Cats climbing real Christmas trees?

[rainie]

Hi, I am new to the forum, but have had kitties for quite awhile. My oldest cat Precious, has never been interested in climbing our christmas tree, but does like to lay under it. My parents cat, Smokey, always looked like he wanted to get to the tree. We were not sure if he would climb it or not, but did not want to take the chance as we always had many delicate glass ornaments on the tree. So, one day I suggested using lavender linen water spray on the tree. We tried it, and sure enough, it worked

. Every evening we would spray the tree and when he would get near it, he would sniff the tree and run away! I had thought to use the lavender, because I love real lavender, to help me sleep at night or relax in the evenings. I have a couple of lavender filled dream pillows and both of my cats would jump up on my lap or in bed with me, and when they would get close to the dream pillows and smell it, they would get a disgusted look on their face and would end up walking away! I have also brought in fresh lavender from the garden and let them sniff it, which usually they shake their head, then walk away. So you could try that and see if it works and it gives a nice scent to the house at the same time!
I just moved into my own home on my own this year and just adopted another kitty! (she's 5 1/2 months old as of today) So I am hoping this will also work with her, this upcoming holiday as she is quite a handfull! But I love her bunches!!!

 

[asecretk]

I always a medium/large fake tree up until last year and the cats alway tried to climb it and play with the ornaments. By the time christmas day came the tree look pathetic...lol

Last year we just had a tiny 2 foot tree and of course it looked so sad on Christmas day.

I am not sure what I am going to this year. Our livingroom is not big enough for a tree. We are thinking of getting a real one and putting it on the front sun porch but then we can't see it all the time so I don't know if I am going to enjoy that. I know for a fast that 80% of my cats will climb the tree and detroy any decorations if they get near it...hmmm I don't know what to do yet

As someone else metioned, you could anchor it to the ceiling. We did that once many years ago and although the cat still knocked off the ornaments at least the tree didn't bite the dust.

 

[kittycorner]

Hi!
When I first got Melody I thought I would never be able to have a Christamas tree again, but seeing as Christmas is my favorite holiday and I love having the tree up, (I would leave it up all year round if I could), I finally decided to place it in a corner and tie 3 ropes around the trunk of my fake tree and screw it to the wall. I now have 6 kitties and this will be the first year with them all, so I will have to see what happens. The biggest problems I have had in the last year, when we had 4 was Melody would pluck out the light bulbs from the strings (VERY DANGEROUS!) and Uno would take the ornaments off the lower branches. Here were my solutions: I found strings of lights with little side clamps so they are not able to pull out easily then I also sprayed the strings with a bitter apple spray so they tasted bad, I had to repeat that about once a week. As for the ornaments I found big plastic hooks that are not able to be swallowed and then the beauty of having a fake tree is that they bend! So i then wrapped the end of each branch that held an ornament back over the hook so there was no way that the ornament could come off! Gracie who is the fattest of them all would like to lounge on the lower branches and hide, but I guess I don't mind that soo much, because it made for some adoable pictures!, and being screwed to the wall there was no way even with her lard butt that that baby was coming down! If you take some precautions then you should be fine, you may have more trouble with them unwrapping presents too soon then climbing the tree!

 

[jessy]

I had a fake tree up last year and Villy didn't climb it. But it was a cheap value one that was a bit spindly so maybe it didn't look too appealing to climb!

I don't know if this could have anything to do with her age - she's 9 I adopted her when she was 8. I wonder, maybe she climbed the tree when she was a kitten!
I think we're getting a real one this year so we'll see. Thanks for the tip about the water - Villy loves to drink out of the bottom of plant pots - I'll make sure to keep this one out of her way.

 

[coastal1]

ALSO! Has anyone ever heard of the Christmas light wiring being coated with lead? I remember reading something about that a while back. I'm worried

 

[pami]

Sorry I dont know anything about lead being in the string lights.

The first year I had my babies, they were about 10 months old, when Christmas came. They demolished my fake Christmas tree.

They broke my ornaments, tired to eat the lights, knocked the tree over about 50 times

It became such a chore to make sure they were safe, that I winded up removing the tree before Christmas even came.

I LOVE Christmas and I havent put up a tree since that first year. I just compensate with other decorations all over the house and just make sure that they are decorations that when I walk into the room and see it laying on the floor severely beaten up, that its not something that will hurt the cats.

 

[keeba]

what is it about the water that is toxic? Does the tree have something in it that makes the water toxic - or is it the stuff that the christmas tree sellers give you to put in the water (such as plant food)? Growing up, our cat always tried to drink the water under the tree way too many times. We would stop her - but many times we would catch her lapping away at the water. It never seemed to harm her though and she lived for 20 years.. - so that's why I'm curious as to what is toxic about it for future reference this Christmas with Keeba!

 

[nekochan]

Both, actually...
Many of the preservative liquids or powders that are used in the tree water are toxic. The trees also leak sap into the water which is poisonous (as well as pesticides and fertilizers which the tree was treated with), and there may also be harmful bacteria growing in the container.