Gardening for the Pet Owner

How did you know I would read this post Cheryl? Talk about putting someone on the spot!!

I have found more issues with house pets getting into plants more than outside ones. Good thing for us because we can control that much better than what they get outside.

Inside it is obvious that you want to keep the plant out of comfortable reach or do not have it at all. We have so many safe plants that it has never been an issue, but if the only plants you have in the house fall into the 'bad'category, then you have a serious issue.

You can also grow some grass or catnip to satisfy the pets cravings. Put them in easy reach and it is amazing how well the cats will mow the grass. Now if we could only translate that to outside!

If they have a serious attraction to plants, I would suggest asking you vet if they have a deficiency of some kind or need other medical attention. You can control the inside, but outside is another matter.

Looking at the list in the second link, one could easily get paranoid about letting our pet out at all. If you have a weed free lawn and garden and well contained, then it might be safe, BUT, if you do have a weed free lawn, chances are good that you are using herbicides and other chemicals and I would be just as concerned if not more, about that.

At our peak we have had 9 cats and three dogs an one time. The dogs are always outside (except during thunderstorms of course) and half the cats are outdoor while the other half come in and out and in and out and....

We had trouble one summer when both a dog and a cat came down sick on the Fourth of July. It was a very hot day and since they both had the issue at the same time, the vet suspected antifreeze. We are organic in our gardening and did not have any antifreeze leaks so we presume they were both wandering in the same place and found what they thought was a tasty drink.

The bottom line is that I am more concerned with man-made contaminants than naturally occurring plant growth outside. The chemicals we put on our lawns and plants is very lethal and a little dew or light rain can easily create a puddle. Cats are notorious for licking themselves clean after walking through wet grass.

Even more important are our children who play on that grass. They may not lick themselves clean (I hope), but the toxicity can enter their skin, eyes, nose, etc.

Enough of a rant on that, but to reiterate, if your pet has a tendency to eat a lot of plants, I would suggest the vet visit to find out why. I have heard it is to replace certain minerals, get rid of hairballs and to settle an upset stomach. Solve that and it may stop their cravings.

Mary, the dog we got in October loves eating grass, too. She's calmed down about it since we got her, but she really likes it. Our other dog though, never really eats it. I think that some dogs just like grass - I think that holds true especially for dogs that might have been kept outside for long periods of time.

~If you look at the top of the toxic page. It will give the link for non-toxic too. I'll see if I can't get it fixed.

~Gravel: I've heard that this really works, even though I've never tried it myself. I've had friends that used it though.

In nature,carnivores and omnivores do eat plants.

Either they eat them on the side or as part of their veggie-nibbling prey.

All meat diets don't provide the roughage and nutrients they need.

My critters think everything is a snack or a toy so I try to remove all the dangers I can.

(The cats don't get free access to catnip because it's bad for our sugar gliders.)

As with human babies,supervision and having a lot of permissable stuff around helps about as much as keeping them away from the bad things.

Steve,you gave me good advice last year.

Let me suggest you try hiring some vegetarian pets to do your yard work.