Eating Poisonous Plants/flowers: Indoor Vs Outdoor Cats

[TwirlyGirly]

My three kitties are all strictly indoor cats. I'm very aware of which indoor plants/flowers are poisonous to cats, and don't have much of a green thumb anyway, so my homes have always been plant/cut flowers free.

However, last Mother's Day, my daughter picked some flowers from a bush in our front yard and put them in a vase on our dining room table. We rent the house we live in, and because our cats never go outside (combined with our general disinterest in things growing in the great outdoors), neither of us knew the name of the bush from which she plucked the flowers, nor whether it was one poisonous to cats.

You can guess where this is leading, right?

My cat, Nico, decided the flowers looked tasty, and unbeknowst to either of us at the time, nibbled a few. About an hour and a half later, Nico was running around the house as if he was being chased. The skin on his back was rippling and twitching, and he kept stopping to lick areas of his back/sides - as if he was being bitten by fleas. He was also panting.

That's when we noticed the stem from one of the flowers on the floor under the table.

My daughter immediately went outside to snap a photo of the plant, and we both began frantically Googling; a few minutes later we identified the bush as an Azalea - toxic to cats.

I whisked Nico over to the vet right away. 24 hours and $200.00 later, he was fine, thank God. My daughter and I are now aware of the dangers of Azaleas (and will never bring cuttings from anything growing outside indoors ever again without first properly identifying it as being safe around kitties).

However, in the months since the incident, I've begun to wonder; why do cats allowed outdoors (usually) seem to avoid the plants/bushes/flowers poisonous to cats, while strictly indoor cats appear to be drawn to ALL plants/flowers, safe or not?

In our neighborhood, azaleas, rhododendron, and tiger lilies are prolific, and many of my neighbors allow their cats to roam outdoors. Yet in the 11 years we've lived here, we've never seen a cat knawing on a poisonous plant (but we have observed cats chomping on grass), nor heard of any cat becoming ill/dying because they ate something they shouldn't (except my own cat, of course!).

I've tried, unsuccessfully, to research the answer to this question, except for the following I found and am quoting from -Beware Of Poison Plants For Cats:

"For cats living outside, [poisonous plants are] risky business, but they will rely on their internal alarms to let them know what to eat and what to stay away from."

I don't know how reliable this site is, and furthermore, this quote, while appearing to support my belief outdoor cats tend to avoid harmful plants/flowers, doesn't answer the question "Why?". If this "internal alarm" the quote alludes to exists, why would it not be present in indoor kitties?

Any ideas?

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi!
I'm SO glad your baby is ok!! Thank goodness your furbaby had you and your daughter's sharp and observant eyes there for him

Sometimes I think it's because our indoor kitties have a diet that isn't necessarily "natural" and this can result in a cat looking for ways to supplement it.

Also, there's the evolutionary thought that sometimes there are animals, of all species, who don't have the instinctive reactions wired in as strongly as others.

Or, for cats who are bonded with their people, they're interested in everything we do and are attracted to it, whatever it might be.

I don't know if anyone really knows

 

[FeebysOwner]

Wow! Good question! I too, tried searching for information about this. The information below is essentially all I found (OK, I only searched for about 15 minutes). It is from the icatcare.org web site. Kind of helps, perhaps, to explain it...

"There are many commonly-grown plants, both house plants and garden plants, that are toxic or can cause skin irritation. Most cats that go outside do not eat poisonous plants but will nibble grass and other herbs, perhaps as a remedy for digestive problems. However, if cats are kept permanently indoors they may not have access to grass and may try eating other things either out of boredom or to try and access some plant material."

 

[TwirlyGirly]

Very interesting! It explains why indoor cats might eat toxic plants, but not why outdoor cats usually don't, though. Certainly a tiger lily or azalea flower is more visually interesting than a blade of grass, so I'd think, given a choice, one of those might seem more appetizing. But I'm not a cat, so what do I know? It could very well be, like you said, a matter of indoor cats not having access to grass and/or other non-toxic greens. I'm not about to test the theory by letting Nico outside to see if he makes a beeline to the Azalea bush, though...

Of our three cats, Nico is the only one who seems to have a "thing" for flowers, plants, and other leafy stuff. We have a bunny, too, and I had to switch her from loose hay to hay cubes, because Nico would stick his paw through the bars of her cage, hook some hay with his claws, pull it out - and eat it. (And then I'd inevitably find hay-laced vomit on the floor somewhere a couple hours later). I also have to keep an eye on the dandelion greens I feed her for dinner; if I set them down on the counter for a minute to do something else before I give them to the rabbit, Nico will junp up and try to eat those, too! (I know dandelion greens aren't harmful to cats, but the bunny doesn't steal Nico's food, so...)

I wish I could grow him some cat grass. I did try, but because there is no place in my house to put it where it gets sufficient light, it dies after about a week. Unfortunately, the house is really small and very poorly designed; the windows don't have sills, and because of their poor placement and the bad configuration of the rooms, furniture is placed in front of every window that lets in enough light for plants. Even those shelves that can be attached to windows won't work as both my daughter & use manual wheelchairs for mobility, so we wouldn't be able to reach window shelves to attend to the plants!

Maybe I need to start buying an extra bunch of dandelion greens every week, and let Nico have his thrill...I mean "fill"...haha!

 

[Furballsmom]

.

 

[Hellenww]

I wish I could grow him some cat grass.

If you are buying pre-grown grass or seeds at a pet supply even in the best conditions they don't last long. Wheat berries will grow nice grass and last upto a month for me. I get heavy glass votive holders from the dollar store and soil without fertilizer. Fill 3/4 with soil, then a layer of seed, and just cover with soil. Make it damp and put in a cabinet until the grass peaks through. Then put it on a counter. Even with low sun it should grow.

 

[Kflowers]

I use the cat grass seeds and have two large pots for them. The pots sit on the floor by the large window. Kitty fun is standing up to reach in the pot for the cat grass.

Having one cat I only plant maybe 20 seeds at a time and only in one pot. I wait a week and plant 20 in the other pot. That way there is cat grass most of the time. It isn't full and lush as on the package, but it is more than enough for one cat to munch on during a two week period.

The key thing is you could plant just 20 seeds in a small container...