the destructor

My bombayX Hendrix has a nasty habit of destroying houseplants when I'm not home. He doesn't do it every time I leave and he seems to target one specific plant until I put it out of reach or it dies. What I can't figure out is why he does this. It's not when he's hungry. It's not always when I leave for long periods of time(a couple of days) and it's not always when I leave for a couple of hours or just the day. He always gets in trouble when I get home but he continues to rip the plants out of their pots and make a huge mess. Can anyone suggest to me why he persists in behaving this way?

First off try to cool down and not be angry with him. Give him alternate things to occupy his time. A big planter of cat grass is good, a cat post with toys hung safely off them. Put the particular plant he is targeting in another room and shut the door so he can't get to it. Make him a playground on the floor with blankets and boxes. Your post has an angry tone and you are upset with him for being a cat. It is his nature to dig, he could be catching the scent of something in the dirt, he could be after a bug? It is hard to say, but you should not get upset with him for doing what nature expects him to do.

I agree with Hissy 100%! Try not to be mad at your cat for acting like a cat!

I had one plant that my cats just loved to play with, so I sprayed the plant with Bitter Apple. I only needed to do this for a couple of weeks before they all learned to avoid the plant. Three years later, I haven't had any trouble with the cats and my plants!

Oh....I also always have a pot of cat grass growing for the cats. They love to eat it and rub in it. I think that also helps a whole lot!

This is why we don't have a Christmas tree or any houseplants LOL. Or any magnets on the fridge.
Spidey is a naughty naughty little boy who honestly is just not very accomodating with those things. Rather than go nuts over it, I decided I like my cat better than plants or magnets and got rid of those things to save my sanity.

Well after Squirrels magnetic personality, I still have all my magnets on my fridge. of course sometimes, they are all over the floor in the morning- but oh well!

Well Spidey doesn't give them back, and he can reach them no matter how high or too the side I put them, and I lost a few important things that I had put up on the fridge so they were right in view so I had to stop it with the magnets. And I can't have magnets on my floor or the dog will probably chomp them up and get sick. So, no magnets for us.

Cats who stay indoors being constantly exposed to artificial light and margly unaware of the passage of time outside get bore more quickly than cats who live outside. You need to find something that wll occupy your cat's time. Cats need at least 15 minutes of play time with you a day.
Cat grass is a great idea. Also, orange rinds or some kind of citrus spray works well because cats detest the scent of citrus.
-Ryan

Thanks for all the suggestions and I will try spritzing the targeted plants with a citrus scent to see if that helps. I live in a very small one bedroom apartment so shutting him up in one room seems kind of cruel to me since his space is already fairly limited and I have tried the cat grass but within a day he pulled all the shoots out and dragged them around the apartment. He has lots of toys but he really has zero interest in them even the ones filled with catnip. I suppose though that I really have nothing to complain about because generally he doesn't have too many bad habits. He uses the litterbox without fail, he doesn't barf on the carpet, he doesn't steal food, he's friendly, he doesn't harrass my other pets, he doesn't steal food, he doesn't have any health problems, he comes when he's called and I don't have to restrict his feeding times. All in all he's a pretty well behaved cat although he does have kind of a weird fascination with the toilet. The only real reason I get so furious with him is that my plants are my main hobby and I have some rather expensive specimens in my collection so I'm sure you can all understand why I don't want him to destroy them.