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House plants and cats.

Gypsy

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So I have just about given up. I buy only safe plants. I buy them cat grass every week. They eat them all and/or bully the poor things into dropping dead from harassment. So I got some nice FAKE succulents. They've been eating those too apparently. So now they eat fake plants too. So I had to put them away. Eating plastic can't be good for the little beasts.

I haven't tried real succulents but we live in a coastal climate and get little direct light and I'd rather not have more deaths on my hands. Any suggestions???
 

arkieb1

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Have you tried getting one of those grass things that are rectangular tray that have real grass growing in them and you can take it inside and outside to help it grow and let the cats eat grass. They eat grass when they have upset tummies, worms, stressed and generally because they know it will help unbind furballs caused by cleaning themselves, or even picking some real grass, wash it and letting them have it.
 

PintoBean

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I thought I was safe buying cute little terrariums from Wholefoods. Nope. The kitten scooped the plants out and played soccer and chewed them up. My fake flowers have done ok. The ones that have bigger silk blooms and less plastic stems exposed do the best.

I have 4 of the cat grass containers from petco. I buy a small bag of potting soil and the wheat berry seeds from wholefoods. I plant two planters at a time every week or two. I have four out in total. Two that are edible and two in the process of sprouting. I use crumbs cupcake takeout containers that I cut in half as holders for two planters at a time lol. This is much cheaper than getting a new plant for $4-5.
 

PintoBean

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I went to take a picture of our wheatgrass growing in re-used planters sitting in crumbs cupcake container halves, and kitty #3 came bouncing in and mugged for the camera :wacko:

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PintoBean

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I bought all my faux flower arrangements from overstock. As you can see, this one is more plastic than silk flowers so it's been roughed up a bit.

Here are the ones that are doing well with the girls - more bloom than stem. I threw in a couple shots with the blingy lamps I once promised to post pics of after I purchased them :lol: but didn't. oh and a little bit of woven blind bc I promised to post those too after I got them installed last year but didn't. :whistle: see I eventually keep my promises to you, Gypsy!

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TooPatient

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House plants? And cats?

I gave up on plants. Kept only cat safe but they killed them. Figured I would try cactus. Yeah... Not so much there either. Put them up where the cats couldn't reach but then I couldn't reach to water. My cactus died from lack of water...

Even cut flowers are rare here. They try to get to them. Will eat anything that drops off (have to be super careful to only get cat safe).

Of course our cats also chewed the home phone until it quit working...
 

Matata

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Plants?! Bwa BWA BWAHAHAHAHAAAAAA The only thing that worked for me was dead bamboo. Bought some canes at Pier 1. They're now in a vase on the front porch. Our toilets and all cabinets have child-proof locks; we've had to switch out all interior doorknobs to exterior that lock from both sides to keep them out of rooms they shouldn't be in. They can open doors with lever and round knobs. They turn the lights on and off. If we don't remember to put the child lock on the frig icemaker, we'll come home to 1/2 inch of melted ice water on the kitchen floor. So, no, we are not smart enough to keep plants alive with 4 savannahs in the house.
 

Gypsy

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Okay so this is making me feel better. :wall: Thank you all for your responses.

I can do cut flowers as long as I keep it to ones that aren't tasty or easily bruised (gerbers and zinnas generally don't fare well) so I try to keep it to orchids and roses for the most part. And even though they are slightly toxic the cats don't touch peonies, so I can have them.

They leave orchids alone altogether. Even potted ones. But DH and I can't keep them alive period. So that results in dead orchids either way.

I will look into large plots of cat grass. That's a great idea and would be pretty too.

I usually have catnip growing too. But that's a patio plant. They do leave my herbs alone. Well, the cats I have NOW leave them alone, Hally had a thing for mint. Although Jack does enjoy the occasional nibble of basil.

Maybe if we give them more cat grass they'll leave the plastic plants alone. :confused:

They leave my silk flowers alone completely, as well. But not the green parts. Even if it's a small amount. I find the green parts on the floor unless I glue them into an arrangement.

I haven't in the past had to keep the cabinets child proof. They can open them. But we don't keep anything of interest in there so they leave them alone.

Our new apartment has levers instead of knobs though, so I am pretty sure it's just matter of time that Jack figures that out, he's good with his paws and nosey. Floofy is only food motivated so he isn't likely to do it, and Penny isn't 'handsy' at all. And Duncan is both lazy and blind, though he is smarter than the others put together. Plus he's an "everywhere' kitty, whereas the others are all segregated at least some of the time.

Do anyone's kids actually EAT catcus and succulents though? I'm wondering if it's worth trying.
 

