How do I stop my cat from digging soil out of my potted plants?

Hello, and thank you for your question. I can see how this problem can be quite frustrating! It sounds like at least one of them is a kitten, which explains the "why". As far as the "how" to get them to stop, have you tried bitter apple spray on the plant leaves or dirt? While the spray only lasts for a few hours, perhaps it will be enough to deter them. I'd also try to find puzzle feeder toys, that you can put their kibble and treats in, which will help to satisfy their need to hunt. If all else fails, you may have to temporarily relocate the plants to another area of the house that isn't accessible to them, at least until they grow out of their crazy kitten phase. I hope this helps! Good luck!

Unfortunately, this is a common issue in cats. First, make sure that all house plants are not toxic to cats. Then, you can try spraying the plants with something like Bitter Apple spray to discourage your cat from chewing on them. If that doesn't work, you may have to move the plants to an area where Lil Bit can't get to them. You can also try placing pet grass or a small planting of wheat grass or cat nip in an area where Lil Bit can get to it to satisfy her desire to chew on plant material.

The problem with potting soil of any kind is that cats love to dig in it. There can be harmful ingredients in the potting soil such a chemical fertilizers added to make the plant grow and insecticides to kill pests. Given this potting soil feeds plants for up to six months, I would assume that it contains chemical fertilizers that can potentially hurt your cat. To prevent her from having any chance of getting into this potting soil, I would hang your plants from the walls or ceiling. That would keep her from getting into them. As for toxic signs, it depends on the ingredients in the soil, but you could see neurological signs (difficulty walking, seizures, tremors), vomiting, anorexic, and extreme lethargy. I would hang your plants from the ceiling to keep your cat from getting into the soil at all. You can also create greenhouselike terrariums with lids to keep her out of the plants.

You can apply bitter apple spray to the leaves of the money plant and see if this deters her from chewing on it. You can also use another product called Sentry Stop That. If these do not work, you can resort to a motion sensing toy and place it near the base of the plant and see if that deters her from going after the plant. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further!

You may just need to limit Marley's access to the lawn by either placing fencing up, or trying to encourage him to go where you want him by placing deterrents on the lawn but not in the garden/soil areas. Placing out a litter box, or bringing him indoors to use a litter box may also help. As some cats do have substrate preferences, you can try placing a bit of sod in a box in your garden area, to see if he'll start going on that bit instead of the lawn you use.

That's a tough situation. Unfortunately, short of keeping Honey inside, there really isn't anything you can do. Cats develop substrate preferences, and Honey appears to like dirt, so you can make litter boxes for her inside filled with a mixture of dirt and sand. However, I suspect the outside litter box/garden will still be more appealing to her.

What naughty kittens! I think you can do a few things. First, I would work on environmental enrichment. Kittens have a lot of energy and "should" hunt multiple times a day for their food, so we need to find ways to help them entertain themselves (without resorting to playing with poo). This website has a number of good ideas for environmental enrichment. https://indoorpet.osu.edu/cats One of my favorite things for cats is a no bowl feeding system like Doc & Phoebe ( https://docandphoebe.com/ ) that requires them to "hunt" for their food. You could also try a feeding ball. I also recommend using laser pointers and interactive cat toys like a Cat Dancer ( http://www.catdancer.com/ ) to help get their energy out constructively. Finally, you could consider adding anther automatic litter box, so they don't have the opportunity to fish anything out of the litter box. Good luck! I hope that was helpful and gives you some ideas. Thanks for using PetCoach.