Professional Documents
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APPLIED ANIMAL
BEHAVIOUR
SCIENCE
Factors affecting pica in the domestic cat
John W.S. Bradshaw a.*, Peter F. Neville b, Diana Sawyer a
Anthro;oolog~ Instime, Department ofBio/og~, Uni~rsin of Southampton. Southampton SO16 7PX. UK
h Centre ofApplied Pet Ethology PO Box 18. Tisbuy. Wiltshire SP3 6NQ, UK
Abstract
A postal survey was conducted of the owners of 152 cats, mainly of oriental breeds, which
exhibited pica (defined broadly, as chewing, sucking or ingesting non-nutritive materials). The
most common material was wool (93% of cases), followed by cotton, man-made fabrics.
rubber/plastic and paper/cardboard (8%). Actual ingestion was as likely to occur in Burmese
cats as in Siamese, in contradiction to a report from the USA (Houpt, 1985). Pica appeared to be
linked to infantile behaviour in non-oriental cats, but possibly not in orientals. Onset of pica could
occur at any time during the first 4 years of the cats life, but was most frequent in the 2 months
following rehoming. Onset in other cabes could not be linked to rehoming, but tended to occur
between 6 and 18 months of age, and may therefore be linked to the onset of sexual maturity or
territorial behaviour. Neutering had little effect on the expression of pica.
KrJu~orckc Domestic cat; Siamese cat: Burmese cat: Pica; Wool-eating: Behavioural disorders
1. Introduction
Pica, the ingestion of non-nutritive items, has been most widely documented in man,
although the term itself originates from the Latin word for a magpie. Even in man, there
has been some confusion as to whether it should be classified as an eating disorder in its
own right, or as a symptom of other types of mental illness (see Parry-Jones and
Parry-Jones, 1992 for a review). Its most common form in man is geophagy (earth/clay
ingestion), often associated with iron deficiency, but cravings for paper and cloth have
been reported. In animals, phosphorus deficiency can lead to consumption of bone
fragments, which may have some nutritive value. Other types of animal pica appear to
be poorly documented.
Corresponding author. Tel: 44 (170.7) 594154: Fax: 34 (I 703) 591269.
0168- 1591 /Y7/$17.00 Q 1997 Elaevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PI/ SO168-1591(96)01 136.7
374 J. W.S. Bradshaw et al./Applied Animal Behaciour Science 52 (1997) 373-379
Cases of pica in domestic cats usually involve the ingestion of wool, although the cat
may progress to other fabrics (Houpt and Wolski, 1982). Authors in the USA have
reported that ingestion of wool is largely restricted to pure-bred and cross-bred Siamese
cats (Houpt and Wolski, 1982; Borchelt and Voith, 1982), although cats of other breeds
may suck or chew fabrics without ingestion (Houpt, 1985).
Pica in cats has been classified variously as a stereotypy (McKeown et al., 19921,
with compulsive grooming (Overall, 1992), and as an ingestive behaviour problem
(Borchelt and Voith, 1982). Since it is largely restricted to certain breeds, it must have
some genetic basis, but it also has environmental triggers which are poorly understood.
Houpt and Wolski (19821 suggested that it might (or might not) be linked to early
weaning; OFarrell and Neville (1994) have proposed that it may be a form of redirected
prey-catching/ingesting behaviour, or a stereotypy induced by short-term acute stress.
In this paper we present the results of a survey of owners of cats exhibiting some
form of pica, which we have defined broadly as including sucking and/or chewing of
non-nutritive materials, as well as actual ingestion, since the former is thought to lead to
the latter (Houpt and Wolski, 1982). Preliminary reports of this work (Neville and
Bradshaw, 1991; Neville and Bradshaw, 1994) have included recommendations for
treatment, as does OFarrell and Neville (1994); these will not be considered here.
