Plants and kittens!

[MissIndecisive2023]

So my lovely little rascals can now jump up onto all work surfaces 😱 I had put all of my plants on the kitchen worktops because they couldn’t get up there, but now they can - what do I do?

Some of the plants have a warning saying not safe for pets - do I need to rehouse the plants? The only rooms the kittens don’t have access to are the kids bedrooms and they definitely don’t want all my plants (that I bought about a week before I got the kittens…) and the utility room (which has the boiler in so is the warmest room in the house and I don’t think the plants will do well in there).

Help!

Would they work in hanging basket or some wall shelves that the cats can’t get at? Otherwise, you should get rid of them I’m afraid.

We have a keen ‘gardener’ in the house. After this little escapade we had to move all plants to higher shelves. As a pp has said it’s worth rehoming anything that’s not cat safe just to be cautious. Your kittens will now be able to move on to their next game of choice!

There are lots of houseplants that aren't toxic to cats e.g lots of ferns.

Lilies can be fatal, including drinking water from flowers and even licking the pollen if brushed off onto their fur. But some plants really only have mild effects like mouth irritation. The problem is you won't know which are worse until they start vomiting or have diarrhoea so that's not great, for you or the cat.

Rex has sniffed at but basically ignored the cheeseplant and ficus but he had a chew of the yucca before I moved it. This is before I knew about cats & plants I hasten to add. No sign of any side effects luckily.

And we had an incident like the photo above, knocked plant off whilst stomping over the sideboard and smashed the ceramic pot.

So put them out of reach!

I have ditched all the plants that might be toxic as mine will chomp them.
Housecats are particularly vulnerable as they don't have access to grass etc outside.
It's not worth keeping something in the house that might make your cats ill.

Yes my little monkeys would likely eat them - I'd give them away

A circle of card with pebbles on top.. yes even the cactus .. they don't mind the prickles.

Thanks all. Have looked up which are potentially ok and which aren't, there are some which are considered safe so they should be ok, and some which are a maybe, which I will look to rehouse. Shame, but really not worth making a cat unwell over.

We have lots of accessible (non toxic) plants around but my cats have never really been interested in digging in them but kittens take to different things so be prepared that the even the non toxic ones might have to have some preventative measures employed, even if only a temporary measure till they grow out of that phase.

Also, be aware of the flowers that could also cause problems. Lilies are the obvious ones (and some others from the Lily family that you might not consider at first like alstroemeria) and they can be fatal but daffodils and tulips are likely to be around in bouquets at this time of year, and I just keep them out of reach too.

Cats Protection have this page with a couple of useful infographic lists which you may have found already. Like a PP, some of the toxic things might just give a touch of diarrhoea but it’s a useful starting point.

I was worried about plants I discovered were cat unfriendly. My girl who is the plant chopper never goes near them. Only eats the friendly ones. I got plant stands for all mine. Had a few days where she thought about jumping off the table or bench onto them but ultimately realised she was thwarted.
Keep cat grass for them.