This post is dedicated to Orca. Let’s try not “helping” your mom water her plants, okay friend?
Cats have a complicated relationship with houseplants. While nibbling on cat grass or a sprinkle of catnip can be a fun enrichment activity, getting sick from munching on a toxic plant is going to be significantly less fun for your cats.
Chewing on plants isn’t the only behavior cat parents have to worry about when it comes to the photosynthetic children, though. While somewhat less common than a cat taking a chomp out of their plants, occasionally a cat will confuse a money tree for a litter box. While it does cut down on some of your chores, undiluted urine isn’t great for plants. What can you do to protect your plants and sanity?
Make Their Litter More Appealing
While humans think of using a toilet as our bathrooms, cats have different preferences. To cats the best place to drop a huge, stinky poop is into a soft material with small particles that can be easily used to cover said huge, stinky poop. Guess what meets that criteria? Dirt.
If you use a litter that is less appealing than dirt, you’re going to run into trouble. Skip the big, chunky pellets and use a soft, sandy litter instead to make sure your actually litter box is more appealing to your cat than your potted plants. Consider using a sensitive paws litter or even reptile sand as a litter.
If you’re concerned about tracking, a litter trapping mat will solve that problem. You can also get a robotic vacuum to sweep up on a regular basis. I have one from Eufy and it keeps things clean between more regular vacuuming.
Make The Box More Appealing, Too
Of course, if your cat doesn’t want to use their litter box because they hate the box itself, nobody wins. Make sure the box is easy for them to get into (skip the top entry boxes or self cleaning litter boxes). Cats prefer uncovered boxes so keep the top open. I’m a big fan of making your own litter boxes so no need to rely just on the store bought ones.
Make sure the litter box is easy to get to because, as appealing as having all the boxes in the basement is, it’s not a great strategy. Placing a litter box near your plants can give them an easy alternative and meet the need near where they’re already going.
Move Your Plants
Rather than focusing on your cat, focus on the plants. Plants can thrive in different locations so unless you only have one window, they can be shuffled to a different spot. Try moving the plants to a location that’s harder to get to for the cat.
Alternatively, do you have a room that your cat doesn’t have access to? Keep your bigger plants in there. This is easier if your cat has never had access to the room to begin with, but you can help your cat get used to doors being closed with some effort. If you are moving in the near future, you can set a designated plant room ahead of time by never allowing your cat access to that room. It will make it less likely your cat will want to get in.
Concerned about lighting? Grow lights are great. If you’ve had a consultation with me, you may have seen Poutine go harass one of my hoyas in the background. My office doesn’t have any windows so it gets all its light thanks to a grow light. You can keep a plant alive using an LED light without issue as long as the temperature in the room is adequate for the plant.
Physically Block The Plants
Depending on the size and humidity requirements of your plant, a cloche or greenhouse may be an option to enclose your plant. Totally enclosed spaces may not be as great for plants that like dryer conditions, but if you’re careful with your watering you can make it work.
For larger plants, consider repurposing furniture or creating a larger greenhouse from a large cabinet. Ikea cabinets work really well for this purpose.
Use Soil Covers
If you can’t physically block your cat from the plant, you can use other methods to keep your plant from not using the soil as a litter box. While I’m not a fan of aluminum foil, spikes, or other methods that are based on causing the cat stress or pain, you can make the soil inaccessible to the cat.
Depending on the size of the plant, consider using the lid to an old bucket, a frisbee, or another plastic item with a hole (or holes) cut into the top along with a slit to get it around the plant. This will completely cover the soil and prevent your cat from accessing it without causing them stress. You can paint the cover, add some craft moss, or decorate it in a creative way so it will also look nice. Maybe turn it into some tiny mountains? Let your imagination run wild as long as it’s cat safe!
Soil Dressings Are Your Friend
If you don’t want to make a cover for the plants? Aluminum foil is pretty ugly and quite honestly, I rarely see it work. Why not try something more effective that will also make your plants look nicer?
Soil dressings are used to make plants look more presentable and can have some benefits when it comes to care of your plants. They can also be used to create a soil that is unappealing to cats: lumpy and not very comfortable to walk on. Smooth river rocks can be an attractive choice. Just don’t pick anything that’s sharp or that your cat could ingest. Go for bigger rocks.
Or Alter The Soil
Depending on the plant you are growing, you can also alter the soil itself. Plants that need well draining soil usually do better with chunkier soil anyway so why not add some chunks to the soil? Mix in some orchid bark or, if you have a succulent, use a gritty mix with large particles. The chunks will not be appealing to your cat and the soil will drain fast enough to prevent root rot.
And no, I will not take any questions about how I am so familiar with the concept of root rot in succulents thank you very much.
Cat Still Peeing In Your Plants?
While these things are likely to knock out the problem, for some cats there may be a deeper issue. If you haven’t already had your veterinarian evaluate your cat, that’s a great place to start to ensure there isn’t a medical problem going on. After that’s ruled out, set up a session with me and I’ll be happy to help you figure out what to do next.
