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I’ve tried just about everything I can think of to stop our cat Cinnamon from chewing electrical wires. This is definitely her worst habit, (well aside from walking on my head at night), and no matter how many times I shoo her away from a wire and spray her, she just keeps going back at it. She knows we get upset when we start hearing the gnawing, so I’m certain she does it just to get a little extra attention. But if she doesn’t stop chewing on electrical wires, I’m afraid she is going to get something much worse.
We’ve applied different brands of apple bitter sprays directly to the wires, and it keeps her away for a little while, but ultimately it does not phase her. We shoo her away and spray her with water, and she trots off for a few minutes, but stubbornly comes back for more every time.
Does anyone have any suggestions/ideas on what I can do to break her of this habit? I would appreciate it very much!
We have the same problem with a couple of our cats. You prompted me to look it up. This page has quite a few suggestions, including enclosing them as pegasi suggested.
Maybe you can try covering them with foil paper temporarily? I know most cats hate it, and it should deter her until you find a better solution. I know it would look awful, but I worry that she would end up like the cat in Christmas Vacation (God forbid!) if she keeps it up. Does she have any other toys to play with that would be similar in texture? A catnip mouse would probably distract her, and entertain everyone. Good luck!
Thanks for the suggestions guys! That link was very helpful. I’ll try the conduit and see if that will deter her from the chewing.
My rabbit goes for the phone cord when I let her out to run around, so I have to watch her like a hawk or sit in front of the cord while she wanders, but even then, she’ll come up and try and get around me to get to it. (it’s also next to a nice dark hole behind our kitchen counter, so she likes that too) Nothing I can do about it, she is not a well trained rabbit. =P She has chewed through two phone cords so far.
Wow LOL! Does she go for any other cords, or just the phone cord? Our cat isn’t very well trained either hehe, but I do think it might be because she’s bored. We’ve thought about just getting her an unplugged cord to chew, but we’re afraid that will just reinforce her habit. 😈
Try an old leather purse strap. My cat loves cords, but will take that leather purse strap over a cord any day. I give him “the hose” if it gets to be a big problem and he usually gives it up. The problem is, he is now so old, he doesn’t do it unless he is real hungry and knows it will get my attention. But in his younger days he would go right back to it. Now, I simply keep them all tacked right along the baseboards and behind furniture. Yeah, it’s a pain to move around lighting and whatnot, but it kept my kitty from chewing them.
The purse strap worked for mine though. Just lop it off and hand it over. Ofcourse, mine developed a taste for pleather boots too…But that was before the purse strap. He’s weird what can I say? LOLLOL! That’s a good idea, I do have an old purse hanging around where I could clip the strap and see if Cinnamon would develop a chew taste for that instead. It’s sooo frustrating when we get her to stop chewing only to hear “nom nom nom” again a minute later! The worst part about it is sometimes she goes at the alarm clock cord all night long. We stick her in the bathroom with some food and water when it gets that bad! 😈
I was going to suggest plastic conduit pipe, but after reading Lamortefille’s link, looks like I have a lot of research to do tonight on the subject of potential hazards of plastic digestion in animals. >.<
Anyways, I didn’t know there was so many creative methods of making the wires less appealing. I have/had the same chewing problems with my rabbits, rats, and now a puppy (my cats never cared). Leo just ate through the TV cord in the kitchen. Thankfully he wasn’t electrocuted (I don’t remember if it was plugged in or not), but now the TV’s a big paperweight.
Yup, our one cat loved to chew wires!! And he actually liked the bitter apple stuff we sprayed. So hubby had to finally buy the cable tubing.
Yeah Cinnamon has already chewed through a cell phone charger cord, so that no longer works. 😆 I’ll start with wrapping the wires in conduit, as well as a purse strap for her to chew on, and see if any of that will make a difference!
it’s mainly the phone cord because that’s the easiest one to get to. I don’t let her in the living room with the TV cords, and I don’t let her run around in my room anymore, where my computer is.
The last time I let her run around in my room, she chewed a cord into three pieces and ran away with a piece when I realized it and tried to stop her. Booger is hard to catch. It was this awesome glass tube you put water into that swirled and had lights flashing under the water, and it had two dragons twined around the tube, that was a gift from my brother. She chewed the cord off that -.- “luckily” it wasn’t plugged in at the time -.-
Kimi would chew just about anything that’s not wires… (wire baskets included…) but my parents swear by PVC tubing.
We tried cajun to get kimi to stop scratching furniture though… and she loves it. She also likes Franks Red Hots, and anything else spicy. We’ve given up. She realized it. Then she stopped. Having said that, I’d go with the pipe, then ignore her. Less electrocution chances.
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