Our cats have made plastic bags the bane of our existence.
When our first cat Spider Jim started licking plastic bags my husband and I
thought it was something unique to him. We had both grown up with dogs and
didn’t know of this odd behavior. As
much as Spider seemed to enjoy licking the bags Duncan, who lives with us now,
does it purely to irritate us and get attention. When Stubby Jones moved in he
had no interest in plastic bags but within a couple of months of watching how
it worked for Duncan he jumped on the bandwagon. Now, it can be a plastic bag licking
symphony at 5:00 AM on a Saturday morning. Fortunately, our arrogant tuxedo cat
Fiddle has no interest in plastic bags. He thinks the behavior is barbaric and
beneath him.
I have read many articles and columns on cats licking or
chewing plastic and the most common answer is cats like the taste of “tallow” a
form of animal fat that is used when manufacturing plastic bags. Tallow comes
from a form of beef or mutton fat that conforms to certain technical criteria,
including its melting point. It is common for commercial tallow to contain fat
derived from other animals, such as lard from pigs. Some cats have a strong
sense of smell and enjoy the taste. Ick!
As funny as it can be to watch your cat playing with a
plastic bag it’s best to supervise them. Plastic bags
can get caught around their neck and choke them if it gets caught on something,
pieces can be chewed off and swallowed, and if trapped in a bag they can
suffocate. If your cat ingests a bag this could create some serious, and
expensive, medical problems. Never pull
out accidentally ingested material, even slowly, from a cat's anus or mouth
because those items may become twisted around the digestive tract therefore you
may accidentally pull out the intestines. Take your cat to the vet.
During the week Duncan gets up at 6:30, however on weekends
it is 5:00 which he does just to annoy us. He will employ the plastic bag
maneuver to get us up. When we hear this
little crinkling sound, which is just loud just loud enough to wake us, we know
Duncan is ready to eat. We swear the cat has a secret stash that he sneaks them
off to when we aren’t looking. Either
that or he deals in plastic bags like contraband with other cats off the fire
escape when we aren’t home. More than my husband and I it is Fiddle who is most
annoyed by the licking. He always gives the other two cats a death stare then
looks at us and gives his best ‘see, this would not happen if I were an only
cat’ look then glides out of the room.
