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gravityeyelidsvia http://ift.tt/2h8DkvT:
I would hazard a guess that the attraction to christmas trees is that, for indoor cats, they’re a type of enrichment we don’t give them that they’d naturally encounter quite frequently. Trees smell, have a unique texture, sway and bend, and are generally a very different climbing experience than indoor cat furniture - and they’re the type that cats are specialized to be good at climbing. Plus, they’re novel, and we put all sorts of novel things on them, and then we get red in the face and make interesting noises when they do climb it.
It can be safe, for sure, you just have to know your cat. Pine can be mildly toxic to cats, so if your cat likes to chew on the branches, get a fake tree. You also want to make sure you cat isn’t drinking the water from the tree stand (you can help prevent it by keeping the water level lower than normal so it’s not reachable, and watering more frequently).
When it comes to tree safety, another big issue is toppling/climbing. Again, know your cat. If your cat likes to climb trees, maybe get a weighted base and trim the branches at the bottom high enough that they’re not easy to climb into, or string netting through the bottom third of the branches to make them hard to climb. Also, think about where you place your ornaments. My childhood cats just liked to sit under the tree and hide among the presents, but as kids decorating @madsuspect‘s trees always involved mathematically placing the most alluring or fragile ornaments well out of cat reach and not placing many things at all on the low hanging branches.
I would hazard a guess that the attraction to christmas trees is that, for indoor cats, they’re a type of enrichment we don’t give them that they’d naturally encounter quite frequently. Trees smell, have a unique texture, sway and bend, and are generally a very different climbing experience than indoor cat furniture - and they’re the type that cats are specialized to be good at climbing. Plus, they’re novel, and we put all sorts of novel things on them, and then we get red in the face and make interesting noises when they do climb it.
It can be safe, for sure, you just have to know your cat. Pine can be mildly toxic to cats, so if your cat likes to chew on the branches, get a fake tree. You also want to make sure you cat isn’t drinking the water from the tree stand (you can help prevent it by keeping the water level lower than normal so it’s not reachable, and watering more frequently).
When it comes to tree safety, another big issue is toppling/climbing. Again, know your cat. If your cat likes to climb trees, maybe get a weighted base and trim the branches at the bottom high enough that they’re not easy to climb into, or string netting through the bottom third of the branches to make them hard to climb. Also, think about where you place your ornaments. My childhood cats just liked to sit under the tree and hide among the presents, but as kids decorating @madsuspect‘s trees always involved mathematically placing the most alluring or fragile ornaments well out of cat reach and not placing many things at all on the low hanging branches.
