My beautiful jade, 8 years of care, is now practically a skeleton due to overwhelming affection from my kitten. I tried tinfoil balls, but she loves playing with those as well. I tried plastic forks (tong side up), but they do not bother her, instead of playing in the soil, she climbs the plant! The stalks/trunks/stems break right off. The good news is there are new sprouts popping up, the bad news is I cannot find a way to keep her out of it and/or off of it! Any ideas? Also, last night, for the first time, I noticed little black bugs flying around the plant. I sprayed with a mixture of pine sol and Sunlight with water, but they are around again today. Any ideas for this as well?
Lovely little kitten! Perhaps you should look at why the kitten likes the plant. Might be he feels secure in a corner surrounded by the jade, he has been told how cute he is when he is there. This may sound dippy but ask if you were the cat why would you like the spot! Use this info to try different ideas which might look like moving the plant and putting something else in the spot for the cat, putting up a physical barrier if the plant really likes where it is, keeping the cat out of the room for a while and giving it a really comfortable spot with lots of positive reinforcements. You just have to make somewhere else more interesting for it. If all this positive fails then perhaps a smell which is not attractive to the cat might work. If you worry about its safety place the mothballs or whatever inside containers with holes in the lids. Anyway just a few ideas. Actually it can be fun to study your pet's behaviour. Purrs to your cat from Henry, our cat. Margaret
Thank you for the mothball idea Margaret! Will buy some today and give it a go. I've tried Bitter Apple but that doesn't deter her whatsoever! Someone mentioned to try putting citrus rind in the plants, that's a backup idea as well. Thismorning I discovered she has found a way to climb up a cabinet and is now also enjoying my spider plant. Is there no end to this?! I'm actually going to grow her a garden of various grasses as yet another option. Ling Ling (my other cat) and Chicken are both feral cats, however Ling Ling came to me as an adult and was not destructive whatsoever! I'm hoping that after Chicken is fixed and allowed outside, this will all be over... here's to hoping! And here's to hoping my jade grows back to be lush and full and gorgeous!
It looks like Chicken is an active little kitten. I imagine the plant is a really good place to climb on and explore. Cats love to climb. Maybe she could have an alternative place to climb and the idea of putting cat grass out for her is a good one too. You may need to protect the plant from her for a while to allow it to recover.
Hello Eric, I did see a gorgeous leopard print "cat condo" about 8 ft. tall.... may be an excuse to purchase! Anything to save my jade! On another note, any ideas about the little black flys that are now buzzing about my jade?
Maybe fungus gnats? If there is water standing in the tray that is a problem. Clean out the tray. Jade plants don't need a lot of water. There are a lot of posts on the forums that discuss Jade plants. You may want to use the Search Function to find them and read through them for more info.
You seem to be on the right track. Chicken seeks out plants because when she was feral that is what she was used to. The ultimate might be the cat condo with a tray of grass on the "ground floor" with perhaps a cat nip plant to graze on and cuddle into until she can get outside. Good luck with the jade. Margaret
