| joe carrow |
This cat is unreal! So far she's eaten two cell phone chargers, a laptop charger, a set of computer speakers, and she's started on my surround sound speaker wires.
Does ANYBODY know why cats chew on wires, and what can be done to stop it? :bawling:
By the way- I've re-spliced almost all of the chewed wires, but I worry that some day she'll chew through something dangerous. I try to keep everything out of reach, but sometimes it's just not practical.
I couldn't remember if I asked this before, so I searched the forum. This seems to be a new topic. Thanks in advance, all. |
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| gbyleveldt |
| Get rid of the cat?! :D |
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| blu_line |
She is a young bored and playful cat !
Wait until your wife want rabbits. That will give you even more headache. :D
And i can tell you from experience since we have 2 French Long ear rabbits.
grtz
Simon |
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| Wynand |
"Get rid of the cat?! "
Elegant and easy solution...I like it:clown: |
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| heater |
| Hmm.. I wonder which cables cats prefer. |
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| wrenchone |
| Paint the cables with the Cayenne pepper extract used to keep kids from sucking their thumbs... |
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| Nordic |
| Cats are people too. |
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| Geek |
I have four furry babies and what one does, the rest seem to do.
Give them an alternative. A scratching post, rabbit-fur chew toy, etc. I wouldn't recommend a ball of string, since 1) they'll see the wire as more string and 2) they can choke on it.
Houses with cats need the same "child proofing" as one with kids do. Redress the cables so they are out of sight works best. Always remember this simple rule, "Out of kitty sight, out of kitty mind" :D
Good luck! |
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| SY |
| quote: | | Always remember this simple rule, "Out of kitty sight, out of kitty mind" |
Then why is it that when I'm in the bathroom with the door closed, I keep seeing a paw sticking under the door swiping at the air? (And it's not the air that does it!) |
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| soongsc |
| Rub some dog smell on the cables? |
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| Netlist |
| quote: | Originally posted by SY
Then why is it |
There must be a gap...I'm sure.
/Hugo |
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| Geek |
| quote: | Originally posted by SY
Then why is it that when I'm in the bathroom with the door closed, I keep seeing a paw sticking under the door swiping at the air? (And it's not the air that does it!) |
Just a paw?
The cats usually insist on at least three be in there with me... :D |
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| EC8010 |
| quote: | Originally posted by heater
Hmm.. I wonder which cables cats prefer. |
Easy. Tektronix oscilloscope probe cables. |
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| analog_sa |
This thread should have rather been titled
"Cat chewing Cat5" |
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| karma |
when im working on a project, i lock the cat out of the room.
she only likes the fine wire;) |
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| nickds1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by joe carrow
Does ANYBODY know why cats chew on wires, and what can be done to stop it? |
Cheap solution, only costs $0.10
24g, 7.5, 12G (you know what it is) = :dead: |
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| Eric |
Not sure if it will work for cats, but it works for dogs that chew on their leashes, etc. Get some anti-persperant deoderant and give your cables a good coating. Dogs hate it, but cat tongues are different, so I don't know if it will have the same impact.
Good luck with your problem!
Eric |
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| 5u4 |
My cat loves to chew mainly on interconnect cables for some reason.
Her favorite was a pair of Monster M1000i which has dozens & dozens of small holes/bite marks all along the outer insulation.
She's just started on my new pair of XLO's, Just won't buy any more expensive cables, I guess..... |
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| tvi |
| quote: | | My cat loves to chew mainly on interconnect cables for some reason. Her favorite was a pair of Monster M1000i which has dozens & dozens of small holes/bite marks all along the outer insulation. She's just started on my new pair of XLO's, Just won't buy any more expensive cables, I guess.. |
But Does the M1000i sound better now :)
If it does try feeding the cat some resistors and later collect them, who knows
luwak coffee
Regards
James |
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| gbyleveldt |
AAAarrgghhh!!!!!:ill: :yikes:
I saw this on Discovery a while back. What some people would do for a cuppa! |
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| nickds1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by gbyleveldt
AAAarrgghhh!!!!!:ill: :yikes:
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What's always worried me about this, is the mentality of the individual who first discovered it...
Who, in their right mind, would think of such a thing? |
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| gbyleveldt |
| Ja, it's like "Hmm.... I wonder what that tastes like" :rolleyes: |
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| Nordic |
| Cats like playing with wormy/snakey things... I had a grey one, you only needed to draw a wormlike squigle on a piece of paper and she'd start pouncing the page... |
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| bulgin |
Hi Joe
How about a wee little furlined kitty muzzle?
Or otherwise, employ a kitty minder.
Last intelligent tip: Get a dachshund.
bulgin |
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| 5u4 |
But Does the M1000i sound better now :)
If it does try feeding the cat some resistors and later collect them, who knows
The Monster's don't seem to sound any different, but they aren't all that great to begin with. All the time & $ spent fooling with different cables, I still go back to my $2 Radio Shack silver tip cheapo jobs. Glad I got into DIY. Now if I want to tweak the sound, I'll change a couple of .50 cent cathode bypass cap or whatever, to fine tune the sound instead of hundreds on cables, etc.
