„What are you eating again?“ Pica syndrome in the cat.
Pica pica is the scientific name of the magpie and describes a behaviour in which actually inedible things are eaten deliberately. One example of this is cats that specifically eat plastic. Depending on the literature consulted, chewing on unsuitable objects such as cables or sucking on fabric or body parts is also referred to as pica. It is important to distinguish between the accidental ingestion of foreign bodies when playing, which unfortunately occurs more often in cats due to the special nature of their tongue. Various theses on the development of Pica syndrome. Pica syndrome has been known in cats for more than 40 years, but it is still unclear why cats consume specific articles such as plastic, hair ties, wool, shoelaces or similar. However, over the course of time some investigations have been carried out. And based on the results, some assumptions have been made. Let’s take a closer look at both first. Differences between different breeds: Bradshaw et al.1 described in 1997 that oriental cats were proportionally more affected by pica than other …