Gypsy

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PintoBean|1460769659|4019865 said:
I went to take a picture of our wheatgrass growing in re-used planters sitting in crumbs cupcake container halves, and kitty #3 came bouncing in and mugged for the camera :wacko:


So cute the pic with the kitty. You spoil them. I will have to try this. Maybe they'll leave the plastic succulents alone. The lamps look great! I'm so happy they worked out.
 

chrono

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My first cat was smart and never touched my plants, toppled the pots, and all that jazz.
My second wasn't so; she ate the fake plants so I had to box everything away.
 

missy

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Haha plants and kitties...they don't mix well at our house either Gypsy. Don't feel badly. And LOL same experience as you with the fake plants. Our kitties like the real stuff and the fake stuff too. :lol:
We are resigned to a life without plants. Oh wait, I am mistaken. We do have one plant that they don't seem to bother (too much) and I have been reluctant to part with it as it was a meaningful gift. A money bonsai tree. It is so beautiful and when we first received it (5 years ago or so) some of our kitties went wild but they now leave it alone. So I guess there is hope after all? But we are not planning on getting more plants or trees around the house because in general cats and plants do not mix well.
 

TooPatient

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I don't remember them actually eating cactus. More like they got mad and kept dumping them over. Snapped parts off that way. Plus not so fun getting back in the pot...
 

monarch64

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This article mentions rosemary. I don't have cats so cannot vouch for it, but I learned today that it's not safe from dogs. My Daisy knocked over the rosemary I had propagated from cuttings and managed to keep alive and thriving since last fall. :angryfire: I'm hoping it will be ok after I repotted it. It's in a special $60 self-watering container--I've put a lot of time and effort into this damn plant!

I have a friend who has a kitty that goes outside in their yard every day and never bothers her numerous indoor plants. Maybe it is an indoor kitty behavior thing.
 

chrono

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Monarch,
You might be on to something; I let kitty 1 out to play and eat grass in our yard once a week.
 

Gypsy

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The cats are allowed on the patio. Our last 3 apartments have had pet friendly patios so we've been lucky. We keep herbs in nice pots out there and they largely leave them alone!!!! Which is WHY I am so frustrated about the indoor plants.

I have to talk DH around to succulets.
 

monarch64

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monarch64|1460851599|4020208 said:
This article mentions rosemary. I don't have cats so cannot vouch for it, but I learned today that it's not safe from dogs. My Daisy knocked over the rosemary I had propagated from cuttings and managed to keep alive and thriving since last fall. :angryfire: I'm hoping it will be ok after I repotted it. It's in a special $60 self-watering container--I've put a lot of time and effort into this damn plant!

I have a friend who has a kitty that goes outside in their yard every day and never bothers her numerous indoor plants. Maybe it is an indoor kitty behavior thing.

Forgot to include link to article. http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/houseplants/hpgen/cat-proofing-houseplants.htm
 

PintoBean

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Just curious, your kitties that like plastic plants, do they like other plastic items too? my kitties that like the plastic parts of fake plants also like things like plastic q tips and plastic safety seals. It's extra disgusting because they fish them out of garbage cans :errrr: .
 

packrat

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Britta and Opilio mess with flowers if I happen to have them indoors...sooooo I try not to. When I do I have to put them in a corner on the counter and put a ton of stuff in front so they can't knock the vase over. Instead they pull out the flowers and drag them all over the kitchen. I even tried putting the vase on top of the fridge and that didn't work.
 

Gypsy

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PintoBean|1460861156|4020256 said:
Just curious, your kitties that like plastic plants, do they like other plastic items too? my kitties that like the plastic parts of fake plants also like things like plastic q tips and plastic safety seals. It's extra disgusting because they fish them out of garbage cans :errrr: .

Well, Floofy does play with plastic items. But he's not a plant muncher. It's Penny and Jack are the ones that destroy the plastic plants. Penny will play with ANYTHING though. She's my ADD cat. Jack's just squirrely.

Packrat, I've gotten cut flowers that are not cat friendly and I kept them in the shower. Seriously. Until they died. And for some reason they were unusually hearty cut flowers.
 

evergreen

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My cats are generally pretty good with plants, but one or both of them LOVED succulents when they could get to them... :( I think they enjoyed the meaty texture? So many tiny little cat teeth holes. Didn't look like their primary interest was in *consuming* the plant, they just liked biting them. Jade plant and a florette-lookin' succulent, an echeveria I think, both needed to be moved out of reach.
 

monarch64

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evergreen|1461021339|4020924 said:
My cats are generally pretty good with plants, but one or both of them LOVED succulents when they could get to them... :( I think they enjoyed the meaty texture? So many tiny little cat teeth holes. Didn't look like their primary interest was in *consuming* the plant, they just liked biting them. Jade plant and a florette-lookin' succulent, an echeveria I think, both needed to be moved out of reach.

I am just curious what is considered "out of reach" to a cat? I swear I'm not being facetious. The species' abilities seem to have no bounds, from what I have seen and experienced. You must have one of those plant vaults.

plantvault.jpeg
 

Gypsy

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:lol: :lol: :lol: Especially if you are like Matata and get the super smart kind.

I had one super smart cat. She was a genius. And you are right, there is no end to their ingenuity. I was lucky though, my super smart cat was only 8 lbs and, for a cat, uncoordinated.

I had to use my shower as a plant vault. I suspect that even that wouldn't have worked with Matata's bunch.
 
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