Houseplants can also be made cat-proof by giving off an unpleasant odor. Houseplant leaves with cayenne pepper sprinkled on them will cause your cat to swiftly retreat. Citrus smells are also repulsive to cats. To help keep pests away, mix orange and lemon peels with your plants in the pots. Another choice is to directly mist the foliage with orange or lemon oil that has been diluted. IMPORTANT: Citrus oil extracts, such as those used in insecticide sprays, dips, shampoos, insect repellents, food additives, and scents, are poisonous to cats and should be avoided.
Many cat owners who have issues with their cats using plants as litter boxes may buy plants with unpleasant textures so that cats will reconsider their potty habits.
To avoid digging, you can also cover the soil near the bases of the plants with some large pebbles or stones. Cat deterrents could be used around the planter, such as pinecones or aluminum foil. Another choice is to use mesh, chicken wire, or any other permeable material to cover the plant’s base.
Don’t give up if you’re still having trouble keeping your cats away from your plants. There are still some other choices.
- To keep cats out, create a plant room and seal the door. For this, sunrooms are ideal, but sunny bedrooms or baths will do.
- Use wire shelving units to enclose the plants. Although this will help safeguard the plants, very daring cats might still find a way to get their paws inside.
- Why not offer the cat some safe plants as a sort of sacrifice in addition to concentrating on indoor plants cats avoid? Cats adore lemon balm and catnip. Place a few in sturdy plastic pots and scatter the sacrifice plants around the home, keeping them away from your other plants. This will keep your annoying cat busy and could prevent damage to some of your other plants.
How can indoor potted plants be protected from cats?
There are various ways to make your plants less interesting to your cat if you’re not ready to dedicate one to your feline friend or are simply sick of attempting to save the dead plants.
Top Tips to Keep Your Cat Away from Plants
Make your plant unattractive in #1. Anything citrus-flavored is strongly disliked by cats. To deter any cat invasion, you can spray the leaves of your plant with lemon, lime, or orange juice diluted with water.
Bodhi Dog produces a Bitter Lemon Spray if you don’t feel like making your own concoction. You don’t have to bother about using and cleaning out a regular plastic spray bottle, which is something I’ve found to work extremely well. If your cat determines the fragrance is insufficient to deter them, the taste usually works. They don’t want to go back because of that terrible taste.
2. Make Your Plant Impossible to Reach. You can strategically place your houseplants in a number of locations to prevent any maltreatment. It’s crucial to comprehend your cat and their capabilities whether you hang them or place them on a shelf high enough that even the best leaper can’t reach them.
Think beyond the box and use a huge dome birdcage, a terrarium, or an old fish tank as a planter. Although they are a bit pricy, they are a terrific way to protect your plants and give the space some elegance.
Safety Reminder: Lilies are poisonous to cats, therefore keeping one on a shelf far from your cat does not guarantee their safety. Even small exposures, like when flying pollen gets on their fur and they groom it off, might have lethal consequences.
3. Give your cat a plant of their own. Providing your cat with its own cat grass or indoor cat garden is another technique to divert their focus away from your plants. Usually, the seeds for these kinds of grass are made of wheat, barley, or rye.
Even if this is a safe alternative, you should still keep an eye on how much they are consuming. We urge you to discuss any dietary questions you may have with your vet to see if they endorse cat grass as a secure substitute for your cat.
4. Teach your cats to stay away from your plant. As with dogs, cats can be trained. You can educate your cat to do almost anything you desire, but it does require time, patience, and consistency. Others may leash train their cat so they can spend more time outside, while other people train their cats to perform tricks. With the correct reward, you may teach your cat to stay away from your plants and reroute them to behave differently.
When teaching your cat something new, Feline Behavior Solutions’ Dr. Marci Koski advises looking for their motivation. “Treats are very simple because they don’t require much time to administer if they are little and easily consumed. This allows you to continue the training process and repeat steps repeatedly. It’s love and admiration for some kitties.”
Pet Greens Cat Craves is one choice that I’ve discovered my cats adore. Additionally, these snacks contain Omega 3 Fatty Acids, have meat as the first ingredient, and have recognized ingredients.
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Pro tip: You might want to think about using adhesive putty for the bottom of your planter if your cat’s mischievous behavior only results in your plants ending up on the floor. It’s under the majority of our ceramics, I’m sure (kids included)! The fact that sticky putty may be used again, is non-toxic, and doesn’t dry out is its best feature.
