I am adopting a kitten and I have a lot of toxic plants (pothos, philodendron, monstera, peace lily, croton, dracaena, ZZ). Anyone has any tips on how to keep the kitten away? I really don’t want to buy a giant glass cabinet. I like how my house looks with all my plants in different places
I have a bunch of the plants that have calcium oxalate crystals like zz, pothos and philodendrons. My kitten chew on all of them. It hurts in their mouths and I don’t know how he kept on doing it. But he was insisting. He wasn’t trying to eat them, just played with the branches and chew on them to “attack”. Anyways, after a couple of months of trial and error I imagine he realized life is more enjoyable without micro needles perforating his gums and tongue and stop attacking the plants. My only advice, which is what I did, is to keep the plants on a room while the kitten is unattended, until you are sure the cat doesn’t want to play with them anymore. From the plants you mentioned, the croton and the dracaena seem to be the most harmful to cats. I wouldn’t even have those plants at home because I have a cat. All the rest only have the annoying calcium oxalate crystals that irritate the mouth a lot and the cats learn not to bite in them. The peace lily is not an actual lily so it doesn’t kill cats like the regular lilies in the parks.
2 gillningarIngestion of calcium oxalate can also cause kidney issues in cats.
1 gilla They have to eat a lot for that to happen. They usually don’t eat them because it hurts in their mouth at the first bite
1 gilla Another thing I want to mention is: be really careful with lilies. Cats die outside in spring because they are around them. Also they get really sick and die from having lilies in a regular flower bouquet at home. They develop severe kidney failure within hours of being exposed to either the flowers or the pollen they drop. They die within the day. It’s awful. The other thing I was advised not to do expose my cat to was those Christmas ornaments that have the fake powdery snow decoration. Also kills them awfully. Adopting a kitten is the best in the world. Congratulations and good luck!
1 gilla
I got rid of all my toxic plants ( except small ones in a cabinet). I now only buy non-toxic. What I wouldn’t have around my child is not around my dog either.
3 gillningar
Giving the kitten lots of other options can help as well. They need to play a lot, and sometimes they want "interesting" toys (like different types of toys, not just a variety of small objects like stuffed mice-- think in terms of tying a toy to a string that's anchored over a doorway, getting a mechanical toy that moves, etc). I also got/grew some "sacrificial" non-toxic plants for my cats, after seeing that they'd go for plants that were reachable/tasty first. And I didn't move my plants, I moved the cats... Not only faster and easier, but safer when they're very small to have a room that's a "safe zone" where they can be unsupervised.
3 gillningarThank you all for the comments. Very helpful đź©·
1 gilla
I had exactly this issue with the first plant I owned and my cat ate it nearly to death since it wasn’t toxic but I think having a few sacrificial, safe plants in the beginning whilst you train them not to do that and redirect with toys. But I noticed the biggest difference when I redirected my cat to their own cat grass, they love it more than any other plant and meow to go out on my balcony just to run straight to it and ignore everything else. I keep a small pot of it in an awkward spot for them to reach so it limits how much they munch down bc they will eat it until they’re sick on my carpet but that’s what it’s supposed to do for them, I’ve seen many dogs do it too. A kitten is definitely going to have an extra layer of difficulty tho
0 gillningar