greens for indoor cat

[lil]

What would be some safe edible plants for my indoor cat?

[Bill Spohn]

Dieffenbachia.....?

[Suzie-Q]

click on the links listed under P

8^)~~~ Sue (remove the x to e-mail) ~~~~~~

"I reserve the absolute right to be smarter today than I was yesterday." -Adlai Stevenson

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[zhanataya]

I thought that one was reserved for dogs?

[SAS567]

Wal-Mart has this little kit of dirt, a plastic container and different grass seeds in a packet. I've been buying it for my cat for about a year now. I think it cost under $3.00 Just a hint,,, don't use the whole packet of sends at once. I replant the container 3 times with one pack of seeds. My cat loves it and leaves my 38 houseplants alone. Sue In Mi. (zone 5)

[zhanataya]

Are you looking for plants for the cats or house plants for your enjoyment that won't harm your cats?

zhan

[Beecrofter]

Wheatgrass or Oats

[B & J]

Naw, just for the dogs who suggest it! :)

John

[Frogleg]

Good point. The subject line indicates something along the line of kitty grass many cats enjoy. Wheatgrass? Oats? I would be interested in reading about how a cat 'utilizes' these salad bars. Many ads for wheatgrass planting show a light plastic base with a nice crop of undisturbed grass. My cat would reduce that to a yard-square area of upended plants and scattered planter mix in a few seconds.

[kate]

Back in the day I used a big pot that wouldn't get up ended and the cats would graze. Outside mine have enjoyed winter rye and oats (although the oats got bit pretty early this year.) And of course the catnip gets mauled regularly.

Kate (hanging the lights today and starting some seeds - celery, verbena, rudbeckia and celosia)

[A]

What about catnip or something like that?

I heard that cats love catnip, but I don`t know if they eat it or they love its smell.

[Joe]

My cats have enjoyed the oat cat grass once in a while. They eat it, for sure. I don't have any growing at the moment though I did buy some seeds. As mentioned, the cats make a nice looking patch look pretty messy, pretty quick. So, you would have to have two or three pots on the go, and rotate them.

Joe Ontario

[Tom Jasz]

My indoor guys eat the wheatgrass, and the front yard is crawling with neighbor cats eating the oats!

Good choices!

[zhanataya]

But it won't mute the fingers. :-)

[zhanataya]

One of mine sits in the middle of catnip every year waving his head to music only he can hear.

[B & J]

Then may their fingers be blistered and may the return as rats in their next incarnation with no fingers to vent their spleen! Marilyn and I like cats, Zhan. :)

John

[Dwight Sipler]

Your local pet store probably has some "cat grass". They come in something like a 1 oz package for around $2-3. The grass is probably a mixture of things, but what it looks like is oats and winter rye. You can get 50 lb of winter rye at Agway for about $10.

[zhanataya]

Me too!!! I still have three. KB went to the rainbow bridge last year. I still miss him.

[Janice]

I went out and found a chunk of grass that looked like what they liked to eat, usually weed grass anyway, and would dig up a chunk and put it in a flower pot and brought it in for them, then they'd happily munch it. Of course the results were often upchucked grass and anywhere from foam to hairballs. The grass is a "tonic" and it does often result in vomiting. But they do that anyway. Just make sure you feed a good undyed cat food then it won't stain. ;-)

Janice

[Janice]

Most of my cats would eat it. One cat was so green starved when I brought in some young garlic plants that were growing like weeds around here, I no sooner put it in the sink and turned around, the cat had it out of the sink and on the floor. Of course he couldn't eat it, and I took it away from him, but they will get so starved for plant matter they'll eat anything that comes in the house.

Plus, never underestimate a cat's ability to get to a plant. I brought in some tiny Johnny jump ups one year, just 3 and I put them on a book shelf in a shot glass. The shelf was at eye level, nothing near it to get on to walk onto the shelf as everything was stacked with junk, and the shelf was covered with junk too. I have NO idea how a cat got up there, they manage while I was gone for an hour or two. Shot glass and water was there, but the flowers were gone!

We bring in a few leaves now and then of catnip, but you don't want to give them much more than a few leaves.. small ones.. or be prepared to deal with a cat with diarrhea. Not fun with a long haired cat!

I will look for a chunk of grass for the cats this year. I'll pick an area, trim it down short, hose it down and shelter it from other cats, let it grow up again and put some in a pot and bring it in after watering it well as well as washing down the grass to get rid of anything on it. I would just plant some grass seed in a pot, but I don't want to buy a big box, and I don't know of anywhere close by to send people to buy a handful of seed. I'm not able to go out and do much anymore, but there are folks living with me I can send to do stuff.

Janice