Feeding the cat resistors reminds me of a friend who's Boston Terrier used to like to eat crayons...... very colorful results. |
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| dsavitsk |
Well, to offer an actual and non-cruel solution, cats hate sour smells. Go to your local pet supply store and get some citrus or green apple scent and put it on or around the cables. My brother's cat chewed through a 120V lamp cable and got burned pretty badly, and citrus oil kept her from coming back.
Now, if anyone could tell me how to keep my cat from vomiting on the white living room chair again that would be a real help. |
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| xplod1236 |
| Put the citrus scent on the white chair. That should keep the cat away. |
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| Dave |
| Squirt the cat with a water pistol when she starts to chew on a cable. |
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| Panicos K |
| dsavitsk,are you sure that it is the citrus oil that kept your brother's cat away of the 120 volt lines?I think it's the 120 volts that made the wonder. |
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| Curmudgeon |
| To keep cats from scratching furniture, climbing where they shouldn't, I just tried bands of double-sided sticky tape. www.stickypaws.com is the mfr, I bought mine at a pet supply store. Worked on furniture that was being used for scratching, and should work on the cables too, and very well on the white furniture mentioned above. They hate the stickiness, it's very effective; seems to be learned after one event. |
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| tomtt |
| quote: | Originally posted by Curmudgeon
To keep cats from scratching furniture, climbing where they shouldn't, I just tried bands of double-sided sticky tape. www.stickypaws.com is the mfr, I bought mine at a pet supply store. Worked on furniture that was being used for scratching, and should work on the cables too, and very well on the white furniture mentioned above. They hate the stickiness, it's very effective; seems to be learned after one event. |
the above might be the best idea.
could let water trickle in the bathtub,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/awfulsara/168458271/
they'll watch this for hours- |
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| joe carrow |
Thank you all very much for your suggestions. I think I am going to give the sour flavor a try- I have a cell phone charger that would be most conveniently used within the cat's reach.
I just hope it doesn't leave a slimy residue that will get on my hands! |
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| ak_47_boy |
| Rub a bit of tabasco on :) Well know to keep puppys from chewing on 120v cables, should work on cats. |
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| Nordic |
| My cats like curry as much as they do catnip... |
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| neutron7 |
get a squirt gun and squirt the cat when she does it. and say "bad"
(squirt gun great cat control, they hate it but it can not hurt them)
get something more fun to play with. and maybe she needs something else to chew on. (catnip mouse?)
get a laser pointer most cats love to try and chase the beam and as they are also quite lazy you can tire them out :) |
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| Nordic |
| best cat toy... although it needs a human operator.... is a piece if string with a tassle on one end and a dowel on the other... looks like a fishingrod basicaly... |
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| phn |
Please, do not shoot the messenger.
It made me laugh. And I used to have a cat.
Chewing on cables is serious. Maybe you need to teach the cat a lesson once and for all.
I couldn't tell my cat anything. If I told him, "bad cat" or whatever, raising my finger at him, his ears would go backward and then he would try to claw my finger or face, whatever was the closest. Then he would walk away really slowly, like he was making a point, then lay down facing away from me. No manners whatsoever.
"FUNNY CAT SPINNING ON CEILING FAN"
http://video.google.com.au/videopla...6464742673716&q |
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| Daveis |
Yup, had a kitty eat an expensive toslink cable. Anything that looks like string grabs their attention. If you can tape it down with duct tape that sometimes works. Or use one of those rubber cable runners to stop people from tripping on cables they sell at hardware stores.
I'm not sure the tobasco or citrus will have enough odor. The cat will still be able to swat at it. If the cable is somehow fastened to not move it wont be as interesting.
I've seen cats eat plastic bags. I've heard that some of the biodegradeable plastics now are made with soy produts. And cats like the taste.
Or try covering the cables with carpet on the floor. Clear packing tape on the verticals.
Good luck. Kitties like to do things simply because they **** humans off. |
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| Bama Slamma |
| That reminds me of the scene in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation where the cat chewed on the tree lights and got electrocuted. BTW that cat spinning on the ceiling fan video was a scream! I'll be laughing for days on that one! :D |
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| nunayafb |
Several ideas:
1. attach a pole or broom or something to a string near the cables so when he plays with it he knocks the pole onto himself- he'll begin to associated the cables with danger(and mild pain)
2. Bitter apple was designed for this, rub it onto the cables.
3. The lesson will be learned fastest if the cat gets shocked, so ask a vet what a safe voltage will be and charge a capacitor to it and let the cat chew through it, he'll only do it once.
4. Buy some cheap RS cables for him for christmas, this wont deter him from cables though but you might keep him off the good ones.
5. Buy some RS cables and play with the cat wrapping the cables around him tightly and whip him (gently), do this daily until he loses interest in cables, in other words give him daily bad experiences with cables.
6. :devilr: My favorite, ONLY DO THIS WITH A CAMCORDER PLEASE, get a small shock collar for a dog and shock his *** every time he touches the cables- be sure to post the videos:devilr: |
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| keantoken |
Hello, all.
