# Kitties & Rubber Bands



## violina23 (Jun 28, 2004)

my Kiera loves to play with rubber bands - she even started to climb onto my dresser (which I thought i trained her to keep off of under penalty of squirtbottle!) in order to get my hair-bands an drag them all over the apartment. 

The only thing I'm worried about is that once, she got a regular rubber band and managed to eat it - I only noticed because I found something oddly shaped and stretchy in her litter box....

Does anyone have any good advice on what kinds of stretchy rubber-band-like things will be okay for her to play with, and what I should make sure she doesn't get into her mouth?

Thanks,
Heather


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## Kittys Mom (May 7, 2004)

What about attaching a streachy hair binder to something too large for her to swallow, like one of the ball cat toys? They sell ones that have bells in them that have openings that a hair binder could be attached to.


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## Artful Badger (Jun 10, 2004)

Hi fellow Heather!

I'm sure most if not all people will advise that your cat play with nothing stretchy rubber-band-like. I have one cat that loves elastic bands too. I feel ok letting him play with those Goody kind of hairbands with the woven covering. The big dangers inherent in playing with rubber bands are that they can break and whether broken or not, the cat can swallow them and get gastro blockage.

I think there are some safer alternatives. My guy likes milk rings quite a bit, though as much as rubber bands. I think you could also offer things like durable rubber tubing...or those rubbery bracelets that have been so popular with kids lately. We leave out lengths of foam insulation (looks like a grey tube and is sold in the weatherizing section of a hardware store) and he drags them around the house and are really durable. I figure it's the snake hunting instinct. Maybe just buying a rubber toy snake would be fun for a cat that likes rubber bands?

I have never had problems from Maubee eating the rubber bands and I don't police him really closely. I even have let him play with the really thick rubber bands from time to time (though I feel guilty doing that).  

~Heather


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## baggy (Jun 19, 2004)

You need to be careful with rubber bands. If he eats it, it could mess up his digestive tract. Our Smuj ate about a yard of stretchy string once. Fortunately he passed it. We're more careful about leaving that kind of stuff around.

Be careful of other things besides rubber bands. Some cats just like to eat stuff. Our Smuj was eating the paper out of the shredder so we had to buy a cross-cut shredder with a closed lid.

When I was a kid I had a cat who climbed on top of my mother's sewing machine and started eating a piece of thread....unfortunately she didn't know there was a needle on the other end.....long story short and $150.00 later (this was 35 years ago..probably cost a small fortune today) the needle was removed. Ouch!


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## brite (Feb 27, 2004)

Milk carton rings are a good substitute... i will dig for some links for this one particular toy that my little guy loves to bat around. 

rubber bands are fun for them... you should probably start storing them in a drawer or medicine cabinet. i know that when Tyson gets his hands on one he goes nuts... and plays with it for days... so anticipate that happening with your kitty, even if you get the new toys. You know how it is -- these guys love what they can't have


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