What does it mean when your cat eats hair?

Answer 1

First, is the cat actually consuming the hair? If not it could just be playing, because hair moves around like a cat's natural prey.

If it is actually eating the hair, it is for one of two reasons:

1) They need more roughage in their diet. Cats need a certain amount of roughage to properly digest their food. That is why they will eat grass, etc. if let outdoors, or will eat houseplants and even stranger things if they are indoor cats. A good solution is to buy "indoor" canned food with added greens. You can also keep a pot of wheatgrass/cat grass indoors for them.

2) They have an oral fixation related to being taken from their mother before they were fully weaned. If a kitten is taken away from its mother before it is done being weaned, around 11-12 weeks, behavior problems can result. When a kitten first starts eating food, that is the START of the weaning process - it is not done until the kitten stops trying to feed, and the mother no longer has to swat them away.

One very common problem is the "oral fixation" where a cat will bite or suck on you while being petted, or will eat your hair. These remind it of nursing from its mother - kittens get fur in their mouths when nursing. There is no good solution, but you can try to show the cat its error by smacking it on the head (lightly) when it displays this behavior - that's what its mother would have done, given time.

Eating hair will most likely not hurt your cat because it swallows much of its own fur when it grooms itself, and always ends up fine. Don't be surprised if you find hairballs, though!