My Kat is a kleptomaniac

[SamIam]

or something

Here's the deal - My cats have a large ceramic bowl which I keep filled with crunchies and which resides in my kitchen on the floor right beneath the counter.

A little while back, I discovered some safety pins - fortunately closed - in with the kitty crunchies. I thought maybe I had absently minded left a few pins on the counter and one of the cats had jumped up and knocked them down into the food. I removed the pins from the crunchies and made sure the counter was clean. I put the pins with the others in a box in a closed drawer.

The next morning there were 3 more pins in the food. I removed them also. A couple of days later there were 5 pins! This went on until I noticed one of the kitties, Flicker, slithering under the chest of drawers in my bedroom. She pawed around under there a bit, then emerged with a large safety pin in her mouth and headed straight for the kitchen to drop it into the bowl.

I pulled the dresser out and saw that quite a few safety pins had spilled on the floor behind it - Flicker's secret stash! I swept the remaining pins up off the floor, restored them to their box and thought the episode was over.

Until I put my Christmas tree up and ornament hangers began to appear in the kibble bowl. Not the ornaments themselves which I'd think a cat would find quite tempting - just the hangers. I feel concerned about the hangers because a pointy piece of fine wire with a hook on each end might cause some damage to the feline who accidently swallowed one. I looked everywhere for Flicker's hanger stash and never found it.

Yesterday Flicker moved on to dimes - seriously! There were 3 in with the kibble yesterday evening. I removed them. When I got home tonight there were two new dimes waiting. I'm pretty sure that Flicker gets the dimes from a small basket containing spare change on my coffee table. But why only dimes and not nickles or pennies?

And why does Flicker drop the dimes and those other things into her food? Is she leaving me tips? Making offerings to the kibble gods so that more and better crunchies keep coming? Anyone have an explanation for this wierd feline behavior?

[xoxoxoBruce]

I know how hard it is to make ends meet, so when they do you better pin 'em together safely, 'cause if you don't hook up with the kibble pimp, I'm calling PETA, or the SPCA, and dropping a dime on your ass. Love, Flicker

[Juniper]

That is TOO funny. My cats do that with ponytail elastics.

[limey]

Is it to do with the taste of the metal?

[SamIam]

Originally Posted by limey

Is it to do with the taste of the metal?

Maybe. Maybe she has some kind of mineral or iron deficiency? While I may skimp on myself, the cats do pretty well. I buy smaller bags of good quality kibble and vary it, so they don't get bored. I could try them on Science Diet to see if the problem persists.

But if I buy them Science Diet, Flicker better start making offerings of gold dollars!

[Flint]

Originally Posted by limey

Is it to do with the taste of the metal?

I have wondered that.

I used to work in a fileroom and would come home with pockets full of paperclips. One of my cats would stalk the paperclips, tracking them by the jingling sound. He was obsessed with paperclips, and would ceremoniously trot off with them, held in his fangs like defeated prey.

He was stashing them, among other places, at the bottom of his food bowl.

[Shawnee123]

Taj used to put her little fuzzy mice in her food bowl. I always thought it was her maternal instinct, though she never had children of her own. Her fuzzy mice were her babies. I must need new fuzzy mice, I have no idea where the old ones got to.

[Nirvana]

Do cats get Pica?

[Shawnee123]

Originally Posted by Nirvana

Do cats get Pica?

Only the elite ones

Ba DUM dum.

[Lamplighter]

Quite a bold statement

[CzinZumerzet]

My two mogs use odd bits and pieces to cover their dry food once they have eaten enough for the moment. It doesn't seem to matter what they use, just whatever is lying around. Yesterday it was stamps. I collect used stamps for charity resale and they used a little stack of them to partially cover their food.

For whose benefit? Marauding beasts? Me? Each other? Spiders?

[SamIam]

Originally Posted by Nirvana

Do cats get Pica?

I Googled it, and, yes, some cats get pica - especially Siamese. The article also said the cat may have a "compulsive disorder"! Good grief! Did I raise them wrong? Was I being too strict when I forced them to wash the dishes?

The final possibility is that the cat is bored and makes up little games for itself. I think this last is the correct answer. Flicker doesn't try to eat these odd items, she just carries them around until she gets ready to eat and then naturally drops them into the food dish.

So this afternoon I bought her an intricate cat toy with lots of feathers and ribbons to cheer her up. And it sure beats the price of taking her to the cat psychiatrist and trying to dig her kittenhood traumas out of her.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

snip--
I must need new fuzzy mice, I have no idea where the old ones got to.

You might check the litterbox...

[Clodfobble]

If he doesn't sleep in a little kitty-cat bed or anything, the food bowl is probably the only place he considers "his."

[HungLikeJesus]

Maybe one cat is setting a trap for the other.