Research overview: abnormal repetitive behaviours in cats beyond pacing

While pacing dominates discussion of felid stereotypy, captive cats display a range of other abnormal repetitive behaviours that signal welfare problems. This overview surveys these: route-tracing and figure-of-eight pacing, repetitive head-twirling and somersaulting seen in some big cats, excessive or displacement grooming leading to hair loss (psychogenic alopecia), pica and wool-eating, over-grooming and self-trauma, and oral stereotypies. It examines their proposed causes in frustration, conflict, early deprivation and chronic stress, their overlap with compulsive-disorder concepts in domestic cats, and how they are distinguished from normal behaviour and from medical conditions. It discusses assessment and management through environmental and, where needed, medical intervention. The synthesis frames the full spectrum of abnormal repetitive behaviour as a key behavioural welfare indicator in captive felids.