Repair Cables Your Cat Chewed Through

Does your cat constantly chew cables, wires, and cords, costing you hundreds of dollars in consumer electronics? Once you find a way to make your pet stop chewing cables, it's time to stop spending money on more devices and repair the cables your cat has already chewed through.

For most cat-chewed cables, this simple repair process works wonders. All you need is wire strippers, wire connector caps, and electrical tape. You'll spend a few dollars and have your devices and your piece of mind intact once more. The cat will never permanently damage a cable, wire, or cord ever again.

How to Repair Cables Your Cat Chewed Through

1. Unplug and detach the device! The cat doesn't know any better; but when humans deal with wires and cables, safety comes first.

2. Using wire strippers, make a clean cut to fully sever the cable, then carefully strip away from the cable's rubbery outside from the copper wires (and/or smaller cables) it holds inside. You will need to strip away about an inch or more on either end of the cat-chewed cable.

3. If there are more mini-cables within the main cable, make sure that all the wires from the different colored mini-cables stay separated. For example, don't let the wires inside the red mini-cable get mixed up with the wires inside the black mini-cable.

4. Match the wires on each side of the cat-chewed cable to the corresponding wires on the other side of the cable. For example, if the cable contains a group of thin copper wires, a blue mini-cable, and a green mini-cable inside, group the copper wires on side 1 with the copper wires on side 2, the blue mini-cable wires on side 1 to the blue mini-cable wires on side 2, etc.

5. Twist each group of wires together clockwise as if you were closing a bread bag with a twist tie. Don't overdo it and break any wires.

6. Find a wire cap connector of an appropriate size to hold the wires without slipping off. Cover the twisted wires with the connector, and twist the cap clockwise down on the wires in a screw-turning motion. The connector will keep the wires from side 1 and side 2 of your cable connected and safe from the elements.

7. Repeat steps 4-6 until all the wires and mini-cables from side 1 are connected to their corresponding wires and mini-cables on side 2. Now it's time to carefully test the device; as long as no bare wires are showing, plug it in and see if all is functional. If it works, use some electrical tape to secure the two sides of the cable and the connectors together. It might look like your wire has an electrical tape tumor, but it's probably better than taking your cat on that final trip to the vet and then purchasing another expensive pieceof consumer electronics.

One word of warning: This method worked beautifully, quickly, and simply for the USB cable I use to connect my graphic design tablet to my laptop; it didn't work at all on my headphones-and-microphone headsets, which had some non-wire, string-like component. Nevertheless, for the $16 it took to buy electrical tape, wire strippers, and wire cap connectors, it was definitely worth trying.

I hope you can use these simple tools and steps to repair all the cables, cords, and wires your cat has chewed through. Until we find a way to make cats stop chewing cords, it'll have to do.