Excessive Licking?

[cooterz]

My F2 male has recently adopted an "odd" habit to his list of intriguing behaviors: licking objects.

He tends to lick rough textures such as textured drywall, tile, and his most recent liking: the rock tiles next to my fire place (as well as the mortar which adheres the rock tile to the drywall).

I can only assume he likes the feel of it against his tongue, but I'm not really sure why. Is this something that may have to do with his diet (like a bad taste in his mouth)?

He doesn't do it ALL the time, but there are definitely times where I'll hear him going at the floor or wall for a good minute. It's not really annoying, but I do worry that he may pick up something toxic from the paint on the drywall (I believe it's latex based) or something similar.

He doesn't seem to be focused on a specific spot as I've tried cleaning the places he licked initially to rule out a possibility of an odd smell that was lingering.

I have owned dogs in the past and I do know that this is a fairly common behavior (licking furniture, leather, etc.) and a handful of my dogs did display this, but I haven't seen it as much with cats.

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

I've not seen it a lot in my cats. I do notice it in very young kittens here and think it might be a little similar to the toddler wanting to stick everything in their mouths, the kittens seem to want to try licking all surfaces. But this phase doesn't seem to last too long, wonder with your kitten if this has developed into a habit?

I might consider also if his diet is complete, maybe if he was lacking some sort of mineral then licking rock tiles might make sense? I don't know! Very odd!

 

[cooterz]

Well I guess it's good to know that it may pass over. Honestly I'm not that worried as long as it's not harming his well being.

I did post another thread regarding his diet which is purely cut up chicken breasts with a Mazuri powder supplement.

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

If you are supplementing the chicken per manufacturer's recommendations then I doubt it is diet. It could just be his "thing"...or he might get over it too. I'd probably only worry if it seemed to become obsessive...

 

[admin]

I do agree though that it may be his diet...chicken breast is very low in fat and thighs/legs are much better than breast...mazuri is a great supplement, but I don't think it has everything a cat needs such as the fat aspect...same goes for rabbit - very low in fat and lean, so I supplement it with a bit of duck...

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

So you think lack of fat would make a kitten/cat lick walls? I thought of it more as a mineral deficiency thing possibly not general nutrient thing.

I find that my cats simply don't like fatty meats...so when Bobo was insisting on chicken drumsticks he would not touch the thigh, but would eat chicken breast. They haven't liked duck at all...and I think it is the fattiness of it. With the rabbit pieces I get from Hare Today, sometimes it seems to be a very fatty rabbit they've cut up and if so the cats won't touch it. If I trim all the fat off they will eat it though...brats!

 

[admin]

I don't know...I just think there is something missing...

I add a tiny bit of duck..or salmon oil and egg yolks...mine don't really like duck either, so I have tried different ways...I do know that all the raw food diets I have read say not to use breasts...