Understanding Cats’ Fascination with Licking and Biting Tape and Plastic

You bring home a package, set the empty box on the floor, and within minutes your cat arrives to investigate. The box itself is exciting enough—but then something even more fascinating catches their attention: the tape. Suddenly, your cat is licking it. Biting it. Pulling at it with their teeth. Perhaps they’ve completely ignored the expensive cat toy sitting three feet away in favor of chewing on a piece of packing plastic.

If this sounds familiar, you’re certainly not alone. Many cats seem strangely fascinated by tape, plastic bags, wrappers, and other crinkly household materials. But why? There’s no single explanation for this peculiar feline habit. Texture, smell, sound, curiosity, learned behavior, and even medical or behavioral issues can all potentially contribute.

Why Do Cats Like Licking Tape?

Tape offers cats an unusual combination of sensations. The sticky surface feels different against their tongue than almost anything else in the house. Tape also has a distinctive smell, texture, and taste that may encourage an inquisitive cat to investigate it further.

And cats don’t have hands to pick something up and examine it closely. Their paws, noses, and mouths are important tools for exploring their environment. A curious lick may simply be your cat asking, “What on Earth is this?” in the most feline way possible.

Plastic Has an Interesting Texture

Plastic bags and wrappers can be particularly appealing because of the way they feel. Thin plastic moves easily when touched, creating unusual sensations against a cat’s paws, teeth, and tongue. Some cats appear to enjoy licking smooth plastic surfaces, while others prefer sinking their teeth into crinkly packaging.

Plastic can also hold onto interesting smells. A grocery bag, for example, may carry traces of whatever was transported inside it. To us, it’s just a bag. To a cat’s extremely sensitive nose, it may be a collection of fascinating scents demanding immediate investigation.

Crinkling Sounds Can Trigger Curiosity

There’s another obvious feature of plastic: the noise. A plastic wrapper doesn’t just sit there when a cat touches it. It crackles, moves, folds, and changes shape. That movement and sound can make plastic particularly interesting to a playful cat. Small movements and rustling noises may engage some of the same attention cats naturally give to moving prey.

Your cat may discover that biting or pawing at plastic produces an immediate and interesting response—and decide to do it again.

Your Cat May Simply Be Bored

Sometimes the explanation isn’t particularly mysterious: your cat has found something entertaining. Indoor cats need regular opportunities to explore, climb, scratch, chase, hunt, and play. Without enough stimulation, they may invent their own entertainment.

Unfortunately, their definition of entertainment may include attacking packing tape, knocking objects off your desk, unraveling the toilet paper, or conducting a 3 a.m. investigation into the contents of a shopping bag. If your cat frequently targets inappropriate objects, increasing daily enrichment may help.

Try providing:

• Interactive wand toys
• Puzzle feeders
• Cat trees and climbing spaces
• Scratching posts
• Safe toys with different textures
• Regular interactive play sessions

Rotating toys every few days can also make old toys seem interesting again.

They May Have Learned That It Gets Your Attention

Cats are very good at discovering which behaviors make their humans react. Imagine your cat starts chewing on a plastic wrapper. You immediately jump up, say their name, walk over, take the plastic away, and perhaps distract them with a toy or treat. From your perspective, you’ve stopped a dangerous behavior.

From your cat’s perspective, they bit the magical crinkly object and their human immediately provided attention. If this happens repeatedly, some cats may learn that messing with certain objects is a very efficient way to get you involved.

What Is Pica in Cats?

Occasionally, repeatedly chewing or eating non-food objects may be associated with a behavior known as pica.

Cats with pica may chew or ingest materials such as:

• Plastic
• Fabric
• String
• Paper or cardboard
• Rubber
• Wool

There isn’t one single cause of pica. Behavioral factors such as stress, compulsive behavior, or inadequate stimulation may play a role, and in some cases persistent ingestion of non-food materials can occur alongside underlying medical problems.

If your cat isn’t merely licking plastic but is actually attempting to eat it regularly, it’s worth discussing the behavior with your veterinarian.

Is It Safe for Cats to Lick Tape?

It’s best not to allow it. An occasional lick of ordinary household tape may not necessarily result in an emergency, but tape isn’t designed to be a cat toy or something your cat should ingest. The larger concern is that licking can turn into chewing, and chewing can turn into swallowing.

Pieces of tape can become stuck in the mouth or throat or cause problems in the gastrointestinal tract if swallowed. Long strips of tape can be particularly concerning because string-like materials can behave as linear foreign bodies inside a cat’s digestive system.

Plastic Can Be Dangerous, Too

Plastic bags and packaging should not be left available for cats to play with unsupervised.

Potential hazards include:

• Choking
• Intestinal blockage if pieces are swallowed
• Suffocation or entanglement in plastic bags
• Exposure to whatever substances were previously stored in the packaging

Even if your cat has chewed plastic many times without a problem, that doesn’t mean the behavior is safe.

What If Your Cat Swallows Tape or Plastic?

If you know or suspect your cat swallowed plastic, tape, string, ribbon, or another non-food object, contact your veterinarian for guidance.

Seek prompt veterinary attention if your cat develops symptoms such as:

• Repeated vomiting
• Loss of appetite
• Lethargy
• Abdominal pain
• Difficulty passing stool
• Repeated gagging or retching
• Drooling
• Hiding or unusual behavior

If a piece of string, tape, ribbon, or plastic is protruding from your cat’s mouth or rear end, do not pull on it. Contact a veterinarian immediately. Pulling on a linear object can potentially cause serious internal injury.

How Can You Stop Your Cat From Chewing Plastic?

The easiest solution is usually management: remove the temptation. Store plastic bags, packing materials, tape, ribbons, and similar objects somewhere your cat can’t access them. Break down shipping boxes and remove loose tape before giving them to your cat to play with. Then provide safer alternatives that satisfy your cat’s need to investigate, bite, chase, or manipulate objects.

Regular interactive play is particularly important. A few short play sessions throughout the day can give your cat an appropriate outlet for their natural hunting and exploratory behaviors. Avoid punishing your cat for chewing inappropriate objects. Yelling, spraying them with water, or frightening them doesn’t address the reason for the behavior and may increase stress.

When Should You Talk to Your Veterinarian?

Every cat occasionally investigates something they probably shouldn’t. A cat licking a plastic bag once isn’t necessarily evidence that something is wrong.

However, talk to your veterinarian if your cat:

• Regularly eats non-food objects
• Seems compulsively drawn to plastic, fabric, or other materials
• Suddenly develops the behavior
• Has swallowed foreign objects in the past
• Shows changes in appetite, weight, digestion, or behavior

Your veterinarian can help determine whether the behavior is primarily behavioral or whether an underlying medical issue should be investigated.

The Bottom Line

Why are some cats obsessed with licking and biting tape and plastic? It may be the unusual texture, interesting smells, irresistible crinkling sounds, boredom, curiosity, or simply the discovery that chewing something forbidden gets an immediate reaction from their human.

For most cats, investigating plastic is another example of feline curiosity. But because swallowing tape or plastic can lead to choking or dangerous intestinal blockages, it’s a habit that’s better redirected toward safer forms of entertainment. So go ahead and let your cat have the shipping box. Just take the tape off first.