OT--My cat is destroying my Christmas tree!

[DreamDelta]

I need help and fast! My cat Sphinx is completely ruining our Christmas tree. The tree is artificial, but he can't keep his little butt out of it. He is ripping off the bows, breaking the glass ornaments and EATING the candy canes!

Do the pet stores make a cat repellent for this kind of thing?! Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated! ​

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

Yes, I have seen a repellent that you spray in flower beds to keep cats out in pet stores (Petsmart is where I got mine, I think). I can sympathize, a cat I used to have knocked my tree down twice in one week and broke alot of my Hallmark ornaments .

 

[~Kathie]

We buy stuff called Bitter Apple for our real plants because my little brat likes to eat everything. I bought it at a local pet store and have seen it at Walmart, the market etc. This is the first year we got an artificial tree instead of a real tree and my cat started eating the branches last night!! I sprayed it with the bitter apple........she hasn't even gone near it since. They hate the taste so won't touch anything that has the smell. And it last for a long time. Be sure to read the label for using it around kids. I know there were warnings on there.

Good luck!

 

[Foladar]

Would they eat real trees too? I'm getting one soonish, first time with the cat (he was a month old with tree last year so he didn't have much interest) but now he insists on throwing everything down and eating it. I'll definitely look into Bitter Apple, if not for the tree, for anything else! lol

 

[ministrychick77]

i've got a kitten that's about 6 months old and because he's so "curious" we're not gonna get a tree this year. i have a table top one. when i showed it to him the first time he tried eating the branches, so no tree for us...

 

[8 Ears]

We use a spray water bottle. We have used it since they were kittens. Now they are just over a year old, all we have to do is get it out and they stop what ever they were doing.

Bought the bottle for less than a $1.00 at Wally in with shampoo, hair brushes...

Good luck

 

[plgrn]

We have our tree in the TV room this year so we can just shut the door at night since the "girls" can be unsupervised with it.

I gave up disciplining them long ago!

 

[cnids00]

I remember now having to tie strings around the tree and nail them to the wall as we had 2 cats climbing the tree !!

That was a long, long time ago and even though we don't have the same cats anymore, of the cats we have now only one of them play with the candycanes and knock them off...or lays on top of the christmas presents..which is minor compared to what you are dealing with!!

 

[3dog2kidmom]

I used to have a similar problem with my dogs -- they wanted to "water" the tree. Now I keep them out of the room with gates. Unfortunately I don't think that works with kitties since they are such good little climbers.

 

[ducklite]

I'd try spraying Bitter Apple or even mixing Cayenne powder with water and spraying that round the base. Neither will actually injure kitty, but she won't be very happy if she gets a mouthful of either.

Anne

 

[~Kathie]

Would they eat real trees too? I'm getting one soonish, first time with the cat (he was a month old with tree last year so he didn't have much interest) but now he insists on throwing everything down and eating it. I'll definitely look into Bitter Apple, if not for the tree, for anything else! lol

Mine eats any plant that is fern like. Then proceeds to hack it up. Gross!! The Bitter Apple stops her from eating them.

We have a large sunroom and DH has it filled with plants. Quite a challenge to figure out what plants she is eating next. We tried growing cat grass.......she loves it so much she doesn't know when to stop....... so that comes up too. We don't grow that anymore!!

This is the cat that also loves to chew on the rope handles of paper bags and decided her new favorite daytime sleeping spot is on top on my scanner. Worse than kids.

 

[korbbec]

My cats break the ornaments, play with the candy canes, tear down the garland, sleep on the presents and eat (and poo and barf up) any tinsel or curling ribbon, so I used to just decorate the top third of my tree which looked really funny. We adopted a third two years ago. Now I just gave up- no tree for us this year. -my pet family

We tried the whole spray bottle thing- it does work really well.... when you're home.

 

[rocky41102]

We used to attach the tree to the wall with string and nails. And not buy any valuable or breakable ornaments. Now we have dogs and a small child so we still do the same thing!

 

[Imzadi]

I think you need to go check out this website:

http://www.fluffytails.ca/christmas.asp

 

[parrothead365]

Yep best cat repellent ever made is availible at most pet shops. It's called "a puppy". Get one of those and the kitty will be far to busy to bother the tree

 

[Hedy]

A squirt bottle is effective for our cat, but it might not work for yours.

 

[TENIA66]

cats dislike peppermint oil, oil of cloves, citrus smells. i trialed and errored until i came up with spraying the tree with peppermint oil, smelled christmas-y......my big butted chrissy cat thought she could climb up in the tree and would break branches out of the tree after we got the brain storm of tying up the tree. her getting in the tree was really our fault. when she was a kitten we would come in from work and she would be curled up in the tree, cute as a bug.....not so cute when she was huge and breaking the tree....i miss chrissy........anyway, the peppermint oil kept her out of the tree lickety split and smelled great...

 

[plgrn]

They hate mothballs. That keeps them out of my plants so maybe if you place several around your tree the smell will repel them.

 

[sammielynn]

That would repel me also.