10 Ways to Stop Your Cats from Eating Your Plants
We love our cats, but we cant seem to stop them from eating our plants. Here are some neat ways to get your kitty to stop the bad habbits.
1. Take Chili powder (the spice you cook with) and lightly dust or sprinkle your plants. This works great. Cats will not touch them again if the chili powder stays on. Make sure when watering you don’t rinse the chili all off.
2. Place double-sided sticky tape on the area surrounding the plant. Your cat will hate how this feels on his/her paws and soon stop going there.
3. Place aluminum foil on the area surrounding the plant. Most cats hate this feeling on their feet.
4. One good solution is to put plant stakes around the outside of your cat’s favorite plants. This can create a barrier such that your cat can’t even get to the off-limit plants.
5. Place upside down mouse traps on the area surrounding the plant and then put a piece of wax paper over that (some pet stores even have an official version of this old home-made trick). When your cat walks on the wax paper it will get an unsuspecting scare. After a while your cat will learn that this area is more trouble than it is worth. This method can be tricky so be careful that your cat doesn’t accidentally get him/herself caught in a trap.
6. – Place plastic liners bottom side up (with the little pokey parts facing up) surrounding the plant. Your cat will not like how that feels on his/her paws at all.
7. – Purchase a cat repellant spray at your local pet store. Just make sure that the spray will be safe for your specific plants.
8. Spray the top and bottoms of the leaves with some diluted perfume. The cat will follow the smell and try to nibble on the plant. That normally will be followed by a mad dash to the water bowl to get rid of the taste.
9. Another method to treat your plants is to use Grannick’s Bitter AppleÃ?® Spray on them. The product is not harmful but the taste is bad (for cats and dogs). A few licks of Bitter Apple will cure your cat from ever touching the plant again.
10. Giving your cat its own plant may also work. You will have to be very patient and make sure you teach your kitty which plant(s) it can touch and which plant(s) it cant.
Some helpful information:
Listed here are plants that are poisonous or otherwise dangerous to cats and that must be avoided if there are cats in your home. While in some cases, just parts of a plant (bark, leaves, seeds, berries, roots, tubers, spouts, green shells) might be poisonous, this list rules out the whole plant.
* Almond *Amaryllis * Angel’s trumpet * Apple seeds * Apricot * Arrowhead fern
* Asparagus fern * Autumn crocus * Avocado * Azalea
* Baby’s breath * Balsam Pear * Beech * Belladonna * Bird of paradise
* Bittersweet woody * Black locust * Boston ivy * Boxwood * Buckeye * Buttercup
* Cactus * Caladium * Calla lily * Castor bean * Cherry * China Berry
* Chinese evergreen * Christmas trees * Chrysanthemum * Coral plant
* Coriaria * Creeping Charlie * Creeping fig * Crown of thorns
* Daffodil * Daisy * Datura * Day lily * Delphinium * Dieffenbachia
* Easter lily * Elderberry * Elephant ears * English ivy * English yew
* Foxglove
* Geranium * Golden chain * Ground cherry
* Hibiscus * Holly * Honeysuckle * Hyacinth * Hydrangea
* Impatiens * Indian rubber plant * Iris * Ivy
* Jack-in-the-pulpit * Japanese yew * Jasmine * Jerusalem cherry
* Kalanchoe
* Larkspur * Laurel * Lily of the valley
* Majesty * Malanga * Marijuana * Mistletoe * Moonweed* Morning glory
* Mother-in-law’s tongue * Mushroom
