This compulsive behavior can be difficult to redirect. Here’s what you need to know.

By Karen Commings

Cats astound us with their grace and agility. They often amaze us with their antics. But some cats can also annoy us with their bad habits. One mystifying behavior is chewing wool and other fabrics. Wool chewing is one aspect of a complex set of behaviors called pica (pie’-ka), in which a cat may target the owner’s personal belongings or other materials for dinner. “Pica is the ingestion of non-food items,” says Michelle Bamberger, MS, DVM, owner of Vet Behavior Consults in Ithaca, New York. …

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