A spiderplant an alternative to cat grass?

I have tried cat grass in the past but that did not work out so well, i noticed in the other thread spiderplants were mentioned as an option? really? maybe i should try that here instead...

any further thoughts on this? thxs

cat grass = meant to be eaten by cat

spider plant = non toxic but not meant to be eaten

From experience, while spider plants are not truly toxic, every cat I've had that has eaten any (never on purpose, I loved my spider plant!)made them violently vomit for a few hours, obviously this can't be good.

I remember vaguely I had heard they are somewhat poisonous to cats.

But they are also widely used instead of "cat grass", in any case here in Sweden (=in swedish ampellilja, in latin Chlorophytum comosum). Mine own boys eats of it happily and do merrily throw up afterwards.
After all, this IS the purpose of eating cat grass and the alike...

This is why I do often mention them as useful on the forums I do participate in..


I wonder, perhaps there are several subspecies of the spider-plant?
This could explain why all(!) of Arlyn´s cats did vomite several hours(!).
This should not be so. It sounds rather poisonous I would say...

Originally Posted by StefanZ

I remember vaguely I had heard they are somewhat poisonous to cats.

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Click to expand...

No,

they're not really poisenous. They are said to take up poision form air pollution and thus clean the air in for example an office. Not sure how effective they really are in doing this (and if this might not be the case with most plants anyway). This has lead some people to assume that a cat could be poisioned indirectly by taking up air pollution collected within the plant.

If your air isn't badly polluted I don't really think this would be a problem.

regards,

christine

My cats liked to eat spider plants, then yak spider plant bits up all over the house. So I don't think they are meant for cats to eat. They don't have that issue with cat grass.

There are probably a lot of plants that, while not actually poisonous to the point of causing illness, can upset your kitty's tummy.

Personally I always though most cats ate grass or other greens kinda like people use pepto or tums. To deal with an upset tummy. We had a cheese fiend cat who would always go munch the grass after she ate the rich cheese samples we gave her, mostly cause she couldn't resist. She would come running when the fridge was opened demanding 'cheese please!'. Knowing what I do now tht most cats are not tolerant of dairy products, that seems to make sense. She was an in/out cat so she got her grass outside.

I've never known a cat who particularly liked to nibble on spiderplants. They much prefer real grass, or the grain mix marketed for cat grass. I di have to ditch a Xmas cactus after Aya started nibbling the buds off.

Spider plants also made my cats vomit. I hung one from the ceiling and when Eightball found a way of getting to the top of a secretary's desk then leaping 6 feet to land in that plant, I chucked it. It wasn't worth cleaning up the mess and they were all really attracted to the spikey leaves.

Thanks all for the thoughts, i knew they were not toxic as i had one in my hall.. and finally got it outside again when winter left.. the cats have forever nibbled on it over the years

i haven't had luck with cat grass here though...

This thread is very interesting as all of my cats have eaten spider plants without any problems - not that I WANT them to mind you - I like my plants!!!

On the other hand - none of them can eat catgrass without getting very loose stools!

In the past 20 years, I've had two cats. I've always kept grass available to them (next to their food), and both have preferred to nibble my spider plants!

They also eat the grass on occasion, so I wonder whether they eat whichever they need at the moment? In any case, I don't worry because neither has ever gotten sick from the spider plants.

My cats eat my parlor palms - they are non-toxic and closely related to the grass family. I also grow cat grass for them which they eat. Both the palms and the grass make them vomit if I don't stop them from eating too much. I've seen Forrest chew across the top of the cat grass bowl like a lawn mower.

I've never had spider plants but I assume that they would also cause vomiting if they ate too much. I think it's too much fiber at one time that causes the vomiting.