Cats and Plants - How I trained my cats, yes - trained them!

Let’s face it - cats can be buttheads. We’ve all seen the cat memes. Don’t get me wrong I love my fur babes to death but there is a reason there are so many memes of cats out there. It seems like cats have grudges against a lot of every day things from glasses of water to new furniture. But we are not here to look at cat memes or lament my new couch - we are here to talk about what seems like a cats arch nemesis - houseplants.

I have said it before and I will say it again; I am very lucky to have two easily trainable cats that are generally not interested in plants. I am able to have both my plants and my cats living in harmony but I am lucky. I have heard of so many cats that turn full psycho every time a plant is introduced and for those of you in this situation - I am sorry. If this is the case with you and your fur baby I would recommend visiting my next blog article: Plants and cats: What plants are safe for cats? and start with those plants.

There are two ways to approach your cat + plant problems:

#1. Change the environment to prevent your cats access to the plants. Want to learn more? Check out my previous post: Cats and Plants: So your cat is an irredeemable plant murderer, now what?

#2. Train your cat to not mess with your plants. This one is a little more difficult and may or may not work depending on your cats personality and the length of time that they have been a plant murderer.

I would be lying if I said that my cats never killed a plant. In fact, when I first got Daisy I lost one Calathea and a fern while I was out on a business trip. When I got home from said trip I walked in to find both plants shattered on the floor and a few other larger planters with the soil dug out and flung everywhere. I thought maybe her litterbox got too dirty but everything looked in order. Maybe she just missed me and this was her way of rebelling? But then she started doing it while I was home. Cats will be cats and my cat had developed a passion for digging. This went on for around 2 months and it seemed like no matter how often I yelled, Daisy wasn’t listening.

I tried putting aluminum foil over the pots to prevent her from getting into them but just ended up cleaning shredded aluminum foil.. and dirt. All of my toxic plants were out on the patio but the remaining non toxic soldiers were fair game.

Finally one day my mom recommended trying a water pick. Cats and water. That is the key. My ex was determined to make his cat like water. I will never understand but he felt the need to bathe his cat in the tub and would always insist that the cat loved it but the scratches on his arms said differently. As much as he tried and for all the blood that was shed from his arms, that cat never learned to like water. I have seen people exploit this fact with little misters and water bottles but they are not nearly as good as the water pick.

The water pick enables you to be much further away from your cat and can shoot water clear across a room. No need to worry about a big cleanup though since it is technically designed for flossing and the manufacturers don’t want you to drown, not a whole lot of water comes out at once.

I started carrying the water pick around the apartment with me making sure it was charged and full of water I was “locked and loaded”. I went about my business keeping one eye on Daisy at all times and sure enough - she mozied over to a plant and jumped in the pot. Quickly and silently I drew my water pick and pointed. The noise it made coupled with the water coming from seemingly nowhere had her skidding out of the room in a second. She returned a few minutes later a little shell-shocked and started carefully searching for the source of the water. We did this a few more times over the course of a couple of weeks until she learned that she was not safe when she messed with my plants so she stopped messing with them. The trick is to not react or say a word. You want to keep your furry friend thinking that the water is coming from nowhere as long as you can. Eventually with enough repetition they will associate plants with bad stuff (i.e. getting blasted with water). It doesn’t hurt them (well ok maybe their pride is a little hurt when they skid away) but overall it’s very safe for kitty and effective.

The true test came when I went on a trip for a few days and returned home to zero plant massacres! After a few more successful trips I slowly started moving some plants back inside. I did the same thing when I got June and don’t tell Daisy, but she was a much faster learner. I can happily say that 4 years have passed since my last cat plant massacre. They don’t have any interest in my plants and soil whatsoever. My babies are reformed!

The water pick worked for me and I hope it works for you as well. Have you had any luck with other training methods? I would love to hear about them - leave a comment below!