By Alice Moon-Fanelli, PhD, CAAB. Feline compulsive behaviors are based on natural behaviors that may be frustrated by manage-ment practices and/or restrictive environments. Compulsive behavior initially may be performed as a displacement behavior. - Read more

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Hair pulling, or trichotillomania, now recognized in humans as an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), was formerly classified as an impulse control disorder. The new definition helps us better understand and determine the cause, course, and therapy of the feline equivalent, psychogenic alopecia. One of the results of compulsive hair pulling in humans and cats is alopecia (baldness). - Read more

Feline hyperesthesia syndrome has been variously called rolling skin disease, neuritis, twitchy cat disease, and atypical neurodermatitis. The behaviours demonstrated can include those mimicking estrus or biting at the tail, flank, anal or lumbar areas (sometimes with resultant barbering and self-mutilation); or skin rippling and muscle spasms/twitching (usually dorsally), often accompanied by vocalisation, running, jumping, hallucinations and self-directed aggression. Not all cats exhibiting these behaviours self-mutilate, but those that do can exhibit a range of mutilation from excessive licking, to plucking (trichotillomania), barbering, biting, and chewing that lead to skin lesions. - Read more

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Compulsive disorders often arise out of situations of conflict or frustration. Conflict occurs when the pet is motivated to perform two opposing behaviors (such as approach to greet & fear of punishment). - Read more

What you need to know about feline psychogenic alopecia. - Read more

Feline compulsive behaviors are based on natural behaviors that may be somehow frustrated by management practices and/or restrictive environments. - Read more

Many cats suffer from eating compulsions. Two of the most common compulsions include wool sucking or eating non-food items (pica), and compulsive overeating. - Read more

Neutered and unneutered males living in confined spaces and lacking the opportunity to perform the full range of their normal behavioral repertoire, can become fixated on sexual behavior. - Read more

These are normal behaviors that have been carried to such an extreme that they are damaging to the cat (self-injurious behavior or SIB), or disturbing the human animal bond. - Read more

What you need to know about hyperesthesia in cats. - Read more

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What are the most common compulsive disorders in cats? In cats, excessive sucking and chewing, hunting and pouncing at unseen prey, running and chasing, paw shaking, freezing, excessive vocalization, self-directed aggression such as tail chasing or foot chewing, over-grooming or barbering of hair and possibly feline hyperesthesia may all be manifestations of conflict, and may become compulsive disorders in time. - Read more

This document on feline compulsive behaviour was published in March 2005 by the Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. ... - Read more