CLOSED: cats

HI MY CATS ARE URINATING AND DEFICATING IN MY LARGE 20 YEAR OLD PLANTS AND KILLING THEM THEY LOOK LIKE TREES. WILL REPOTTING SAVE THEM. ALSO ONE IS A CORN PLANT ABOUT 10 FEET TALL THE OTHER HAS HUGE 6 INCH WIDE AND ABOUT 7 TO 8 INCH LONG VEINED LEAVES THAT BRANCH OFF A LONG STALK WITH ABOUT 10 TO 15 LEAVES EACH.IT IS ABOUT 15 FEET TALL

Remove the excess urine by drenching the plants,

Stop the excess urine by controlling the cats.

Here is Hawaiian based cat control for let!

thats a mean thing to say for the cat lovers. She also said they WERE HER CATS.

you have to teach them thats not a spot to pee in. they love potting mix.

i use no no stuff to teach them. granted u have to use it all the time till they get the idea. you can by shoo away or something similar at garden stores and lowes.


also put wire down around the ones you want to save. if they cant dig they wont go

Perhaps you could observe them and every times when the cats try to dig or pee, you could spray water on them with this
http://www.petras-brotkasten.de/Sprueher.jpg

How long have you noticed this behavior in your kitties? If this is new, it tells me your cats are stressed for some reason. How old are your cats? Has a new member entered your household recently, human or pet? Have you moved to a new location?

I've had many cats (and dogs) in my family for years and they have coexisted with hundreds of house plants. Although I've had a problem at times with a cat or two wanting to munch on leaves of some plants, I have not had a problem with any of them using the soil of my plants as a litter box. We are down to just one elderly cat at the moment but we had 5 indoor cats for many years and I know from experience they do not like change. Have you changed the brand/type of kitty litter you've been using recently? Cats are creatures of habit and don't like change, even in litter. Felines by nature, are extremely clean animals and want clean soil or litter for their "bathroom" use. Even if you scoop/clean the litter a few times a day, it gets stale over time and the plastic of the litter box can absorb ammonia odors from urine. You might want to empty their litter boxes completely, scrub them thoroughly and add new litter ... see if that helps with the problem. If it were only one cat with this habit I'd consider it might be a medical issue and suggest taking the guilty one to a vet for a checkup but if it's more than one household kitty refusing to use the litter box there must be some other "issue". I'd first empty the litter and with a mild dish soap scrub the box, rinse thoroughly, dry and refill with new litter. If you have multiple cats, you definitely need multiple litter boxes, and they should be completely emptied and washed at least once per month and then refilled with fresh litter.

I think you should also re-pot your plants with fresh soil, and I'd thoroughly wash the pots too. Cats have a strong sense of smell and if they can still detect urine odor they may continue to use the plants as their litter box. I'm sure you can find a solution for your kitties and your plants to co-exist happily.

I'm very sorry Imzadi.

Kea & Ku would not ever hurt a kitty. Ku can't even stand up any more.

But, I do not allow cats or dogs to mess with any potted plants. (Where does Alessia say "they WERE HER CATS"?)

They simply need to be trained.

I love all animals!

This message was edited Dec 27, 2010 9:06 AM

"HI MY CATS ARE URINATING AND DEFICATING"

first line metro.

I have never had mine pee and poo in my plants before either but do know they make no no stuff for this problem. mine rather lay in the pot then anything.

top off your potted plant's soil with pea (no pun intended) rock or something slightly larger. they won't like digging around in rock. you will have to get their smell out first by doing what metro suggested. take them outside, give them a thorough drenching till all the water/pee runs out several times and don't forget to wash the outside of the pot with vinegar...then put your rocks in.
also, what lin suggested too would be easier probably since it's cold up there right now. spread a big sheet out on the floor and re-pot with fresh soil, wash the pot with vinegar water, then top with the rock.

aleesia: I guess there are many reasons why cats stop using the litter box and finds other places to relieve themselves. I know it must be extremely distressful dealing with it ... sometimes I wish I understood my cats! I've been googling and found this information: http://www.catinfo.org/?link=litterbox#Top_reasons_for_a_cat_to_stop_using_his_litter_box that I hope you find useful. Hang in there and hopefully you will find a solution for you and your kitties.


Dave: Kea & Ku are adorable and I smiled at your first post here, understanding the fun of it. My sister and her husband recently lost their 250 lb English Mastiff to cancer but still have an old lab and when they inherited their daughters young cat they thought he would be afraid of the big dogs. LOL, we visited them on Christmas day, and the cat is in charge! Cats and dogs can and do get along sometimes.

Hey there Trackin!

Mine like to pee in my tropicals during the winter. I just put some sticks or small chunks of wood in there. Make it as uncomfortable as possible to stand in the pot. Problem solved.

Ku wouldn't hurt a flea. That's my job!

Fleas have small brains and large jaws, as far as my animals are concerned, chuckl, make my poor girl Gypsy lose all her hair and the vet claps happy hands, just for the visual damages alone... I do have a curiosity about the plants the cats pee on? Do those plants have an odor of thier own that might draw the cats to behave this way?

plantlady is one smart lady! I've had many cats and dogs over the years (not fickle - I foster for the Humane Society). Fostering has stressed my cats occassionally and sometimes I just get one that prefers the potted plants. Here are 3 things that have worked sometimes to deter them. If only one cat, put it in a bathroom or something for a week or so (visiting often) to destress him. In the meantime do the repotting etc. I've crumpled up tin foil and filled the surface of the pot with that. And sometimes it works just to move the pots to a different room (again after repotting). And then again, it might work better to train my dogs Clancy, Kokomo and Capt MacCormack to tattle when they see a cat in the pot, so I can catch the cat in the act. But they are intimidated by one of my cats so that might not work after all.

I had this happen to me once. I think young kittens are more likely to do this than older cats because kittens will try anything once! I set my pot outside and put the garden hose on it and let it run thru until I felt the urine had all been washed out. It was a ficus tree and it survived. I used the rock mulch which worked. Too hard to dig in for the kitties. My kitties over the years have coexisted happily with all my plants except dried grasses. They like to chew so I just dont have dried arrangements any more. They do like real soil for a potty but also make sure you are keeping the litter boxes cleaned often enough to suit them and if you have one cat who has an illness, the other cats will avoid a litter box that the sick cat has used. Sometimes cats prefer one litter box for urine and another for feces. They also like privacy for the litter box so check that, also.

I have one cat indoors and a stray I feed outdoors, plus the neighbor's cat eats lunch at my house daily. The outdoor ones love to "help" me in the garden. Best wishes, Cam