What natural cure deters cats from visiting plants?
Cats digging in your garden can be an annoyance and a major health danger (since some cat feces contain toxoplasmosis, which can spread). It might even be your pet! (Image courtesy of Felicia D’Ascano on Unsplash)
Neighbourhood kitties digging in your garden can be a nuisance. Maybe it’s even your own cat!
- Carnivores include cats. Their feces may carry infections or parasites that aren’t found in the dung of herbivores. The majority of us intend to eat the food we cultivate, therefore this is alarming! (The same holds true for dog waste.)
- Every year, over 140 million (birds and small animals) are killed by stray domestic cats. And if you’re doing it right, your garden and yard are made to draw wild birds as well as pollinators like hummingbirds.
- Neighborhood relationships may be strained by roaming cats.
To prevent cats from entering your beloved vegetable beds and eating the food you raise, use these solutions:
Prickly is best
Cats will steer clear of spiky areas and prefer to walk on soft, loose soil. Create a less appealing or litter-like atmosphere in your garden beds. Try these straightforward, inexpensive remedies for prickly problems:
- Twigs should be used to cover cat-friendly garden soil until your spring plants are well-established. They should be spaced a few inches apart all over the bed. Bear in mind that twig bundles aid wild bees!
- Push thorny yard trimmings, such as pine cones or fall leaves, into the soil around your plants. Other choices include recycled plastic carpet runners with the nub side up, stone mulch, eggshells, holly cuttings, and so forth.
- Use wooden chopsticks to repurpose as garden stakes! Try different spacings. The goal is to space them out so that it will be difficult for the cat to turn around.
- Over the earth, place chicken wire or plastic fencing pieces. (Many plants will increase as a result of this!) Lattice pieces on the ground can also be effective.
- By laying out onion or potato mesh produce bags in the garden and securing them with twigs or posts, you can recycle them. If required, widen the opening around your developing plants. Keep a watch on any plastic items you put to the garden to prevent wind from carrying them away and making them litter.
Use scent to keep the cats away
- Rue, lavender, pennyroyal, Coleus canina, and lemon thyme are all pungent to cats. These should be scattered around the garden. (Planting new plants can draw pollinators and other helpful insects.)
Citrus
To prevent your cats from approaching too closely, try wrapping orange or lemon peels around the top of your pots. To deter them, you can also spread orange, apple, or grapefruit rinds inside of your potted plants.
Coffee Grounds, Sawdust, and Pine Needles
Additionally, the fragrance of coffee grounds repulses cats. To deter cats, scatter used coffee grounds at the base of your plants.
Pine needles are another excellent choice because they provide a natural appearance for decoration and frequently stop cats from destroying your plants.
To deter cats from visiting your outside compost, try adding some sawdust at the base of your pots.
Vicks VapoRub
Vicks VapoRub, which is composed of eucalyptus and camphor oils, is a fantastic natural insect repellent. In fact, my grandma swore by this old strategy to keep cats away from her potted plants.
Cat Repellent Sprays
There are more traditional methods of keeping cats away if you don’t want to go the natural route.
It’s a two-in-one solution that you can use to clean your home, and cats don’t like the orange-coconut aroma it left behind.
Your cats will keep away if you clean the outside of your plant pots with your preferred household cleaner.
Avoid Cayenne, Black Pepper, Red Pepper Flakes and Cinnamon
Cats are poisoned by cayenne pepper, black pepper, and cinnamon oil. Therefore, if you want to have your cats around for a longer period of time, it is best to avoid these.
If your cat chooses to stroll on top of these spices while being unaffected by them, they risk damaging their eyes if they rub them with their paws.
Does cinnamon prevent cats from visiting plants?
Why should you worry what odors cats dislike? There are useful uses for knowing which odors cats dislike in the real world. For instance, you might want to know which odorous plants could deter cats from entering your garden if you’re trying to do so. Additionally, if your cat is causing trouble with your furniture, decorations, or even your Christmas tree, you might try spritzing the troublesome area with an odor that will make him uncomfortable.
There are, of course, always exceptions. Although many cats loathe these smells, not all cats do. While some of these smells can be used as essential oils, we don’t advise doing so to keep your cat out of particular rooms. Why? since it is well known that many essential oils are hazardous to cats.