2. Methods
We used a questionnaire to gather information from owners of cats that they
considered exhibited some form of pica. For each cat, the following information was
requested:
The breed, age and sex of the cat (including whether neutered);
The age at which the cat was acquired and the age when pica was first noticed;
The materials involved and whether they are ingested or merely sucked/chewed;
Whether the cat (if over 7 months old) exhibits continued infantile behaviour such as
excessive kneading with the forepaws, or suckling of the owners skin;
Whether neutering altered the expression of the pica;
The damage done by the cat (valued in pounds sterling);
Any reduction in the pleasure in owning the cat caused by the pica, on a four-point
scale (1: not at all; 2: slightly; 3: quite a lot; 4: significantly); and whether the cats
pica would influence the owners decision to obtain another cat of the same breed.
Owners were recruited via articles in Cat World Magazine, Cats, the Journal of the
Feline Advisory Bureau, the Bristol Evening Post, and Siamese and Burmese Breed
Club Newsletters. The sample is therefore unlikely to be representative of cats as a
whole, since we specifically targeted breeds thought to be most susceptible to pica. Out
of 152 cats for which we obtained information, 84 were Siamese or first crosses, 42
were Burmese or first crosses, nine were other oriental types (including four Birman)
and 17 were described as crossbreeds (British type). The sample contained slightly more
males (57%) than females (43%), but this may not indicate a difference in susceptibility,
since the post-weaning sex ratio in litters is biased in favour of males (Robinson and
Cox, 1970). Eighty percent of the females had been spayed, and 94% of the males had
J. W.S. Bmdshaw et al. /Applied Animal BehalGur Science 52 f 19971 373-379
375
been castrated. Sex ratios and the proportion neutered were similar in the four breed
groups.
Responses to each item of the questionnaire were categorised and their inter-relation-
ships were examined by Chi-squared tests for r X 2 and r X k tables. and Spearman
rank-order correlations (Siegel and Castellan. 1988).
3. Results
The commonest fabric reported in the survey was wool (93% of cases), followed by
cotton (64%). and synthetic fabrics (53%). Twenty-two percent of cases included rubber
or plastic materials, such as electrical insulation, rubber bands and babies pacifiers
(dummies). A small number (8%) also included paper or cardboard. The frequency of
occurrence of the different materials was similar between the four breed groups
( x2 = 17.3. df = 12. P = 0.14) and between the sexes ( x1 = 0.64, df = 5, P = 0.96).
Thirty-six cases involved only a single material (75% wool), 45 involved two materials,
52 three. and 19 four or five. In four cases rubber/plastic was the only type of material
involved, and in two rubber/plastic was combined with cotton but not wool.
In cases involving two or more materials, each cat tended to either simply suck/chew
or (chew and) ingest, irrespective of the material; only three cats ate one material and
chewed another. As many Burmese cats (45%) ingested one or more materials as did
Siamese (48%). Ingestion was commonest for cotton (52%) and least common for
rubber/plastic (36%). Ingestion of wool was slightly less common (3 1% of cases) when
no other fabric was ingested than when several fabrics were ingested (50%) ( x2 = 3.14.
df = 1. P = 0.07), which tends to confirm that pica often progresses from chewing wool
to chewing other fabrics, and then to ingestion.
3. I. hfardle behaljiour
In the adult cats (> 7 months). infantile behaviour was reported in 29% of Burmese
and 37% of Siamese cats. Since reliable figures for the incidence of this type of
behaviour in cats not exhibiting pica are unavailable, it is not possible to state that this is
an unexpectedly high proportion, but it is clear from the figures that pica is not
inextricably linked with infantile behaviour. Among the crossbred cats, a higher
proportion (69%) did exhibit infantile behaviour (comparing crossbreeds, Siamese and
Burmese, x = 8.1, df = 2, P = 0.021, which is almost certainly substantially elevated
compared with the general population. Cats displaying infantile behaviour were no
different from the remainder (i) in their age of onset of pica; (ii) whether they chewed or
ingested; or (iii) the number of materials chewed or ingested.
3.1. Age qf onset
Taken together, the distributions of the ages of the cats (Fig. 11 and the reported age
of onset (Table 11 indicate that pica is likely to appear during the first year of life, and
then persist for at least several years. The most common age for onset is between 2 and
316 J. W.S. Bradshaw et al. /Applied Animal Behaviour Science 52 (19971373-379
35 .I