Animals that consume normal diets in adequate quantities will live longer and healthier lives. They will have sleek bodies, healthy clean coats, good teeth and gums, nice breath, and many other such signs of well-being. In other cases, the animals might have excessive amounts of treats, rich foods, or other diets that are not beneficial to their longevity. This leads to allergies, and other problems that effect the skin, coat, and dental health. Sometimes this will result in problems with pancreatitis, obesity, and other complications that create trouble.
Animals also can show abnormal behavior through knawing on unusual items.
This type of behavior is not the normal kitten type exploratory mouthing, it is different. The problem found in felines is commonly called wool sucking or wool chewing. This is thought to be rooted into early kittenhood and many times other behavior such as drooling, kneading, and purring accompany this pattern. Another predicament is when they actually eat odd objects, this is called pica. Many an animal is rushed to the emergency veterinary clinic for extraction of these strange items.