IKEA Socker Greenhouse

[SouthPark]

I've been massively fortunate in that my cat has never damaged my orchids and their flowers. This particular cat doesn't go near my plants unless I'm there watering them, or looking at the orchids. And even then, she only either sniffs a leaf (but never sniffs a flower), and walks carefully around.

But ---- she does do a known cat thing, like eats some lawn grass and some weeds. But doesn't damage any of my orchids (catasetums, catt, dend, vanda, phrag, paph, oncidium, and one phal ... I only have a single mini phal right now - first ever phal).

The attached photos are of my cat - which was a stray that happened to take up residence at my place a year and half or so ago. She must have had a pretty good previous owner, as she's very well behaved. Surprisingly good 'personality'.

It looks like the Socker green-house, or something like that will come in handy for cats that do tend to chew on plants. It'll offer some decent protection.

[mofms1]

Beautiful cat and beautiful orchids. Also, that first picture, with the cat sitting, is really great!

---------- Post added at 12:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:01 PM ----------

I have two (new) mounted orchids. So far the cat has ignored them. But I don't know how long that will last. They are young and I got them bare root a few weeks ago, so they haven't started to grow and aren't very flashy right now. In the past, one of the cats, in particular, has gone after hanging plants. So if she takes an interest in the orchids that isn't a long term solution.

But after doing some reading (and of course I'll continue to research), I don't see why this wouldn't work for a couple of mini plants. I have a taller, outdoor greenhouse in the corner of my office to keep some of my other plants safe, if I needed to I could always move the orchids there if they don't seem to be doing well in the Socker. I just thought they would look nice in the tabletop greenhouse.

---------- Post added at 12:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:09 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Ray

Room temperature, saturated LECA on the bottom for humidity, and an external LED.

I've been meaning to ask about the LECA, where do you get it from? I was reading up a bit on it earlier and was thinking that maybe that would be a better option than the bark I'm currently using. How's it work in the terra cotta pots with a drainage hole and a saucer underneath?

[DirtyCoconuts]

one more thought, could be a double edged sword, but maybe plant catgrass and catnip? that way they have plants they can attack and eat and maybe they will focus their prowess there...of course, catnip turns some cats into insane beasts so they could get worse lol

[mofms1]

I actually do plant catgrass for them every so often. We had some outside catgrass, but that started attracting stray cats which was not what we wanted, so we had to get rid of it. But giving them access to plants they can eat doesn't seem to lessen their desire to eat it all. I thought it would and that's why I let them chew on the spider plants; until they almost killed those.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by mofms1

Beautiful cat and beautiful orchids. Also, that first picture, with the cat sitting, is really great!

Thanks for the nice words mofms! In this shot, she's doing some kind of staring gazing look hahaha. Looks different than what I usually see of her.

I have two (new) mounted orchids. So far the cat has ignored them.

That sounds promising! It's possible that after your cats get used to everything in their environment, they might ignore them. Another temporary solution could be to set up one a motion sensor device, eg. ultrasonic device, which triggers a puff of citrus spray into the air --- just a puff of it --- this is when the device senses some movement. Otherwise - periodically (a timed system instead of a monitoring system).

The cats may keep their distance - and after a long enough time, may not even need to use that device anymore.