In the flat right now: golden pothos on a shelf, a ZZ plant, a peace lily, a spider plant, a small monstera, and a supermarket bouquet on the table that I think has lilies in it. The cat is eight months old and has already had a go at the spider plant twice. I would rather rehome two plants than live with a permanent low-level worry, so tell me which ones are the real problem.
Practical bit that people skip: high shelves do not work. A determined eight month old cat gets onto everything and the plants you cannot see are the ones being chewed while you are at work. Either the plant is out of the flat or it is in a room with a closed door, and everything else is wishful thinking. I lost two plants and gained a lot of soil on the floor learning that.
The pothos, ZZ, peace lily and monstera all sit in the same group - they contain sharp calcium oxalate crystals, so a cat that bites one gets immediate mouth pain, drooling and sometimes vomiting. Unpleasant and worth a call to the vet, but not the same order of danger as a true lily. Note that the peace lily is not a real lily despite the name, which confuses this discussion constantly. The spider plant is on the non-toxic lists and is also, annoyingly, the one cats find most attractive.
The naming thing catches everyone. I rehomed a perfectly harmless peace lily and kept an actual lily on the windowsill for a month.
If you want replacements rather than a bare flat, the ones I have kept with cats for years are calathea, parlor palm, hoya and peperomia. All on the non-toxic lists, all forgiving, and none of them tempting enough to bother with once the cat grass is there.
@scopecreep_sam · 2mo ago · 3 replies
The bouquet is the one to deal with today. True lilies are the genuinely dangerous ones for cats - pollen, petals, leaves, even the water in the vase have all been implicated, and the concern is kidney injury rather than an upset stomach. Get it out of the flat rather than moving it to a higher shelf, and if you think the cat has already chewed or licked any part of it, ring your own vet or a pet poison line straight away rather than waiting to see whether symptoms appear. The rest of your list is a different category of problem entirely.
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@shimmer_sasha · 2mo ago
That is the right call and they will not think you are wasting their time. Take a photo of the bouquet if you still can, since identifying which lily it was matters to them.
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@curious_wren · 2mo ago
It has been in the bin and the vase washed out. He has not been near the table today but I am calling the vet anyway to ask.
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