cat grass

[brielle]

Hi everybody!

Maggie has eaten the leaves off of every plant in the house and is now going for my roses!!! I am about to drive to Petco and buy some cat grass so maybe she will leave some plant life alone....I looked online and it appears that I have to grow my own and only allow her access to the grass when it has reached a certain height. Any tips or suggestions about this? I dont really have a green thumb (more like the black thumb of death ) so I'm hoping that this grass doesnt need much attention!

[K & L]

Be very careful about which plants your cat is chewing on. Some are poisionous to cats:
Baneberry and Doll's-eyes
Amaryllis
Andromeda
Appleseeds (cyanide)
Arrowgrass
Avocado
Azalea
Belladonna or Deadly Nightshade
Bleeding Heart, Squirrel Corn, Dutchman's Breeches
Bittersweet
Boxwood
Buttercup
Cabbage, Turnips, Broccoli, Mustard
Caladium
Castor Bean
Celandine
Cherry pits
Chokecherry
Climbing lily
Commercial Onions, Wild Onions, Swamp Onions, and Chives
Corn Cockle
Crown Vetch
Daffodil
Daphne
Delphiniums and Larkspurs
Dieffenbachia
Dogbane
Elephant Ear
Elderberry
English Ivy
Ergot
Fiddleneck
Foxglove
Hemlock
Horse Chestnut, Buckeye
Hyacinth
Hydrangea
Iris
Jack-in-the-Pulpit
Jimsonweed, Downy Thornapple, Devil's Trumpet, and Angel's Trumpet
Lamb's Quarters
Larkspur
Laurel
Lily-of-the-Valley
Locoweed
Marigold
Marijuana
Marsh Marigold or Cowslip
Milkweed
Mistletoe
Monkey Agaric, Panther Cap, Death Cap, and Death Angel Mushrooms
Monkshood, Aconite, or Wolfsbane
Mushrooms
Narcissus
Nightshade
Oleander
Peach
Philodendron
Pigweed
Poison Hemlock
Prickly Poppy or Mexican Poppy
Rosary Pea
Tung Oil Tree, Candlenut Tree
Water Hemlock or Cowbane
Yellow Star Thistle

[brielle]

Thanks for the info - I just had some ferns and roses. Will a cat eat a plant that is poisonous to it? or would natural instincts kick in?

[K & L]

They will sometimes eat them. When we just recently lost Calvin, that was one thing they tested him for, anything toxic to his system.

[Edwina's Secretary]

Edwina likes "long and wavy." She has never eaten a house plant except the cat grass (also known as wheat grass) that I grow for her in the winter. When she is able to go in the yard she likes tall grass (i.e. prairie grass) a weed that unfortunately grows in my garden, spikes that go in the center of ornamental planters, and will, on occasion, settle for regular lawn grass.

She does love her cat grass and it grows to an edible length in about a week. I've tried growing cat nip for her in the garden but she finds fresh catnip a bit of a bore (likes it dried though.)

Many cats love fresh catnip and, like its cousin mint, it is weedlike in its ease and speed of growth. Might be an option for you.

[brielle]

wheat grass? hmmm.... living in LA there are a ton of places that sell wheat juice. Maybe I can just buy a tray of the pre-grown grass from them!

[Edwina's Secretary]

They may also be able to give you some seeds. You just spread them over some dirt (doesn't need to be deep -- maybe two inches) lightly spread dirt on top. Water. Cover the whole pot or dish or whatever with celophane and put in a window. In about a week you will have grass. It needs a little water.

The reason I suggest growing it from seed is that it doesn't last long (at least in my experience.) The kits from Petco have everything you need -- seed, growing container, et al, but are a bit pricey.

[Sara luvs her Tinky]

I got Tinky some cat grass from Wal-mart, and I have also seen it at Petsmart. It comes with seeds and a small tub/bowl of soil. You can't go wrong, it comes with instructions all you do is stir the seeds in the soil put 1/4 cup water and sit in a warm dark place till the seeds start to sprout then sit in a sunny area. When mine started to grow Tinky dove in. I'm not sure if it will keep your kitty away from the other house plants but it is a try.

[wolflady]

I think I'm going to try this too. My mom recently got some Wheat grass from the store and it grew fast!! You can get the seeds just about anywhere (walmart, target, K-mart, Pet stores and the like...health food stores also carry wheat grass!) and my mom got a small 3 inch diameter clay pot, and planted the grass in that. It grew really quickly like Edwina's Sec said...like a week!! Pretty cool!!

[shais_mom]

I just bought Kylie some cat grass and in a week it had grown 6 in!
She didn't want anything to do it until it got about that long.
Keegan likes it too!

She pulled it off the table!

[Former User]

Our first attempt to grow grass now... we bought Friskies grass, and so far, it's been going on since sunday, and there's not much going on... So, I'm not too happy, Friskies just probaly wants the money, never mind it growing fast... with this speed, it's going to take a year
Now I was wondering, is it okay for exapmle to buy those seeds we use to grow our easter grass? I know they grow really fast and for me it looks real grass. Can anyone help?

[C.C.'s Mom]

Originally posted by Casper & Kitty
Now I was wondering, is it okay for exapmle to buy those seeds we use to grow our easter grass? I know they grow really fast and for me it looks real grass. Can anyone help?

Niina, don't buy the Friskies grass. It never works out, believe me. I tried it so often.
You can go to a petshop and buy it ready grown too. Or at the garden center. Sometimes even flower shops have it.

I wouldn't use fertilizer because it's often so toxic.

You can also buy a little plant called 'papyrus' (I don't know if this is the English name as well - it's the name as I know it from Holland) and it's save for cats as well and is a very pretty plant.

[Harley]

Just today I bought some fast-germinating "bare spot repair" grass seed - was planning to try it for my cats' grass. Ryegrass is the main type of seed in the mixture, along with duster tall fescue and boreal red fescue (whatever they are.) I believe the expensive, and short-living, cat grass seed I bought at a pet store once was mostly ryegrass. Does anyone know if this seed mixture will be appropriate for my kitties?

[Randi]

Niina!

How's it going with your cat grass? Mine's as long as it will get and Fister is chewing away, but looking rather funny, because he don't quite know how to "attack" it, to get a real good bite.