My Daughter wants to know why her Cat chews on her (as she calls it) Arachnid foliage - aka CHLOROPHYTUM cosmosum. No matter where she hides it he seems to find it. Everytime it gets a bit of length to it he gnaws it down to the ground again Of course, he then throws up all over the place. Is he doing this to clean himself out or just to p--- her off. There are 5 cats here and he's the only one that does this. Does this plant also have the crystals as mentioned in one of the above coments? I didn't think so, but now I'm not sure. Cats well being may be in jeopardy from either plant or plant owner. Barbara Lloyd
Barbara, if you have not already done so, read the post "House plant or house danger?!" by mrhomeplant in the Indoor Plants Identification forum. Ha! As the great artist B. Kliban once wrote in re. cats: "Mysterious little creatures, aren't they?" ---I dunno. I think maybe plant-eating becomes a conditioned response---see plant, chomp, throw up! Repeat ad lib, and ad nauseam.
Cats eat grass to regurgitate un-digestable items like fur, bones or feathers of prey animals or furballs they've gotten from grooming themselves. A Spider plant looks a lot like grass. Is this an indoor cat? Perhaps he doesn't have access to grass outside and, especially if he has long hair, he needs to get rid of hairballs. Try regularly supplying your cat with grass from outside, that's what I did when I had an indoor cat. Just be sure you don't pick grass that has had chemicals sprayed on it. You can also buy small containers of 'Cat Grass' at most pet stores.
Thank you all, togata,wild rose & bluewing, Yes, all 5 cats are indoors, 2 long,1 mid length and 2 (the culpret included) are short haired and I really do need to provide a grass source. Since they only dream of eating critters I tend to forget that. I'll remember the "see plant, chomp, etc" bit. That says it all. I do not use chemicals so no worry there. Thanks again....Barbara
Or, do as I did and give kitty his very own Arachnoid foliage. (ps, love that name for it!) My cat has a number of her own houseplants, and she doesn't get into mine nearly as often as when only I had plants... See the other thread (House Plant or House Danger?) for more feline pecadilloes...
Lorax, My Daughter is pretty good with plants and horrid about remembering proper names. She has come up with some rather discriptive names of her own that usually change with what's going on. BTW We all got a real chuckle picturing your cat harvesting her own tillisandia directly from the tree....Barbara
She's insane. I'm surprised she's survived this long, really. Between Acacia-diving for fresh bromeliads, and her ongoing battle of wits with the tarantuals, and her concerted efforts to catch a vulture, we were pretty sure she'd have been eaten by now...
