Tips for defending house plants?

I would love to have more house plants, but Khaleesi is a little plant fiend and chews them all. We have a lucky bamboo in the window, which she leaves alone; we HAD a money tree on this little indoor window space that she completely killed (no more leaves, just a lonely stem that I'm hoping will bud back); an aloe vera plant on top of a high bookshelf that she hasn't tried to get up to get; and another type of long leafed plant in the bedroom, which is the one I am currently trying to save.

She chews the leaves. I tried putting mint in the pot and it does nothing. I hear spraying the leaves with vinegar might help? Will this hurt the plant? How often should I do it?

Any other suggestions (aside from moving it because I want it where it is lol), would be appreciated!

I can't help I'm afraid, I gave up and donated the few plants I had to my mom.   

I'm pretty rubbish with plants anyway but I had two or three orchid plants I'd kept going for a few years. 

Mouse spent about 2 months trying to get up to what I thought was an impossible shelf (previous cats never made it up there) and finally pulled a leaf off my last remaining orchid so that went to my mom's and joined the others.   He was lucky he didn't pull the whole plant and the pot down on top of his head.   If I got him kitty grass he pulled it up from the roots and left it all over the floor of the apartment, and still chewed the plants I didn't want him to so I wouldn't reccommend that either.   The only things I did keep him off was a plant arrangement I was given by some people when I left work at Christmas and it was wrapped up in celophane tied together at the top with a bow.  I took the bow off but kept the celophane wrapping there and pulled the edges of it together to stop him finding his way in to the leaves.  Success.  I watered through the joins in the celophane. The plants only lasted about 7 weeks but that was down to my lack of green fingers rather than Mouse.....  The other option is using those plant bottle gardens but they are not like having nice big plants around your home.   My theory is if you've got a plant chewer you've got a plant chewer, but someone out there might have a wonderful solution just for you. 

I only recently managed to keep a bouquet of flowers in my sitting room rather than lock them away in the bathroom because they get targeted with chewing as well :-(       (Made sure there was nothing poisonous in there first of course).

Just read about putting netting around the plant, maybe you could try this:lol3:

well, i suggest getting a cat plant they sell them at pet smart for cheap. {at least when i was last there they were} but, they make plants for cats that attracts them to the cat plant and they don't mess with the house plant.i suggest put one cat plant or also called [cat grass] put one next to the plant that she appears to attack the most . i have one of my 3 cats did the same thing but my strategy seemed to work the best.... some times you just have to play around with things. i hope this advise helped you    

I find that my cat loves to chew on plants with thin/grassy leaves. I had a bamboo plant which i tried to save by spraying lemon juice/cayenne but he tore through it anyway. Funny thing is he knows that he shouldn't be doing it and only goes at it when I'm out of the room, when I go in he stops and slinks away as if nothing happened 

I've basically had to give up those kind of plants...I now get the ones with big/thick fibrous leaves. There are a few bite marks from when I first bought them but he pretty much left them alone after that.

I suggest getting a pot of grass for her to nibble on or if you're able to, take her on a daily stroll outside where she can munch on whatever. My cat loves chewing on the lawn outside. 

Long ago I gave away most of my plants.  Those I have left are:

Pothos: in hanging baskets in my kitchen.  way out of the way, gorgeous, 3 big plants.

6 foot dragon tree palm TOXIC TO CATS: in huge planter in my living room, with only two heads 5 feet off ground and away from any place they can climb to reach it.  I'm very careful to pick off any yellow leaves.  I'm keeping it since I inherited this plant when I purchased my apartment. I feel I owe it to this plant to have it live out it's life here.  Previous owner lived here 20 years, original planter looked very old

Laurentii TOXIC TO CATS - I have a beautiful one, again in my kitchen, and cats could care less.  Once a month I might notice a new bite mark right through a leaf - but nothing else.  3grams of toxins from this plant to 2lb of cat will kill - pretty strong.  20 grams is just 1/2 of one OZ... so be careful here.

My general rules is: no plants, ever.  I have a lot of fake ones.

For the first time in 25 years I have a garden, and I planted the most toxic plants, tulips and hyanthis (spelling) last year. I cut them and take them to work, where I spend more time than at home. Not worth the possibility however remote that Ritz would eat them. The only suggestion I have is to grow plants that aren't toxic, like ornamental grasses (serve as double duty as a toy for Ritz. She can hunt and pounce and chew). Not all grasses are 100% safe though. Also roses aren't toxic. I make dried flower wreaths which I hang high, and put dried flowers in vases. Ritz has never bothered them, or wires, cords, for that matter.

No dinner candles in this house either, some of you may already have read about Mouse's unfortunate encounter with one of those when he was about 5 months old. Very rapid journey to the vets -  I thought he was going to need a colostomy.    He still has that scar on his butt...   no spiky plants for the same reason - he's bound to impale some part of himself on anything sharp.        As I recall, it gets easier as the cat gets older and less active. 

Thanks everyone for your posts! Guess I'll have to keep trying. I do have that SSSCat motion detector thing, so I might just put it on the bureau LOL

Put them all up high. I have a table that I put some of my plants on. I put more on the top shelf of a bookcase, and the last of them on the top shelf of a desk. They are all crammed into those 3 places, there is no room for a cat to jump up there. And they cant reach them.

Ritz said:

For the first time








in 25 years I have a garden, and I planted the most toxic plants, tulips and hyanthis (spelling) last year. I cut them and take them to work, where I spend more time than at home. Not worth the possibility










however remote that Ritz would eat them. The only suggestion I have is to grow plants that aren't toxic, like ornamental grasses (serve as double duty as a toy for Ritz. She can hunt and








pounce and chew). Not all grasses are 100% safe though. Also roses aren't toxic. I make dried flower wreaths which I hang high, and put dried flowers in vases. Ritz has never bothered them, or
wires, cords, for that matter.

Click to expand...

If you're planting then plant cat nip/mint not too near the plants you live. It'll grow to the stage where they can lie and roll in it and come home high as a kite.