First time cat owner. Will the cat wreck my Xmas tree ?

[Fakepower]

And if so is there anything I can do to prevent this ?

Yes, and No! 🤣🤣🤣
It's one of the joys of Christmas,
And cats!

(Have a look on youtube - cats vs christmas trees)

How old is the cat?

kittens do tend to climb.

our older rescue was totally uninterested in our tree

Without a doubt and just go with the flow

He is 2 years old

We have a real tree and the cats sniff it but don't climb it. Fake tree? They're going to get in there 😂

It will be a real tree

probably, we put ours on the table, other people used pet fencing to block it off.

Depends on the cat but they do like shiny things so good luck 😂. My mums cat doesn’t touch the tree, my sisters likes to climb it and sit in the branches. Mine likes to open the presents and knock the baubles off 🙈😂

Depends on the cat, and the tree.

2 years old, probably not, they are growing/grown out of the kitten stage.

I would have any breakable baubles low on the tree through. I've never had a cat that climbs the tree (v disappointing) but low hanging baubles are just too tempting.

There’s an article here about all the potential dangers. I’d make the tree as inaccessible as possible.
www.purina.co.uk/articles/cats/behaviour/understanding-cats/christmas-safety-for-cats

My cat used to climb in our tree as a kitten but didn’t wreck it. Was so cute watching her smacking all the baubles. She grew out of it after the first year.

My previous cat (who was already 7 when I got her from a cat rescue centre) managed to bring the Christmas tree down on several occasions and she often played the decorations. She only stopped wrecking the tree when she got really elderly...

I got a new 1 year old rescue cat just before Christmas last year and she was not interested in the tree.

But now that she is more confident and settled, and turned into a cheeky cat, I wonder if she will have a go at it this year.

Seems to depend on the cat.

Get a fake flocked tree - much denser and our 2 cats have never attempted to climb a flocked tree.

Make sure you cover bottom with a basket that reaches the lowest branches - make it difficult to get inside basket and blocks access under the tree. Duck tape the base to the floor for extra security.

Most important - attach ornaments with green gardening wire - in 13 years my 2 cats have never knocked anything of a tree despite trying, and I have mostly glass ornaments!

My old cat use to just gently remove low hanging baubles and take them to bed with her. Occasionally it was placed on my bed. I just put them back and we would repeat the activity.

We might give the tree a miss this year, as I'm absolutely certain Izzy will regard the whole thing as a puzzle set up especially for her entertainment. If we do put it up we'll pass on baubles, or indeed anything dangly. It's fibre-optic so it's quite pretty enough just switched on.

That is so, so cute.

Very sensible advice.

We've had 8 cats over the last 25 years. None have climbed real or fake trees. One used to sleep in the soil of a potted one, and another used to have a chomp on the lights 🙄 but otherwise, all unscathed and no broken baubles etc. (and the light chomper survived to 19 years old!)

Fake snow is also toxic to cats so no artificial Christmas trees with a snow effect.

It might do. I mean I wouldn’t buy any glass baubles put it that way.

Every cat is different!

Our previous family cat would drink the water in the tree stand 🤣 And would bat the smaller baubles at the lower levels but nothing too mad.

My brothers cat would be ALL OVER his small artificial tree when she was younger but thankfully she seems to have grown out of it a bit.

Only a little bit

My previous cats were constantly all over it in their first year, they were 9 months at Christmas. I love love love my Christmas tree so not putting it up was not an option. We tied it at the top to a couple of nails we banged in the wall and just made sure not to leave them alone in that room for any length of time ( we shut it when we went out and at night) . Their second year they barely gave it a glance.
Our current cats did the same on their first Christmas, they were 5 months old then and the left over nails in the wall came back into play . Again the following year they were not really interested except for the interesting smell ( sweets) wrapped up underneath the tree. They were 5 years old last Christmas and apart from one token bosh of a decoration ( just to show they could if they wanted to 😂) they left it completely alone. The tree is a fake one.

Our 18 month old cat broke our new tree within 2 days! He's not even a chonk but managed to shimmy up the centre and lean out towards the top branches and the pole snapped.

I can see the funny side now but with Christmas approaching I'm wondering what to do 🤣