Tail chewing

[twizzler]

Hi. I’m not on that often, so please forgive me if this has been asked before. I didn’t find a thread.

My Cyrus is about 4. In the last couple of months he’s been chewing the end of his tail.
I’ve put sour apple on it, but that hasnt stopped him.
Luckily, he’s not drawn blood, but I’m still concerned that he will cause long term damage.

Is this a sphynx trait? Any ideas on how to get him to stop??

Please help

 

[Bailey21]

@twizzler Hello! I also asked this question as our boy did the same thing in the past. Ill post my thread here so you can scroll through some of the responses I got, and watch the video to see if your boy does the same thing.

Tail Biting

Although I never found a solution, he never caused himself harm. I believe he did it as a comforting thing, and lately I find him doing it a lot less often, if ever.

 

[Catzzzmeow]

@twizzler This might be of help Feline hyperesthesia?

I am tagging @Xandria on this. I would definitely talk to your vet about it.

 

[Xandria]

@twizzler First, my condolences. Tail chewing is a right pain to deal with. Max has chewed his tail since he came to us. Thankfully, he's never drawn blood, but for a while his tail was looking downright nasty (marked from his teeth).

We tried everything as well. Nothing worked. But what we did do was the following:

• 
  
  
  • Any time he was very near Hubby or I and chewing his tail, we would simply hold his tail to prevent chewing. If he moved around a bit, we'd move with him. Eventually (and this can be 5 minutes, so be warned) he'd give up trying to chew his tail.
  • If he was in the same room as us and chewing, we'd throw small toys at him as distraction. This usually occurs in the living/dining area, and I keep a huge basket of toys on hand. After being nailed a few times or even when we miss hitting him (not hard), he gets distracted and stops chewing.

The only time he gets away with it now is while I am eating breakfast (he climbs up high on our media centre). The other time is when jumps up on the top shelf in our washing/dryer closet and is totally out of reach.

Since we've stopped him all other times, his tail doesn't look that bad any more.

I hope you find something that works. Keep us updated.

 

[Cleopatra Beers]

Is your boy chewing or sucking on his tail? For some reason, this seems to be more of a male thing than a girl thing. Marcus sucks on his tail when he is really comfortable. Fortunately, it isn’t very often, so we just keep an eye out. We are watching for the behavior to escalate, and it never has. We don’t do more than gently distract him from doing it.

 

[Beesley13]

My boy chews on his tail a bit whenever he's relaxing. I haven't seen any actual damage, no bite marks or anything but ill normally grab a wipe and wipe his tail down in case he has an itch.

 

[Annejo12]

My cat doesn't chew her tail but she chews her toenails!

 

[MollysMom]

Sucking is harmless... chewing you might want to keep an eye on. Molly sucks the end 2-3 inches of her tail. Sometimes she even gags herself and then spits it out to start again. So gross. I am just used to it now, she usually does it when she is snuggled up in a blanket. Leo does it occasionally, but not nearly as much as she does.

 

[Deleted member 14512]

My boy does this all the time. He has never hurt himself chewing his tail so I think it might just be a normal thing for a sphynx cat to do.

 

[HaleyAkira]

I have been wondering about this too! My boy is almost 6 months old and when he gets sleepy he makes biscuits, sucks his tail and purrs SO loud! I’m hoping it’s temporary comfort thing as he has no visible damage to his tail.

 

[Xandria]

@HaleyAkira -- as long as no damage is done, it's not terrible. Max likes to go in for a good tail suck as he settles down for the night and we try hard to discourage it, but he always finds a place out of reach. As I've said before, Max has scaly tail, but has not yet drawn blood. He's 4 now.