Pets and orchids don't mix!

[camille1585]

I have a pet guinea pig, and discovered that he loves orchids too. Too much in fact!!

When I water my orchids I usually place them on a towel on the floor a few minutes to let them drip before putting them back in their trays.

Well Snoopy gets really curious (he runs loose when I'm home) and I often catch him cautiously creeping towards the orchids. He'll see me look at him, then scamper away. As soon as I have my back turned he creeps back to the orchids. Sometimes he'd try to get a bite from a leaf, and a sharp 'NO' usually disuades him and he runs off to plot his next attempt.

Being a smart little devil, he's modified his technique lately. Now he nonchalantly gets within a foot of the orchids, then makes a mad dash, grabs a leaf and RUNS! The larger plants just end up tipped over and he gives up, but yesterday he grabbed a small orchid. Result? Orchid was jerked out of the pot, media was strewn all over in the wake of the fast moving piggy, much like a comet tail, and then he desperately tries to get his plundered plant through the narrow doorway of his cabin...

The sight was too hilarious, although I had to clean up the mess and repot the poor victim.

[Carpe Diem]

Thanks for posting, it started my day off with a good chuckle.

[silken]

Ahh, our pets! You gotta love em despite their attempts to undo our orchid collections! My cat Stanley is a naughty one. He likes to chew all the grassy leaved types and his signature is in a number of them It's not happiness when it happens, but somehow he is always forgiven!

[camille1585]

Pets are always forgiven! Actually I am more worried about the piggy than the orchids. When he eats a chunk of one, I have no idea if any orchids are bad for him since they have delicate digestive systems.

[silken]

I agree. And a little piggy is likely much more sensitive and somewhat smaller than a cat, so it would be more serious. Stanley was just recently chewing bits of a fake Christmas garland and then horked it all back up It was just little bits, but one never knows what they are into when we aren't looking! We have two other cats as well, but they are less curious and naughty!

[Paul]

The mental picture that created of your piggy was hilarious! :S

[Bud]

that was my cat two years ago...he loves to nibble on the grasslike leaves of some of the orchids...he loves to hang glide on all my vandas and plays with the long roots...
I guess he outgrew it because he never comes near the orchids anymore...
I think he got annoyed being sprayed with water on the nose whenever I catch him hanging on any of my plants

[The Orchid Boy]

I have a cat that got shut in my room and he had to go. He used one of my orchids as a litter box! What a naughty cat! He is sooo spoiled and fat. My Quaker parrot just about nipped my paph. magical venus bloom off the other day. He is quite naughty too. He once took all the bark out of one of my potted orchids and he laughed when I saw what he did. He really does laugh and knows when to laugh. The cat I talked about earlier is terrified of my bird. The parrot once bit the cats tail when he was sleeping and the cat meowed really loud and ran. My parrot laughed and laughed his evil little laugh.

[camille1585]

I could strangle the guinea pig right now!! He ate the tip off a growing spike! I was soaking some orchids this evening in a tray on the floor, and I left the room 1 minute to go take care of something in the kitchen. I forgot that the pig was out roaming, and next thing I know one of my Phals is spikeless and he's sitting innocently in a corner. Worse than a kid, I can't turn my back on him for a second!

It was one of my favorites too, Phal Wiganiae (schilleriana x stuartiana). The buds were just beginning to form and it promised to be the biggest show yet, and it had been well over a year since it bloomed... He's grounded, no veggies for him tonight!

[silken]

Oh dear! So sorry Camille that this disaster has happened. Is the entire spike gone or is there hope that it could send off a secondary spike from it.

I just brought home 5 orchids of someone else's that I am caring for while he undergoes cancer treatment. I barely got them in the door and set them on the cupboard and my %@^#%# cat Stanley is up on the cupboard chewing all the ends off the leaves of a grassy Phrag. Now this exact moment he is barfing!!!