What does pica look like in cats? I ask because we used to have a cat who would eat ribbon, bows, and soft mesh, and was so stubborn about it that we couldn’t have any of those things in the house or he’d get after them. Could that have been pica, or just a weird cat?

drferox:

Pica can look like eating anything which is not food for that species. Common things that cats with pica tend to chew on are fabric and plastic. Ribbon and plastic bag handles are common, as are hair ties.

Pica doesn’t always have to be nutritional or evidence of an illness. Some individual animals just have it, and it seems to run in certain breeds or families (burmese, devon rex).

It’s entirely possible that this was both a case of pica, and a weird cat.