My cat chews on my books

Does this happen to anyone else? One of my three cats, a very cute Tuxedo who looks a bit like the one in the group photo, Apollo, likes to chew on cardboard, junk mail, and now he has chewed an academic paperback book (with one of those high glossy card stock covers). I don't really care that much as I am not generally a collector of books for aesthetic reasons, but I am a little concerned he will end up defacing a library book. Any thoughts?

Mine haven't chewed any books yet. They do mangle other paper items - cardboard etc. So I give them some to play with and replace when it gets too damaged.

One of them did decide that a certain shelf of books made a good scratching post - that shelf no longer has any books on it.

>2 calm: he seems to be particularly enamored of the flap of manila envelopes that has the stickum on it, perhaps it tastes interesting to him (we joke that he is not our brightest cat, he even eats paste). The book thing is new... before he discovered junk mail he only went for cardboard boxes.

My son's cat loves to tear up/eat paper bags and cardboard. I don't know if it's a form of pica or just run of the mill cat-insanity.

In my case the cat does not seem to be interested in ingesting the paper/cardboard, only chewing on it! It's so weird! Cats.

One of my cats chews on paper or cardboard of any kind, so yes, he chews on books if I don't watch out.

One of my cats when I was growing up did that sometimes, she actually chewed on the corner of my high school math book, hahaha.

Mine finds plastic book jacketing wonderful material for sharpening the claws. What is an ailurophilic bibliophile to do?

My cat, who loves to chew and rip up stray pieces of paper lying on the floor, isn't interested in books. However, she always rubs her face on my kindle when I begin to read it.

One of mine chews up cardboard boxes if I leave them out. I once caught her chewing on a library book, and though there were a few holes in one corner, it wasn't too bad. I handing it directly to someone at the library and told them what happened, and that I would pay to replace, if need be. They decided it wasn't that bad and let it go.

My cats only sit on them. All over them. One has a peculiar plastic fetish, but that's another topic/problem.

If you have a plastic cover on the book, you might try wiping a very light spray of eucalyptus oil on the plastic, going right to the corners.

It might also frighten off paper mites, etc.

You could try wiping the shelves with the oil, every 6 or 12 months, if you then give it a good polish with a dry cloth, it might put off the cats enough to have them lose interest in approaching the books, at all.

You could also try peppermint oil, tho' I find that hard to live with, whereas eucalypus oil makes me sniff the air like a randy tom, smelling half a dozen females... Perhaps I should liken it to a cat smelling catmint. Makes me repeatedly fill my lungs and wish I knew how to purr.

My main paper problem here, is the utter bliss my cats have, disembowelling full rolls of kitchen paper or loo rolls. So many rolls are just shreds, and the cat has a wild look of excitement and seems to think I have come to wrench it from them, to finish it off, myself.

Ears back, clutching it with forelegs, they rip back a few more layers, then look at me in great annoyance and tear off to hide.

I am left looking at a roll only suitable for soaking up a spill, then being tossed in the compost.

The other option for waylaying a cat; luring them away, rather than guarding precious items, is to ask the local petshop for some old wood or paper shavings from mouse, rat or guinea pig shavings, put them in a big box with shredded paper, so they can climb in and look for victims, or put used wood or paper shavings in a little box, with air holes, so they can smell something exciting, then securely sticky tape all the flaps.

Very good toy for indoor and enclosure cats. You can get shavings from different little animals. A very cheap entertainment.