Why do cats eat non-food items like plastic and fake plants?
Cats secretly chewing on and ingesting household items like plastic, fake plants, and fabric can lead to dangerous intestinal blockages and emergency surgeries. Owners are forced to constantly police their decorative items and monitor their pets for lethargy or changes in bathroom habits.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- People have been saying this in most months since September 2026.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
Why do cats eat non-food items like plastic and fake plants?
- 1Removing decorative items and fake plants from the homeDid this help you?
- 2Providing cat grass or cereal grasses as a safe alternativeDid this help you?
- 3Give them a textured blanket that you will never use againDid this help you?
- 4Being very careful and monitoring the cat to prevent it from eating hazardous objectsDid this help you?
- 5Putting a heavy object on top of the containerDid this help you?
- 6Switching to paper bags instead of plastic bagsDid this help you?
- 7Emergency surgery to remove ingested itemsDid this help you?
- 8Administering psyllium husk and monitoring to see if the pet passes the item naturallyDid this help you?
- 9Purchasing furniture protectors and being extra vigilant about keeping items out of reachDid this help you?
- 10Getting pet insurance to cover unexpected medical costsDid this help you?
- 11Hiding all plastic bags and empty food wrappers from the cat.Did this help you?
- 12Providing a dedicated, safer item (like a cardboard box) for the cat to destructively chew.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Became lethargic so we took her for x-rays and they found a ton of forbidden spaghetti in her guts.”source ↗
“Vet got her in for an emergency surgery which I’m gonna be financially recovering from for a long time.”source ↗
“He only does this to this one thing in the entire house. I feel like he gets a couple of strands of the pillow and either licks it, sucks it or something. It makes a weird sound.”source ↗
“I wash it every other week but it ends up matted and discolored like this almost immediately.”source ↗
“My boyfriends cats love eating fake plants, plastic etc we have to watch out decorative items”source ↗
“He will chew on damned near anything”source ↗
“He is so obsessed with plastic that you have to keep empty plastic food wrappers away from him because otherwise he will steal it.”source ↗
“My cat also LOVES plastic. So I just have to keep it away from her.”source ↗
“Weeks later I come home and I find puke in every single room, it's a wonder so much can fit into that tiny body. There were absolutely no signs that something was wrong before. It was already almost too late. Gastric obstruction.”source ↗
“My 3 y/o cat does this and one of my kittens does too.”source ↗
“Our cat is addicted to plastic bags. It started around 6 months ago. She is doing this to all shopping bags.”source ↗
“We honestly worried about him since he didn't poop for the first three days.”source ↗
“My sister had similar issues with her fur balls but nothing to this extent (no judgment OP I might add).”source ↗
“She keeps trying to open this box of Epsom salt I got and then digs it and wouldn’t stop tying to get there even if I put a heavy object on top.”source ↗
“My cat did this with floss. NOT a fun week. We opted out of surgery and (with our vet's guidance) tried the "psyllium husk + maybe he'll poop it out" route.”source ↗
“The problems is, he doesn’t stop there. He chews onto anything, Velcro, mats (my bra 😅)”source ↗
“My cat ate a ribbon/ string that was thin but soft. I just saw the end of it going in before I could grab it.”source ↗
“But like this one stole my fruit snack wrapper recently because he wanted to chew on the plastic. It was empty and he totally tried running away with it.”source ↗