# Whisker chewing - should we be worried?



## Psygon (Apr 24, 2013)

We moved house about 8 weeks ago. Mostly its been pretty good and the crew have settled in OK. One thing we have noticed though is that Ed has been chewing Darcys whiskers off a lot. On one side she now only has 1-2cm long whiskers. Ive attached a pic, on the left side in the pic you can see her 1 remaining long whisker. On the right hand side she has no long whiskers left.










I assume this is Ed trying to say he is the boss in the new house, but not sure if we should be worried? I never actually see him doing it (its possible he does it when we are out of the house) and Darcy doesnt seem like shes upset with Ed at all.

I guess Im just worried that Ed is less settled than we think and is having to chew her whiskers off - will it be a dominance thing? The other thing I wondered is maybe he doesnt like being left alone, a confidence thing, and is he trying to keep Darcy close?

He has chewed Darcy's whiskers before, when they were kittens. But never to the extent he has done it this time.

Does anyone else have cats that chew each others whiskers?


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

Hi Psygon Oooooh, I suddenly went all goose-bumpy looking at the pic of your beautiful Darcy!  What a really gorgeous creature she is! :001_wub::001_wub: 

Poor lass, having her whiskers chewed off by Ed! I have not come across an adult cat doing this to an adult cat, only a mother cat to her kitten(s), or sometimes, as with your two when they were little, one chewing the other's whiskers. 

The theory I've read about why mother cats would chew kittens' whiskers is to do with the mum wanting to prevent the kittens straying far from the 'nest'. I guess mum might do this if she felt a bit anxious about her kitties' safety. 

I can only think that maybe Ed is doing it to Darcy because he feels a bit insecure since the move and it is his way of trying to keep Darcy close to him. 

I wonder if Ed would benefit from a course of Zylkene to help him settle more easily in the new house?


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## Psygon (Apr 24, 2013)

chillminx said:


> Hi Psygon Oooooh, I suddenly went all goose-bumpy looking at the pic of your beautiful Darcy!  What a really gorgeous creature she is! :001_wub::001_wub:
> 
> Poor lass, having her whiskers chewed off by Ed! I have not come across an adult cat doing this to an adult cat, only a mother cat to her kitten(s), or sometimes, as with your two when they were little, one chewing the other's whiskers.
> 
> ...


He does spend most of the time either with Darcy or with us, in fact now I think of it he has rarely spent any time on his own since we moved in. So it is possible he is feeling insecure. Hadn't thought of Zylkene, we had some somewhere before we moved so will see if I can find it and see if Ed improves with that. We have some feliway somewhere as well so may try plugging that in.


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