#Houseplants and Cats
11 messages in this thread
Hello Meryl,
Is your cat chewing on leaves or digging in the soil (or both!).
Alison
This cat doesn't do much chewing on leaves. He likes to play with the
plants, leaping at them (hiding under the bed after breaking a pot) and
batting the leaves around. Of course, when he lands splat on top of
something delicate, that's that. He goes insane when I water them; that's
when he likes to dig in the soil. (He adores water in general, anyway —
sinks, toilet flushing, tub,etc.) Finally, he figured out that he can have
a toy to drag around the apartment if he bites off a stem. I tried putting
plastic collars around the plants to keep him from digging, and he loved
the challenge. This is a high I.Q. cat.
For a while, I thought he was going after the plants to bug me and/or get
my attention, but it's clear he'll go after them when I'm not around. He's
big enough now (about 10 months old) to get on top of everything but the
refrigerator, where the last few plants are languishing. He can't get
enough of a running start to get up there.
I've had plenty of cats, but this is the first time I've had one in an
apartment. I've had cats that took an occasional nibble, but nothing on
this scale! He's a bright, funny little guy, but I don't want to have to
choose between him and a plantless life.
This looks like a lovely forum, by the way. I hope I can solve this,
reintroduce the green kingdom into my life, and ask lots of questions here
as I do so. This place doesn't feel like home without lots of plants
around. It wouldn't feel like home without this furry frenzy, either.
Meryl, it does sound as though you have quite a problem. The only time I
had a problem with cats and plants, it was a digging problem. I finally
solved the problem by cutting screen a little larger than the diameter of
the pot. I bent the edges down a little so that it fit inside the pot and
sat above the soil. I was able to water, the soil could breathe and the
cat got bored with trying to get to the soil. I don't have any ideas on
how to discourage your cat's love of plants.
Alison
Thanks. I'm going to try the screen idea. You don't happen to know of a
houseplant which sits low, is tough, and tastes very bad without being
poisonous, do you? Something like that might do the trick. I've got to
find some way to discourage Alfred the Bad's interest in plants.
Meryl – have you tried the hot pepper route? a friend had a similiarly
destructive cat and used to make a concoction of mild ivory soapy water and
dried hot pepper to spray on the plants and on the soil. kitty took a few
more bites and decided hey, this is NOT my idea of a good time. in
conjunction with that, my friend also made sure there were a couple of pots
of plants strictly for the cat – those grasslike munchie bags sold in
garden centers specifically for cats. (she tried catnip in a pot indoors
and found the cat just totally ripped the plant to shreds.) i presume your
cat does not go outdoors, because usually outdoor cats get their
aggressions on plants satisfied enough outside to leave indoor plants alone
– at least, mine does, thank heaven. good luck. -jw
Hot pepper solution! Great idea, thanks. I've tried mustard seed and black
pepper, garlic powder, and various other herbal weapons, and had given up.
Here's something else to try to re-educate your cat. Keep a squirt gun
handy and give him a shot whenever he starts messing the plants. Works for
me. (I mean as the squirter, not the squirtee.)
For a while this little guy got squirted so much he rarely had a chance to
dry off! It only made him angry and more determined. I rarely squirt him
any more; it's reserved for nasty biting now, which rarely happens.
Isolation works better. Gives him a chance to think about his sins. The
trouble with him and the plants is that he loves them as much as I do, in
his way. Loves them to pieces. It's hard to convince him that's a sin.
Making him less interested in them is what I'll try next.
I have four cats who absolutely LOATHE water and getting wet. Squirting them
with the squirt gun does absolutely NO good. They just wait until I'm not
looking and/or the squirt gun is out of my reach and go right back to doing
what I didn't want them doing in the first place….. Dadgum cats!
So someone else has this problem, too? I feel better now!
A mild solution of Ivory soap and hot pepper! A great idea! I'll try
this. I have the awful feeling that a catnip plant probably started this
cat on his plant obsession, now that you mention it. He and the plants had
co-existed peacefully until my son brought over a pot of catnip, which, of
course, he loved. He doesn't get outside, and he'd love to. The general
opinion around here is that there are too many diseased strays to risk
letting pets out. That's probably the difference, too. My past cats have
been indoor-outdoor cats.