Said It Here

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 people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    Removing decorative items and fake plants from the home
  2. 2
    Providing cat grass or cereal grasses as a safe alternative
  3. 3
    Give them a textured blanket that you will never use again

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/cats5 people · September 2026

Became lethargic so we took her for x-rays and they found a ton of forbidden spaghetti in her guts.source ↗

AnalSexPenis · r/cats · 114 upvotes

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 ↗

neurohazard757 · r/cats · 14 upvotes

My boyfriends cats love eating fake plants, plastic etc we have to watch out decorative itemssource ↗

Terrible-Run6878 · r/cats · 11 upvotes

My 3 y/o cat does this and one of my kittens does too.source ↗

Plenty_Assist_4217 · r/cats · 5 upvotes

We honestly worried about him since he didn't poop for the first three days.source ↗

neurohazard757 · r/cats · 4 upvotes

My sister had similar issues with her fur balls but nothing to this extent (no judgment OP I might add).source ↗

Strict-Season-102 · r/cats · 3 upvotes

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised