Can a Cat Grass Kit Save Your Houseplants from Your Cat?

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I’ve slowly been changing my reside vegetation with pretend vegetation, because of my cats. Well, one among my cats particularly: Lewis. Lewis loves something inexperienced. If he can’t eat it, he needs to shred it. He tries to steal carrot tops and spinach bunches out of the grocery luggage. He will spend hours questioning how he can leap to a shelf to get to a tasty-looking bouquet. In order to quell Lewis’s lust for greens, I’ve usually purchased him these little planters of cat grass from the pet retailer. He meows excitedly at them after which . . . utterly ignores them whereas I sadly watch my $10 shortly wither and die.

Fellow Rover tester Kelsey was in the same predicament. Her cat Bueller usually expresses dissatisfaction by violence—plant violence. His anger had been an excessive amount of for numerous succulents, and the current homicide of a beloved palm satisfied Kelsey she wanted another.

We each thought rising our personal cat grass is perhaps the reply: me as a result of it introduced a longer-lasting, fresher-tasting different to store-bought greens, and Kelsey as a result of it provided an authorized outlet for Bueller’s uncontrollable plant rage. But can cat grass kits actually work to distract kitties from a human’s inexperienced treasures?

What Is Cat Grass Anyway?

Cat grass isn’t a particular kind of grass however a mix of cat-friendly grasses that may embrace barley, oat, wheat, and rye—and it serves a stunning dietary perform. Though cats are obligate carnivores, they aren’t solely pushed to devour meat. As specialists at Hill’s level out, cat grass accommodates folic acid, which is sweet for a kitty’s bloodstream in the identical means it’s for yours. It also can have laxative properties, retaining a cat’s digestive system functioning easily and making hairballs simpler to floor.

It’s why the vegetation sometimes included in cat grass look rather a lot like those in your breakfast cereal—as a result of they’re serving the same digestive perform. (We don’t suggest providing your cat your breakfast cereal, although.)

If you’re excited about offering grass to your kitty, it’s necessary to notice that cat grass ought to be grown inside utilizing natural soil. Regular garden grass and grasses grown outdoor are incessantly uncovered to toxins, so rising yours in a managed setting ensures your kitty is getting solely the perfect. As at all times.

It’s additionally necessary to keep watch over your cat’s consumption and look ahead to any vital shifts submit–plant ingestion. Most cats can tolerate and profit from snacking on particular greens—however there’s at all times an opportunity that your cat’s abdomen will really feel in any other case.

How To Grow a Cat Grass Kit

Kelsey and I examined out the Cat Ladies Organic Pet Grass planter package. It was a reasonably easy thought: put filth in a planter, add seeds, water, watch it develop. But our inexperienced thumbs are questionable, so we’ll see . . .

The cat grass kits arrived in small packing containers containing a cute little kitty planter, a puck of dried soil, a packet of seeds, and instructions. The instructions are straightforward to comply with: add a certain amount of heat water to the soil to rehydrate it, put it within the planter, add the seeds, cowl with a skinny layer of soil, and . . . it’s go time!

The instructions notice to put the planter in a heat, semi-dark space, which was a little bit of a problem for me to search out because the temperatures in my metropolis had been within the single digits after I started this journey. They additionally notice one could get sooner outcomes by overlaying the planter with plastic wrap for its first couple of days, so I did this as nicely.

After two days, I couldn’t see any progress. Revisiting the instructions informed me that even so, it was time to take away the plastic wrap and place the planter in a sunny location. I don’t actually have a sunny location that’s not accessible to cats. My resolution was to simply transfer the planter together with me to no matter room I used to be in all through the day. This was fairly straightforward, because it’s the scale (and form) of a giant espresso cup.

I used to be very excited on day three to see some little nibs poking by the soil. By the tip of the day, these had been already about half an inch lengthy. By day 5, the grass was lengthy sufficient to be a focus for my cats. In order to make sure it had an opportunity to develop sufficient, I moved it to a location they couldn’t attain.

By day six, each Kelsey’s cat grass and mine had reached the beneficial 4 to 5 inches that indicated it was prepared for munching. So I put the planter in a spot the place all my kitties may attain it, and Kelsey did the identical. Then we waited.

So Do Cat Grass Kits Save House Plants?

Over the following few days, all three of my cats made frequent visits to the cat grass planter, together with Lewis. At the time of this writing, we’re ten days in to the experiment, and the cat grass remains to be going robust. Though their preliminary ardour has pale, all of them will cease in usually to test it out. Even after they’re not actively chewing on it, they prefer to lick it and rub their faces in it.

Kelsey’s Bueller performed coy for a number of days and ignored his planter. It lastly caught his curiosity one morning when Kelsey, coping with her canine’ shenanigans, was late together with his breakfast. Bueller seemed for some applicable greenery to take out his frustrations on and noticed the cat grass package. He pawed at it, then began nibbling on the grass, which appeared to his liking.

After his preliminary encounter, when he determined to lash out on the injustices that got here his means, he went straight for the cat grass and took his anger out on it as a substitute of Kelsey’s vegetation.

So missions had been completed throughout: cats had been glad and home vegetation had been protected.

The directions notice that the grass, as soon as mature, will naturally wither in three or 4 weeks. The excellent news is you will get refills of soil and seeds to your planter (and even supply your personal). If you wished to have recent grass all the time, you can get one other planter and begin a brand new batch as quickly as your present one begins to wilt. Because it’s grown from scratch, I discovered cat grass from a package lasts far longer than the absolutely grown cat grass you will discover at an area pet retailer.

We can affirm inexperienced thumbs aren’t required, and this specific cat grass package from The Cat Ladies was spectacular—particularly as a result of the lovable planter is bottom-heavy sufficient that it isn’t simply knocked over. (The Cat Ladies additionally make some lovely picket planters if that’s extra your type.) We extremely suggest this as a undertaking appropriate for cat lovers of all ages and gardening talent ranges.

The Cat Ladies Organic Pet Grass Planter Kit

Find on Chewy Find on Amazon

Further Reading

• How and Why to Grow Cat Grass for Your Kitty
• Cough It Up for the Best Cat Hairball Remedies
• What the Heck Does Catnip Do to Cats?

Zibby Wilder is a author specializing in meals, wine, journey/tourism, personalities and histories of place. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.