Toxic houseplants and cats

[PaperDoves]

Hi everyone, we're preparing to get a kitten and it turns out pretty much all of our houseplants are toxic to pets. They're run of the mill houseplants that I imagine a lot of people have (snake plants, monstera, ZZ plants, etc). Our dogs have never munched them. What do people do with houseplants and kittens? Should we just keep an eye out and see whether kitten is a plant nibbler? DS wants to take drastic action and get rid of them all but surely that's a little extreme!

It’s safer to bin them. Cats won’t chew something for ages then one day decide to eat it and either die or end up costing you a fortune at the vets.

Can you move them to high, inaccessible places?

I've just had to move my pointsettia

Not really, some of them are enormous! Years of growth. I can definitely rehome the most toxic ones, though.

I’ve used this as a guide: www.cats.org.uk/media/9597/cats-and-indoor-plants.pdf

The plants that are on the Caution advised list are in inaccessible rooms or tops of cupboards and I only buy from the Safe list now. With a kitten, they might be more likely to get to the top of a cupboard than my middle aged cats. I’d definitely avoid a flowering Peace Lily (or any other lilies) anywhere near them though.

I kept my monstera, my cat shows no interest in it though she does eat a few plants in the garden. I was reluctant to get rid of the monstera as it's huge so thought I'd just see how she gets on with it (she did try and climb it though the first week).

I got rid of peace lilies and other plants.

@Upfartooearly (I'm channelling your username this morning!) thank you for that list, it's helpful to see it all in one place. Sadly all of our plants are on the caution list bar one. I think I'll rehome the little leafy guys that look easy to chomp and will keep an eye on the giant ones (alocasia, rubber tree, monstera) that would take some sustained dedication to get to and eat. My previous cats weren't plant munchers but you never know.

FFS, our garden is full of asiatic lilies. I don't even know if it's possible to get rid of them, they're like weeds. Kitty will be indoors only for at least six months so at least this isn't a today problem.

I believe it’s the pollen on the stamens of lilies which is the most dangerous part so they might not try to eat the plant but brush past, get some pollen on their coat and then lick it off. I’ve had lilies in previous gardens but won’t now.

Enjoy your kitten when it arrives 🐾🐾

If you follow the quite black and white type of guide linked to above, you'll always be on the safe side, but of course several of the plants listed under "caution advised" are only mildly toxic (upset stomach territory rather than kidney damage) and only problematic if ingested in unrealistically large quantities.

My vet friend recommends this site by the University of Zurich, which states different degrees / categories of toxicity:
www.vetpharm.uzh.ch/giftdb/Indexwu1.htm (list of house plants)
www.vetpharm.uzh.ch/giftdb/Indexwu2.htm (list of garden plants)
www.vetpharm.uzh.ch/giftdb/pflanzen/pfl_erl.htm (explanation of toxicity symbols used on the site)

It uses all the Latin plant names, but the rest is in German, so probably a bit of a struggle to use - may work with Google translate? I'm sure there must be a similar resource in English, just haven't got the time to google for it right now.

For Monsteras, it says toxic, but the symbol is only one "+", which means a little nibble wouldn't be concerning and your cat would have to eat quite a lot to suffer any negative effects. Same for Alocasia sanderiana.
Snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata Prain) is listed as only mildly toxic and should be fine.
ZZ plants (Zamioculcas zamiifolia) are listed as highly toxic and should go.

We got rid of all houseplants. I only occasionally have some daffodils in a vase in a room, no cats are allowed in, whilst the flowers are in situ. Not worth the worry or clearing up of destroyed plants.

Cat Two likes to chew my plants and when she was small dug them up. I’ve put them in/on plant stands.
She has only ever eaten the pet friendly ones. I have a theory she can smell the toxins.