Pica is a psychological eating disorder in which a person or animal eats things that are not usually considered as food and have no nutritional value, such as hair, dirt, metal, and material. Interestingly, the descriptive term originates from Latin where ‘pica’ means ‘Magpie’, a bird that was then thought to eat almost anything back in Roman times.
Of course, most kids and young animals, including kittens, put all sorts of things in their mouths as they develop and discover which things are good to eat, and they inevitably end up swallowing some unwholesome items in the process. The broader emotion of disgust, a response of revulsion to something potentially contagious, distasteful, or unpleasant, or something that would be considered offensive later in their adult lives, actually develops from that…
