Male Cat Licking Coal ~ WHY ?

Hell, I'm not that old--I can still get at the coal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At least when the bins are full

Paulie,no white film on this coal.

dmb3, this cat is not stupid & is actually much smarter than even the cats that are considered smart.

I'm thinking he has a gut ache & is getting his charcoal dose this way.

Dogs eat grass when they need to puke--might want to run that by your smart cat

freetown fred wrote:Damn guys, if I could bend that far I'd probably do the same thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You better pet the cat first he may bite if you try.

^^^

Fred, that right there is solid advice!

Flyer5 wrote:

freetown fred wrote:Damn guys, if I could bend that far I'd probably do the same thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You better pet the cat first he may bite if you try.

waldo lemieux wrote:^^^

Fred, that right there is solid advice!

+1, LMAO

You guys ain't right!!

freetown fred wrote:Dogs eat grass when they need to puke--might want to run that by your smart cat

FF,you may have answered the question

He can't find grass to eat as it is not only winter here & grass blades are very hard to find

BUT, snow still covers MOST of our ground

Flyer5 wrote:

gaw wrote:He looks a lot like our Fred. I don’t know why he would lick coal but our Fred does a lot of stupid stuff and we just figure that’s Fred being Fred.

At first I thought you were talking about "our" Fred from freetown . I was thinking that ain't nice.

Fred is our cat; we had him before Freetown appeared on this forum. We got him as a kitten but he was several months old and was already named. His previous owner asked if we would keep his name and we agreed to. He knows his name.

Her son was allergic to him and that is why she gave him away.

If you google cats licking coal you find this is not all that uncommon and everyone has their own theory as to why.

Perhaps its the cats way of showing his love for the thing that keeps him warm

my wise old mama used to say something like,"if you have a food craving,there is something in that food that your body needs".The likelyhood with the cat is a mineral leaching from the coal is what it needs.Most likely at some point,along the road to windyhill's bin,the coal was treated with rock salt to prevent freezing.Maybe it was oiled with bacon grease to hold the dust down.

warminmn wrote:Perhaps its the cats way of showing his love for the thing that keeps him warm

^^^^ I LIKE that

Very good thinking.

Someone on 'The Cat Site' said Anthracite is toxic : http://www.thecatsite.com/t/254981/licking-coal