There are certain universal truths about cats…
- They will knock sh*t off any flat surface
- They will judge you
- They will eat just about everything green
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It is these three truths that make this post necessary. My cats Miss Kitty and Lion-o, have never met a plant they didn’t like to eat, especially Lion-o. So this means it’s up to me to keep the wee beasties safe. Namely making sure any plants in my home are safe for them to take a chomp out of. This is why I decided to ma
- Other people think they look weird
- They are into and on top of EVERYTHING
- Someone will (eventually) make the inside out cat joke from Friends…
If you’re curious about them then check out my post on the 13 things you need to know about Sphynx cats. It’s not hard to find cat-safe plants but you may be surprised how many everyday plants are not good for your kitty’s belly! Now you may be thinking, “Gasp…not my cats they are angels they don’t eat my plants”. But do you really want to take a chance in case one day they get curious? Like these two…sigh…

Let’s take a look at some of the most common offenders that may be in your home.
Unsafe houseplants for cats
- Aloe
- Lilies (Easter Lily, calla lily, amaryllis, peace lily)
- Ivy
- Mother in laws tongue (snake plant)
- Yucca
- Any kind of citrus
Those can mean anything from upset tummies to potentially fatal. It is definitely not worth the risk of having them anywhere in the house. But fret not! There are some wonderful replacements, that are also great at cleaning the air and generally looking pretty are as follows.
Safe houseplants for cats
- Spider plants
- Ferns (Boston, Button)
- Palms (Areca, Feather, Parlour)
- Bromeliads
- Bamboo
- African violets
- Baby’s tears
- Christmas cactus
Another great alternative is to make an indoor cat garden. Any container will do but I had a hankering for a shallow, low-sided and wide dish. I chose this style so that I would have enough room to fit all the plants and (hopefully) prevent the cats from knocking the whole thing over! I’m loving the simplicity of this white ceramic dish. It is 8″ across which is just the right size as I plan to leave it on the coffee table, so I didn’t want it too big.

All you need is a pot, some soil, some plants and maybe some seeds. Just make sure you do your research tomato sure anything you include is 100% safe for cats. I was able to get a few herbs to include by taking cuttings from my yard. I snagged some thyme, rosemary and mint (the mint went over well with the cats).
Plants in include in your cat garden
Below is a list of plants I had intended to include. I couldn’t get my hands on any oats or barley but everything else went into the cat garden. By far their favourite is the spider plant…which was a bit of a surprise, but they were over the moon.
- Wheatgrass (Cat grass)
- Catnip
- Mint
- Spider plant
- Thyme
- Barley
- Oat
- Rosemary

Getting started
So with a shallow dish/pot, soil, cuttings, seeds and one
You want to put the soil pretty much to the rim, as we are using a shallow dish you want to make sure that you are giving the roots of the plants enough space to get the nutrients that they need. This really is a super easy DIY….just arrange the plants in a way you like, I kept the spider plant to the edge as it was the biggest. The mint was tall so it went in the centre and I know the cat/wheat grass grows like crazy, so I left a 1/2 of the space just for that.
I then added some more dirt to cover the cat/wheatgrass and catnip seeds and just like that my indoor cat garden was
Once the time was up I proudly presented my creation to Miss Kitty and Lion-o and they went nuts! Funny enough they. didn’t seem too interested in the cat/wheat grass which I expected to be eaten right away. But they seemed pleased enough with the results so that’s a win in my books!
What breeds of cats do you have? Do they eat plants in your house?
3 Comments
Kira
June 9, 2019 at 10:58 pmI’ve never thought of this and I’M SO EXCITED to try it! Maybe it’ll encourage my cats not to destroy all my other plants… proooobably not. Now what about Bacon???
Kir
June 9, 2019 at 11:50 pmAh Bacon! Yes I will have to come up with a doggy DIY for her…..maybe some pumpkin dog biscuits!
SheRa
June 10, 2019 at 1:50 pmI’ve been wanting to increase the plants in my home. Thank you for this resource 🙂