The cat might just be chewing because it needs something to sink its teeth into... Is it hungry? Cats will eat a lot when they are lonely or depressed, so if it feels neglected in any way, it might feel hungry and want to chew on something gummy. You might want to try and see if there is a difference in the feel or look of the victim and less popular cables. :)
The spray bottle idea is probably the best, but my grandmother has a cat who will sit at her water bowl and play in it! Grammy could try using the spray bottle, but I'm sure the cat wouldn't mind it the least.
Every once in a while we will hear this SPLOOSH coming from the bathroom sink and we instantly know who it is! :D
Also, I believe that a cat that wants to chew on things all the time is a bored cat, so if an animal-related TV channel comes on and the cat seems interested, you may want to spare it the boredom.
My grammy's cats will sometimes lay down in front of the TV and just stare at it. Not like they understand what's happening on the human level, but they probably know more about what goes on in those TV animals' heads than we do!
Cats are just weird... there's not really much of a way to describe it. They are clever and cunning animals, and if their intellectual needs are not attended to, they become distant from the owners.
I think that to solve this problem, you first need to solve your cat!
Oh, and about the shock method, I think that's kind of close to the head. Don't want to do brain damage! :clown:
Hope this helps,
- keantoken |
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| EC8010 |
| My cat looked at me vacantly when I asked her about her intellectual needs. Mice to hunt, somewhere to sleep, food, fuss and attention, plus treats when I'm cooking - that's all she seems to need. |
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| Daveis |
I found the squirt bottle kind of works. But the cat quickly realizes that if there's no human around, then there's no squirt bottle either. They just wait until you are asleep at night to come out to play.
One thing that works almost as good as a squirt bottle is to make a cat-like "hissing" sound at them. If you "meow" at your cat they seem to think you are being stupid, but if you hiss they seem to understand that you are angry/scolding/warning them off. Normally, I think trying to make animal sounds in an attempt to communicate with animals is quite silly. But this kind of works.
Things that don't work... RC control trucks. I once tried to use my RC control truck to play with me sisters dog. He was completely scared of it mostly because of the sound it made. Then I used the truck on three kitties. They thought it was an interesting object that needed to be observed at all times, but from a high vantage point. The cats seemed to instantly realize that the RC truck was limited to travel on the ground and that they could easily escape it. It was a curiosity that they were neither afraid of nor wanted to play with.
I used to work on computers around kitties. I'd be sitting on the floor with a tower PC case open. Little Grey Kitty (codename StinkerPie) would come over and instantly want to paw at the cables in the PC.
Then there was the "walking the cat" experiment. You get one of these cat harnesses and try to train the cat to walk on a leash. I suppose with the right cat it can be done... but it will never be as rewarding as walking the dog.... so what's the point. It's a test of wills and the cat is going to win.
So, I'd vote for "decoy" cable. Give them 50 cables/ropes hanging from the ceiling off in the corner of a room. It'll be like a kitty playground.
Then DIY them a little Cat Amusement park. It should be like a miniature house or like a kid's "Fort". |
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| keantoken |
Ummm...
Whenever I used to try and hiss at the cats, they'd hiss back and the fight was on. You don't want to provoke a cat.
Okay, maybe I was exaggerating a bit about the intellectual needs. :)
But do realize that cats are still some of the smartest house pets that there are. That's why they get angry when you pat them like you pat some dogs. :)
The dangling cables seems like one of the best ideas, but at the same time you don't want something that your cat will try to swallow. Cats come in varieties, so your cat may not try to swallow cables that hang from the ceiling.
| quote: | Originally posted by Daveis
So, I'd vote for "decoy" cable. Give them 50 cables/ropes hanging from the ceiling off in the corner of a room. It'll be like a kitty playground.
Then DIY them a little Cat Amusement park. It should be like a miniature house or like a kid's "Fort". |
My favorite!
Certain cats I suppose just need their own private territory that they can just sleep in without being bothered. But if you constantly violate that space, then your cat will feel that it can never get away from you. If you promise something to your cat, keep that promise at all costs.
For constructing this, It would be best to cover the boards (plywood will work fine if it is constructed in "boxes" with openings leading to the surrounding boxes) with some type of heavy duty carpet or rug, just so that your cat doesn't slip off of the plyboard whenever it tries to pull itself up. Construct it as a simple fort would be, every "box" not having openings on all sides but have a slightly complex layout so that your cat has to use its brain. Remember, cats love high places! :devilr: hehe... That should be fun....
Oh, and most cats love to be brushed, so you might perhaps include a large brush secured to the wall in it's little "playground" so that it can attend to its own cosmetic needs. :)
Cats are cool. :cool:
- keantoken |
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| gmphadte |
Put flexible metal worm pipe on the cables that can pass through
Gajanan phadte |
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| Geek |
| quote: | Originally posted by gmphadte
Put flexible metal worm pipe on the cables that can pass through
Gajanan phadte |
BX sheath, eh? There's an industrial solution. I like it :) |
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