Cat-proofing your Houseplant Jungle

Written by FOAG Volunteer, Amanda Judd. 

It’s hard to share your space with both plants and cats, but it is possible! You just have to be mindful of your cat’s needs and find a way to balance them with your plants’ needs and your decorating wants.

I grew up with cats and they peacefully coexisted with my mom’s veritable jungle of house plants, so I couldn’t understand why my cat (Mr. Peaches) was so interested in mine! He would knock them off ledges, eat the leaves, dig them up and rip them out of the soil, and just generally it seemed like he hated my plants.

Mr. Peaches looking guilty beside the planter he knocked off the window sill

I tried the usual recommended deterrents, but to no end. Cayenne pepper and citrus oil slowed the chewing but didn’t stop him from knocking down the plants; the various bitter sprays available at pet stores would always backfire and were hard to wash off when they went horribly wrong; foil did nothing; covering them all was cost-prohibitive and wouldn’t work in my space.

Instead, I focused on his behaviour and tried to pinpoint why he was destroying the plants. Despite cats having a reputation of destroying things just because, I knew Mr. Peaches had his reasons.

Cats are territorial

Everything changed when I watched a show called My Cat From Hell. Thanks to multiple examples from Jackson Galaxy, I realized that my cat was feeling insecure in his territory.

Cats are very territorial, but as indoor pets they are forced to share their space with other people and pets. To feel secure, they will try to claim some vertical space, a high ground, where they can be out of the way and where they can observe the rest of their territory.

My poor Mr. Peaches was knocking my plants off of window sills and book shelves because he didn’t have access to any vertical space and he was trying to carve some out for himself.

Mr. Peaches examining an unwelcome jack o’ lantern on his window sill

Mr. Peaches enjoying the view from atop the bookshelf

Once I gave him some space – I cleaned off my top of my bookshelf, put a little pillow for him up there, put the plants inside the bookshelf rather than on the ledges – suddenly, he left them alone.

When I moved to a new apartment, I decided to follow Jackson Galaxy’s advice even further and give Mr. Peaches his own cat shelves (by local Toronto maker Kitty Gato). I’ve had to experiment with which plants can be left in his reach and which can’t, but now that he has his own vertical space he has never once tried to climb the plant shelves.

Mr. Peaches enjoying his shelves

Cats can crave plant matter in their diets

Indoor cats tend to crave some kind of plant life to add to their diet, because they are used to eating some plants in the wild. Cats that hunt herbivores in the wild will consume the plant material in their prey’s digestive tracts. They’ll also nibble on grass or consume some when taking bites of their prey. Indoor cats can’t do that, but a little bit of plant material can help with their digestion.

So, Mr. Peaches gets his own cat grass to nibble on. I reuse small containers, planting a bit of new seed every couple of weeks. It grows really quickly, so he always has a fresh supply that I can swap out. I keep them all in a protective miniature greenhouse so they’re easily accessible to me but not to him. And now we have a fun routine where he will come running if he hears the terrarium open.

Mr. Peaches chowing down on cat grass

You can buy “cat grass” seeds from most pet stores, or even get kits with a cute little planter. These seeds are usually wheat grass, but they could be rye, barely, oat or a mixture. Anywhere that sells seeds for sprouting microgreens should have all of these available! You could even try sprouting microgreens for your cat instead of planting them, but I find Mr. Peaches seems to enjoy the feeling of tugging the grass out of the dirt.

Having this source of green nibbles means that he doesn’t chomp on my plants out of desperation. Except for a few notable ones…

Cats find some plants irresistible

Despite all of this, there are a few plants that he still loves to try and eat. Anything that looks like grass, he at least wants to try it. Lemongrass, chives and spring onions have all caused drama on my balcony garden, and there are bite marks on my ponytail palm, lucky bamboo and dracaena tree.

But since he leaves most of the plants alone, these are the plants that I can concentrate on hiding as high as possible on the very top of the plant shelves.

And the one we need to hide the most is: spider plant. It turns out, spider plants are mildly toxic to cats, but in a similar way that alcohol and drugs are technically toxic to humans. Essentially, he was getting high off my spider plant supply. So I rehomed most of my spider plants to friends and I kept my favourite variegated one at the very top of a shelf he can’t climb.

Another thing I do is any of my hanging plants, I have trained to climb the walls instead of draping down and becoming a tempting toy. Using small sticky hooks, it’s very easy to train a plant to a wall instead of letting it drape and catch a breeze (and catch the eye of your kitty).

It has taken trial and error, but I can now say that Mr. Peaches lives in harmony with my plants instead of in constant conflict.

Note: This advice is for adult cats. It is not necessarily for kittens. You can start these habits early, but kittens need to learn their limits through experience. Their size means they can’t jump as high, but they can climb much easier! In the first year of their life, they’ll also be adjusting to their changing size and will probably break a few things in their awkward teenage phase as they test what can hold their weight. So if you’ve welcomed a kitten into your home this spring, keep in mind that kittens will require a lot more play to prevent their more destructive habits and extra vigilance with your plants.