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mooseling_gw

Toxic plants and pets

mooseling
14 years ago

I seem to like all the toxic plants, and of course, only the ones I have to bring in for the winter. And I have a dog, but that's not really a problem. I have a cage, which is meant to keep a dog enclosed, but I use it to keep her out and all my dangerous plants are in there. The problem is that someone is moving in with a cat, and although my cat can't (or won't) jump the fence, we have no idea about this other cat.

We've been trying to come up with a few ideas on what to do. I was thinking that maybe adding screen to essentially increase the height of the fence would work until a coworker reminded me that cats can and will climb on screen. So I thought perhaps the screen, but then use some wooden dowels to make projections from the top of the fence so the cat couldn't jump on the screen. That's really all we've come up with. Besides moving the entire setup to my room and adding a few grow lights, which is what we'll do if nothing else works.

Does anyone else have any ideas on how to keep animals away from plants? I really don't want to attempt to just teach the cat with a spray bottle or something - I'm too used to stubborn animals and would rather not take the risk of the cat getting to the plants when no one's looking. I haven't met this cat, but she's apparently very active and likes jumping and chewing on plants. The plants I have that are kept in the cage are a Brugmansia, a Euphorbia, and a pile of cycads.

Would growing something for the cat to chew on work, perhaps? I just came up with a new idea. I could grow catnip and/or oat grass so the kitty will have something she'll like and perhaps leave the others alone. I know it'll probably depend on the cat herself, but has anyone had success doing that?

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