Kitten - Rochester,MN

You could also try tin foil to cover the dirt - many kitties don't like the sound it makes when they step on it, it startles them enough that they may try to avoid it afterwards.

Every time she is in or playing with the plant spray her with a water bottle. It's the only way we could get out cats not to do things.

Cover all the dirt with tin foil and make sure it is wrapped around the edge of the pot. Switch to a finer kitty litter for a while until Ginger really uses her box even sprinkle some of the well used potting soil in her box, get her a second box so she has options. Having two boxes is more work but it really saves in the long run, keep a lined Ice cream pail by each box for frequent scooping. Tell her what you want if she is trying to get in to a covered plan pick her up and take her to a box. She is young and should adjust.

Place tin foil around your house plants they hate it!

I inherited buckets and buckets of polished rocks. I put a layer in any of my house plants that have dirt the cats might get into. It works great and actually helps the plants retain moisture better (like a mulch). It is not too heavy for them. I tried the tin foil method and hated it because it looked ugly and would trap water on top unless I was careful how I watered.

If you go to a pet store - a lot of them will have sprays for cats called "keep off"...its a deterent that tastes and smells awful for cats.

Good luck!

We have river rocks (or maybe a little smaller?) in our two indoor plants that are where the cats can get to them. They still still chew the leaves sometimes, but not very often and they stay out of the pots. Growing up we had one cat that loved the plant dirt and my mom put plastic forks and spoons in the pot. Not the prettiest, but the cat didn't even try to get into the pot any more. They also wouldn't have hurt the cat if he did get there, since they weren't in that deep and were not sharp on the ends.That one didn't always use the dirt, but he loved to throw it all over the floor.

Since is young, if you throw a toy when she is starting to get near the plant will that distract her enough to chase the toy and leave the plant alone?

we removed all our indoor plants.

Squirt bottle. Spray once as quickly and do it as consistantly as you can. BUT you must say no while doing it too that is very important. Otherwise it does not make as firm of a connection from the punishment from you and their behavior.

Even river rock is too big to through at a kitten.LOL Try cutting just enough from the center of an aluminum disposable pie pan that the hole fits around the base of the plant. It isn't too bad to look at and kitty can't scratch through it. Foil may work but is easily torn. Good Luck!

My cat did the same until we sterilized. If you don´t thinking about to have more cats probably is better,I am sure she wont touch your plants again.

I took river rock from around my pool landscaping and put it in all of my plants for the very same reason and it workd! Best of luck!!
E.

I use a product called "tattle tale"

http://www.amazon.com/Tattle-Tale-Sonic-Training-Alarm/dp...

It's a little box that you can set on counter tops, tables, in planters anywhere you don't want your pet to be. It senses the vibrations from their movements and emits a loud beeeeeeep of an alarm that startles them away. I bought four of them and rotate them around the house. I keep one on my kitchen counter and activate it when we go upstairs for the night. It only took a few nights of them jumping up and getting startled off to stop them from counter surfing.

Now I hardly ever hear the alarms go off.

I also have a bird in a medium sized cage on a stand that has space on either side of the cage for a cat to sit and torment him. I didn't want to put a tattle tale on that piece of furniture because the loud beeeep would be cruel for the bird. What I did to deter them from jumping up there was to take tin foil and put masking tape on it sticky side up with the ends flipped over to stick to the foil.

When the cats would jump up the masking tape would stick to them and the foil would flash and rattle and startle them to jump off. Just putting foil didn't work. Just putting tape on the wood furniture didn't work, but putting tape on the foil so that when they jumped up the foil would stick to them and fall off as they ran away worked. The only problem with this that it needs to be reset after it's tripped. The nice thing is that it only needs to get tripped a few times before the cats will just see the foil and stay away.

I hate the way it looks though. It's ugly. I tried taking the foil traps down but after a few days the cats figured it out that it wasn't there and I would hear the panicked fluttering of a distressed bird after they started jumping up again. So unfortunately the taped foil is a permanent fixture that is only removed when we have guests over, then it's reapplied when they leave.

I put pea sized aquarium rocks in my plants and it worked great to keep the kittens out. Looks nice too.

My Dad used to cut rose stems up or thorny bush into small pieces and would spread it outside in the areas he didn't want the kitties playing in :). He of course did not do it to hurt the kitties but to detour them :)

Just an idea for you :)

Go to your local pet store, and ask for some Bitter Apple. When you get the bottle home, spray a small amount on your kitten's paws, so that she licks it off. Once she gets a taste of that, whatever you spray it on, should keep her away. You might want to go to your local plant store, and ask if this damages the plant. I believe as long as you don't get it on the plant itself, it should be fine. good luck.

As having 2 cats of my own, I have learned that a good old fashion squirt bottle filled with water works. When she gets into your plants or even when she gets near them, just spray her with the water, soon she will realize that she gets wet when she goes near them. Hope this works for you.
S.

One really cheap way you can prevent the kitten from going into the dirt is to take some cloth and wrap the pot in it and then tie the coth around the bottom. If the plant is not a tree type or stalk, you can weave some string or ribbon into the material to tie it up without damaging the plant. This helped a friend of mine when her puppy would dig in the dirt. As the puppy grew, he no longer was interested in the digging. To discourage the kitten from even going into the pots sooner, you can put bells on the fabric. She won't like the sound should she jump on it.

***I have NOT read the other answers***

Having you cat spayed, like Maru had suggested...is NOT a remedy to your plant problems. And there is no link that states spaying her is going to make ANY difference in ANY behaviors. Veterinarians used to tell people that if you spay or neuter an animal that it will change any and all bad behaviors. This has been proven to be false on most behaviors...

I would try bitter apple spray, you can buy it at your local pet store. The other thing that I still use from time to time,but can be messy, is fill up a spray bottle with water, and when you catch her in the act, say NO and squirt her with a QUICK shot, trying to not let her seeing you spraying her, or this technique may not be effective. There are some other products out there that may help, so try your local petco, or petsmart.

So, spray down all of your plants with the bitter apple spray and then squirt her if she goes for them. I have been a vet tech for over 10 years, and this is the same advice that I give to my clients.

As far as the liter...give her a little slack here...at least she IS using it. And she IS just a baby. Maybe try a deeper littler box, so that when she "plays" in her litter it wont get all over the place. Or hang some plastic wrap on the walls surrounding the litter box. And last but not least, you should (and maybe you do) need TWO boxes per cat. So in your case you would need 2 boxes. Cats are finicky and some won't urinate where they defficate. Also, if you have the litter and the food in the same area, you should move the food away...into another room is best. Congrats on the new kitten...have fun with her!! And Good Luck!
H.

Place orange peels in your pots - cats do not like the smell and will not go near them. After getting our cat declawed, she started the unwelcome habit of using the carpet behind the couch as a litter box. I cut up an orange peel and sprinkled it behind the couch, and she never went there again.