Citrus: orange, lemon, lime, and grapefruit
There is a lot of evidence to suggest that cats dislike citrus scents. You can take advantage of this by scattering orange peels across your yard to deter cats or spritzing a citrus-scented fragrance on interior fabric that you don’t want your cat to rip up. Cats can eat citrus fruits, however the majority of them won’t likely be interested. However, the skins and plant matter may make cats throw up, have diarrhea, or develop dermatitis.
Lavender, geranium, and eucalyptus
You can also try this as a deterrent for cats. Some gardeners use lavender plants to prevent deer. Cats don’t appreciate the smell that geranium and eucalyptus plants emit. Remember that cats can be relatively poisonous to lavender, geranium, and eucalyptus; ingesting them might result in excessive salivation, nausea, vomiting, anorexia, sadness, or dermatitis.
Rosemary, thyme, and rue
Certain common plants, such as rosemary, rue, and thyme, are undoubtedly repulsive to cats. Thyme and rosemary are normally safe for cats, while rue can have an adverse effect (as it can in humans, as well).
Banana and mustard
Although cats can eat mustard and banana (seems like a good combo, doesn’t it? ), they definitely won’t want to. Cats don’t like the different smells that these typical kitchen items emit.
Pepper, curry, and cinnamon
Strong spicy scents like cinnamon, curry, and pepper also frequently deter cats. However, as this could potentially damage the cats, we do not advise using cayenne pepper or other pepper flakes to keep cats out of the garden. Cats are not poisoned by cinnamon.
Mint, wintergreen, and menthol
Cats also dislike the smell of strong minty aromas like wintergreen and menthol. This may be the case for good reason since cats who consume mint and its cousins may vomit and have diarrhea.
Why do cats dig up plants in pots?
Does your cat disturb the ground near a houseplant? Do you wonder when the cleanup will be finished and how your plant will survive because she throws dirt around? Do you have any concerns?
According to Tracy Kroll, DVM, a resident in animal behavior at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, the answer is most likely zero. Based on the instinctual behavior of cats to dig before eliminating, plant digging is a completely normal behavior for cats. This inclination frequently arises from the natural cat litter known as soil. Digging is probably fun for cats as well because it comes so naturally to them.
motivated by illness, undesirable conduct, or even curiosity Your cat may tread in the dirt after being enticed to the plant. The ideal soil for cats is soft, permeable, and textured. Following her instincts from long ago, she might then dig and urinate or defecate as well. Kroll suggests speaking with your veterinarian if she is digging and urinating in the container.
Such elimination can occasionally be a symptom of a bodily issue, particularly when the digging and pot-placing elimination in an adult cat starts out abruptly and persists on a regular basis. A cat’s primary means of expressing distress brought on by a sickness are frequently abrupt, complete behavioral changes.
Indirect signs of behavioral issues are very common in cats. Examine your daily activities to see if anything has changed that is distressing. Has something changed in your life, like your schedule for cutting your nails, made you forget it? Or, has a new occupant of the home disrupted the social structure of your cat’s life? Consider any potential changes that might be connected in any way to the cat’s recent digging.
Fortunately, digging in home plants is rarely the result of these issues. Most of the time, particularly with a young cat, the odd digging is an act of natural exploration. Other cats may be tempted by a fresh, intriguing, and invitingly placed houseplant, or they may be drawn to a plant that has been brought inside after spending the summer outdoors and is treated like an old friend by your cat.
Protect your plants from cats. When a kitten starts to dig, it’s similar to when a youngster is first learning to walk. According to Kroll, who obtained her DVM from the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, you need to child-proof or kitten-proof the house. The challenge is to make your plants kitty-proof rather than trying to curb your cat’s natural curiosity.
Check to see if you can raise the plant above your cat’s reach and transfer it to a less accessible spot. Remove it from any area where your cat may easily jump, such as a table or ledge. Alternately, put something else on the exposed surfaces where the woman has been jumping to get to the plant.
You might also put barriers or repellent materials between her and the soil of the pots. To prevent the roots from rotting, place a smooth substance like plastic film or aluminum foil on top of the soil and make holes in it to let moisture escape. Surfaces without texture don’t appeal to cats. Small boulders or stones, as well as deflated or partially deflated balloons placed on the ground and anchored to the base of the plant trunk, will also act as deterrents.
Certain fragrances turn cats off, and they will avoid those odours. To deter cats, dab little amounts of vinegar or perfume on the pot’s rim, for instance.
Keep in mind that cats occasionally dig, guide her curiosity in less intrusive places, and be happy that your cat is healthy, active, and curious.