with cats that actually LIKE being sprayed and water around open wires isn't necicarily a good thing lol. Oddly enough, an alternative to the soda can trick that has worked for me is hissing. I hiss at my cats when I want them to stop and it does get their attention. It may seem odd hissing at a cat but it has worked for me

Its good you are minimizing her exposure to wires when you arent around. I dont know what it is about wires and cats but its like catnip and they wont leave it alone. Ive tried the making the wires taste gross too, and that didn't work too well. For some reason cats just have to chew lol. Try getting your kitty some toys too and encuraging her to play. I know my cats are less inclined to chew on wires when they have something else to chew on.

[kittycats_delight]

Bitter Apple Spray is one thing that has worked for me in the past and another thing is you can get plastic casings to enclose the wires in. Those are also very effective.

[sirrahbed]

ahart44 - I also have a kitty who chews wires - I posted about it here and got some really good replies from PT folks:
wool sucking
Does your kitty also do the wool sucking? Anyway, I do have had pretty good results with the sleeves of plastic from the hardware store. Another thing I bought was clear plastic aquarium tubing as it is softer and pretty easy to slice up the side. Our Lowes has some presliced rigid strips that are designed to hide electrical cord along floorboards, etc. I bought some of those just because they make the wires look so neat

We still lose tiny speaker wires now and then - mostly we have learned never to leave them out on tables, etc - or they get chewed up. We have also gotten in the habit of using paper bags at the grocery store - these do double duty because they are terrific poop scooping bags

Good luck!

[Medusa]

My Creamsicle does that, unfortunately, but she's deaf, so obviously, making noise doesn't work w/her. So I have to use the squirt gun. She's already chewed through my speaker wires of my old computer and she loves chewing on wood. She gnaws on the doors to my computer armoire and my kitchen chairs. I wish I knew why. Good luck w/the suggestions that you got here.

[Freedom]

I put a thick coating of Vaseline over the wires. Cats don't like the texture or taste; and it will not harm the cat. It is a bit messy, and collects ALL the dust bunnies. But it saved my wires and got kitty out of the routine. I kept the Vaseline on for a good 4 months. The first time I wiped it off, she returned to chewing. So I put it back on.

I haven't needed Vaseline on my wires for 2 years!!! Small price to pay for a dust bunny collector, IMO.

And make sure there are plenty of catnip scented toys about for her to chew on, toss about etc. Distract and redirect!

[critters]

Petroleum jelly wouldn't work around here; too many of my monsters like to eat it right out of the jar. I've used dish soap, straight, slathered onto the wires, and the clear beverage tubing from the hardware store. Tubing saved the last 2 TVs; it seems to ruin the mouthfeel of the wires. We mostly had to wait for them to (mostly) outgrow the habit. The cursed curly phone cord, however, is irresistible to this day, as are flip flops and plastic clogs.

[Fuzzybuns]

How about that black tubing meant for organinzing cords?

We had a dog once that chewed the wire to an electric blanket, sadly he got electrocuted and got very sick from it. He healed fine but it took a lot of managing and was so sad. I learned from that but thankfully, none of my kitties are cord chewers.

[kuhio98]

Willow and Willy did the same when they were kittens. We bought CritterCord and that solved the problem. After about a year or so, we could leave the wires bare and they would ignore them.

[catmandu]

I have a cover as well as I dont want my Cats getting a shock. Scrappy 2 used to chew the wires but thats a while back, shes a mature Lady Cat now.

[GILL]

Over the years we have had wire crunchers. I have used bitter apple and booby traps. The traps are easy, just a few pennies in a soda can, then tape a strong thead to the can and tie it to the wire. Set the can near the edge of a table or something high, BINGO when the wire is moved the can will fall. Great for when you are not home. Just make sure that the thread is tight between the can and wire. No one chews in our house. Toys only.

[moosmom]

Wow John, that's a great idea!!! I was going to suggest covering all wires with aluminum foil. Talk about high tech!

[catlady1945]

My daughter's cat did this --- a lot. They adopted a little companion for him and that solved the problem (too busy chasing each other). Bitter apple seems to deter some.