Eating Cloth

Question
Hello,

My 4 year old little girl, Stitch, is eating cloth.  Not just chewing on it - but actually ingesting any cloth she can get her little teeth around.

She has a buddy, my little boy Odie, who has been with her since they were babies.  They have a wonderful living space, with a whole room just to themselves - but with lots of family love and company.

She has a good diet and eats normally.  Her health is good, except for almost losing her last year to a horrific vaccination reaction.  It was only due to the quick work of our vets office that she made it through.

The Vets seem to be baffled as to why she eats cloth.  She has a lot of toys and other goodies, but I can't even put a blanket in their cage without her eating holes.  She and Odie have a hammock they sleep in that is constructed on parachute material and she has not yet been able to eat it.

I am very worried she will get an obstruction one of these days.  Any ideas?

Thank you,

Tami Buchan

Answer
Interesting.  If she is actually ingesting the cloth and not just chewing then the scientific name for this behavior is Pica.  Uncommon in ferrets - usually seen in cats.  I am sure the vet is baffled due to i being so unusual!  Let me see if I can help at all.  My advise will be similar to clients with cats who ingest cloth.  There are 2 modes of thought here.  1.  it is strickly behavioral and 2.  nutrition related.  We can work with both concepts together.  

Even chewing cloth is bad for a ferret as it will damage their teeth - they are usually attracted to cloth that we can hear them chew - like a squeaking noise.  In cats, Pica is usually seen in the expensive fabrics like wool and silk - probably because they are around.  Most ferrets don't get these luxuries!  

So, It is possible that the fabric eating is stress related.  Think about any recent changes or stressors in her environment that she may be dealing with in this way.  Ferrets usually react well to stress, but not all ferret and not all stress are handled as well.  If the vaccination reaction was recent - could that be a factor?  The most important step - immediately - is to remove any opportunity for her to eat the fabric.  You can simply remove the fabric and/or add deterants like chili powder etc.  If you can find other fabrics that she isn't interested in use these.  If she is eating them all - remove all fabric.  She may only get fabrics when you can supervise her directly and stop or redirect her.

Dietary management can help in cats.  I am not sure what food you are feeding or the circumstances of her feeding (type, availability etc) but that may be a factor.  Really hard to explain why this can work!  Fiber may be helpful, but I can't see it as much in ferrets as they have very different nutritional needs than cats.  SOme suggest adding small (easily digestable) pieces of fabric to the food.  Hard with 2 ferrets.  Another thing may be the time it takes her to eat.  In the wild a ferret would spend some time hunting and all the steps involved in that process - at home they "hunt" with a handy food bowl.  You could try using a large treat ball (like for dogs) and put her kibble in it - enough to last the day.  Take away free feeding bowls.  ANothe thing to try would be to offer meat.  We feed raw chicken to our ferrets for health and teeth.  It takes a while to get them to eat chicken as ferrets imprint on food very young and most have imprinted on kibble.  Eating meat or even offering a big bone will give her a longer eating time and meat chews differently.  In cats, this often solves the problem.
You can also work really hard on enrichment.  Bob Church has some great articles in Ferrets magazine about ferret enrichment.  Ways to decrease her stress and keep her brain active.  If you are interested in the articles this month's magazine is out and he has had articles in the past few magazines - Fancy publications may even be able to send you older editions.  If you want I could check my copies for the dates etc.Moving her room around, adding new and interesting scents (remember ferret interesting scents like sweat or leaves from outside or skunk urine).  Interaction with you directly - playing games, chasing her.  Generally keeping her with things to do - play, explore, eat meat that will stop the fabric chewing and eating!
Hope this helps
Feel free to email me if you wnat more information.  By the way I recommend Natural Gold Lo Carb ferret food for a high quality kibble.
Ailigh