Christmas Tree Advice

[Milner]

Hi guys, first post. Looking for some advice if anyone out there could help, that would be great!

This is our first Christmas with a real tree since we've had 'Alba' (last year she was a small kitten and we had a fake one). I've just had the tree delivered, it's a blue spruce, which I did not realise but has really prickly and sharp needles! I've read contrasting advice, some say this is good for cats, as they will quickly learn not to play with it. But half of me wants to swap it for a tree with soft needles. They really are sharp, I had a hard time just carryiong it through the house!

Aside from hurting herself, I know that these needles could be deadly if ingested, which is why I would be tempted to lock her out of the living room when we are not in. But this would mean moving her food out of the open plan living room / kitchech for the next few weeks. So I guess it's a 2 part question:

1. Would you recommend a tree with less spikey needles, or do you think these will provide a good deterrant?
2. Is it OK to move Albas food from where she has it in the kitchen for the next few weeks, without causing her confusion and stress?

Help appreciated, thanks!

[Lilith]

Hi there and welcome

The last time I had a Christmas tree was in 1983, the Christmas after two three-quarter Siamese kittens joined the household. It was only a bog-standard plastic tree but the minute it came out of its box, branches furled, George leaped at it and hugged it and The Leopard, his sister, followed.

They helped me decorate the thing. Or rather I attempted to decorate the thing with two three-quarter Siamese fairies on top. It soon became obvious that lights were a no-no. So were breakables. Leaving plastic wessel-cups and tinsel, I let them wreck it every day and replaced the baubles once the kittens had fallen asleep of an evening, ready to fight another day. Although even tinsel could be dangerous if it got tangled round an unsupervised cat.

Whatever you decide to do about your tree, I'd say, definitely, don't leave Alba unsupervised with it, to save wear and tear on tree and possibly Alba (though in our case it was definitely George and the Leopard 1, tree lost) and I don't think Alba will be stressed by having to eat in a different room for the duration.

I'm not an expert on real trees but hopefully there'll be other people along who know about those, and cats. But hope this helps for now.

With any luck Alba will be a total little angel (at ground level!) and leave the poor tree alone, but Christmas trees do seem to bring out the primitive wildcat in a lot of cats...good luck!

[Kay]

I have no experience of cats + Christmas trees, but I would certainly say move her food and water well away, as the tree will start to drop its needles and they could get into her dishes, and be ingested

[bobbys girl]

We had a real tree (bog standard spruce or Nordman) every year up until Gracie's first Christmas. Willow and Purdy had been fine with them as had all the dogs. But Gracie managed to wreck the tree and some very old, very beautiful decorations, not once but 3 times over the holidays - little madam.

Now we have an artificial tree wedged into a corner of the room and a set of cheap decorations with nothing below paw-swiping height.

We never had any problems with the needles but, as everyone has said, best feed Alba far away from the tree.

[Milner]

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated. I think we'll keep her locked out for the day, and leave her food + drink well out of the way. She hasn't tried to scale it yet, which is good. She does however like to hide under it, which is fine by me!

[bobbys girl]

Just as long as she doesn't start peeing under it, like Purdy does! BTW Orange and Frankincense essential oils mask the pong and discourage her from doing it in the first place.

Hey ho, we never had this problem with the dogs!