Cats and Christmas Trees

ashley45

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This will be my first Christmas with a cat - is there anything I should know about cats and Christmas trees? What happens if they eat the pine needles? Any precautions I should take?

Thanks for any help.
 

jack31

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My only advice is good luck.

We put our tree (fake) up about 2 weeks ago. The first few days we had to stop Jack from the chewing of the lights. That stopped and he decided to use the trunk as a scratch post (which works great because its better than our couch) and yesterday my husband pulled Jack out of the middle (he had climbed up the trunk).

We opted to not use ornaments this year.

Leslie
 

yosemite

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Our kitties are fairly well behaved. They lay on the tree skirt under the tree but don't bother with the tree. I do admit that I refrain from putting too many ornaments on the lower branches of the tree. The only thing that seemed to attract their attention last year were the strings of beads I used instead of tinsel.
 

werebear

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NO tinsel.

I used to use small soft ornaments as "low hanging fruit" on the bottom branches, which seemed to satisfy them.

Pine needles are toxic. If your cat is an "eater" that is something to be cautious about. Bitter apple or citrus spray will discourage them, but you'd think the pine scent would do that anyway!
 

nimbus

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Yeah...I think its unavoidable that cats will go for shiny, dangling things. This is my kittens first Christmas and he has discovered how much fun it is. Lucky, we have an artificial tree and we didn't use garland. Good Luck!

-Kristen
 

leedsboi86

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Hehe your lucky.

I have a 5ft Fibre Optic tree(cost £200 limited edition) and since it's Gizmos first Xmas all he see's is "Ohh shiny colours must try and drag them to other side of room"

Now I'll give him credit he can drag a big bag of walkers crisps around and does on regular events lol but watching a 6 month old kitten take on a Xmas tree is just too funny!
 

george's mom

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George leave all "live" plants and things alone. Its the silk/plastic/dried that I have to worry about! Since this is our first Christmas together, I've decorated without a tree - except for the two small tree-type things on the mantle that he can't get at. So far so good...
 
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ashley45

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The article and advice was very useful. I had no idea that the water in the stand could be come toxic from the tree. Good to know!

Moses has been having an absolute hay-day with the tree. Only one broken ornament so far, and I was there to see it happen so it was cleaned up promptly. Moses smells more like pine than the tree...and this is why:







"oh what? did you not want me in the tree?"

I wonder if pine sap is toxic....
 

kittee

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Well I went with an artificial tree, lights and some garland. Sprayed the whole shebang down with Bitter Apple to stop them from chewing on the lower branches and lights. Seems to be working. I should apply another coat of Bitter Apple soon though.
 

cococat

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I have no useful information. We haven't put up a tree since we have had the cat, and I have no doubt she would be a pain to keep away from the tree.

Just wanted to say I love the pictures of the cats in the Christmas trees, looking like they actually belong in the tree, like it was put there for them. I would if someone could start a thread with all the kitty in tree pictures.
 

howtoholdacat

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Whoever said no tinsel gave you some great advice. If you cat swallows it it could become entangled in his/her intestines. Also, if you cat chews on cords you may want to limit their ability to get to the tree when unsupervised. I keep the doors to my dining room closed when I'm away and can't monitor!

I'd like to announce that I've successfully (for a week and a half at any rate) bent all ornament hooks so snugly to my tree and ornaments that no one's removed any, yet.
 

babygirl2000

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My cat will leave the tree alone. He will only sit under it. Now my sister's cat is another story. We don't hang any ornaments near the bottom because she will play with them and we also don't use any tinsel.
 

purplexxpassion

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yeah tinsel is bad bad bad..I heard a while ago that it can shred a cats intestines(true or false?) so we don't use any tinsel just in case, but do hang a lot of ornaments(more of which are broken each year
) on the tree....this will be our first year with 6 youngsters running merrily around the tree. I have no doubt I'll see Dora(the "monkey") in the tree ASAP!
speaking of which, we're getting it tomorrow...see how THAT goes
 
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