How to understand why a cat eats the earth? Perverse eating behavior can have several causes. It is necessary to observe the animal and analyze its actions. The situation could arise due to a psychological or medical problem. What measures should the owner take to eliminate non-standard actions of the pet?
Exploring the world
Both children and kittens actively learn the environment. The desire to taste inedible objects, including plants and land, can lead to negative consequences for the pet. Toxic decoration materials, poisonous flowers often lead to poisoning and death of the animal.
If a cat has noticed increased attention to dangerous objects, then you should be interested in her new toys or plants specially grown for chewing. You can sprout wheat, oats, lawn grass in a pot. Edible toys will take a kitten for a long time and dangerous wrecking will not become a habit in him.
An animal can also start using a pot of ground as a toilet. Scattered land and a damaged plant will bring little joy to any owner. Therefore, if you can’t distract the pet from the tank with soil, it is better to move the flowerpot to an inaccessible place.
Attention deficit
Cats are provocateurs. There is no other animal in nature capable of taking revenge or spite upon their master, as they do. Therefore, if the cat does not pay much attention, she is able to find something for herself to taste. Not a single person will stand and watch how the animal digs or eats the earth from a flower pot. The cat quickly remembers the reaction of the owner and subsequently attracts attention in this way.
Boredom and monotony reinforce the animal's research instincts. Unfolded dry food, unusual places for sleeping and playing together will diversify your pet’s life and quench your curiosity.
Mental disorders
Picacism is a disease similar in severity to anorexia and bulimia. Expressed in a desire to eat inedible objects. Appears with the result of a mental disorder, nervous shock and can lead to death.
Researches by scientists for the behavior of animals have established that pets, like people, are prone to depression and fear. Picacism in science is divided into two types:
- A common disorder is eating paper, stones, earth.
- Coprophagy - eating feces.
Cats are prone to both forms of the disease. In order to determine why a cat eats the earth from a psychological point of view, it is necessary to analyze all the facts from the life of the pet.
The problem could have arisen in childhood, especially for animals picked up at an early age from the street. Starvation leads to death in 3-4 days. Even if during this period the kitten was rescued and provided with the required care, the consequences of the injury may occur in a few years. An animal throughout its life will often suffer from gluttony and often this leads to the second type of eating disorder - coprophagy.
A domestic cat is more difficult to suffer from hunger, due to circumstances it turns out to be on the street and forced to remain without food. Having found a secluded shelter, the pet hides and a sense of fear blocks the need for food. The pet is fettered by fear and prevents it from moving. If the owners manage to find the animal and save it, recent impressions have long haunted the shocked. Here is another psychological reason why a cat eats earth from indoor pots.
Stomach cleansing
Representatives of the cat family tend to cleanse the intestines and stomach from parasites and accumulated wool. In the wild, sand is used as an sorbent by animals. It irritates the mucous membrane and leads to vomiting along with clots of wool, and also destroys parasites in the colon. Therefore, the explanation of why a cat eats the earth may lie in the natural process of cleansing the body.
Earth or sand may be present in the feces, and the animal will eat greed with such a problem. Laboratory analysis will help determine the presence of a worm. So you can confirm the relationship of land eating and the presence of parasites.
At the same time, preventive measures do not give a 100% guarantee of protection against worms and pests, since their range of action is limited.
Symptoms of vitamin deficiency
An insufficient amount of nutrient components as a result of an unbalanced diet can lead to eating and licking objects that are unsuitable at first glance. It can be cardboard, filler for a tray, own biological waste.
Why does a cat eat earth from a flower pot? If the substrate for planting was purchased in a specialized store - we can safely assume a lack of trace elements. Indeed, fertilizers contain many minerals, such as sodium, potassium, phosphorus, calcium.
Vitaminosis can be determined by dull hair or uneven appetite - some animals become gluttons, while others begin to starve. The veterinarian with the help of tests will help establish whether there is a deficiency of minerals and vitamins, and will prescribe the required treatment.
Premium feeds contain all the necessary vitamin and mineral complex, selected depending on the age and preferences of the pet. Therefore, veterinarians recommend using special food for the cat family. It is important to choose a quality product - this is guaranteed to get rid of problems with nutritional deficiencies.
Manifestation of the disease
In addition to a deficiency of minerals, perverse nutrition is the result of an illness. Why does a cat eat land in a garden or pot? An unhealthy desire to eat can be a consequence of:
- leukemia
- diabetes
- anemia
- digestive system problems;
- tumors affecting the functioning of the nervous system.
With anemia, the animal is more likely to lick the surface of the earth, plaster, stones and metal objects. You can identify the disease by a clinical blood test, and the first signs are a slow heart rate, pallor of the gums, cool limbs and the smell of metal when breathing.
How to wean a pet from a harmful occupation?
In principle, there is nothing wrong with cleansing the body with earth from indoor pots for cats. It is important that there are no harmful elements in the earth. And since the composition of urban soil includes toxins, gasoline impurities and other chemical compounds, that is, land is not safe for cats on the street and in the garden. Finding environmentally friendly soil in modern life is extremely difficult.
Instead of being useful, the consequences of consuming such soil can be dire. Therefore, special pastes dissolving wool or green grass will replace the earthen sorbent.
Proper care of the cat, good nutrition, games, walks and regular preventive examinations at the veterinarian will help keep the pet healthy.