two kitten questions

[milly143]

When is the best time to have my 3 month old kitten neutered/spayed (it's a boy, can never remember which one is which). Also is there anything I can do to stop him eating my house plants? I heard some can be poisonous to cats and he is ruining them. :-)

[silly moo]

Toms are neutered and queens are spayed.
Ask your vet when you next visit for jabs.
I usually assume animals have enugh sense not to eat poisenous stuff - could easily be wrong - I so often am!
Have you tried growing some catmint for him to chew at?

[PurplePixie]

Boys usually need neutering at around 6/7 months...but that varies from different Vets.

You could spray your plants with bitter bite...get it from most pet shops...it tastes yuck. The chewing thing gets better as cats mature & get to munch plants outside. Sadly cats don't always have the sense to know what is poisonous, the less obvious poisonous houseplants that I know of are, poinsettia,oleander &diffenbachia.

[Mowbray]

I got my male cat neutered at around 6 months and what a difference that made.  He was in less fights and didn't wail at other cats. 

I remember when he was a wee kitten I'd be watching TV then all of  a sudden he'd be clawing his way up my curtains.  He also used to scratch our settee - what a time we had.

Buy some Catnip from your local petshop and watch your kitten go wild for it - It may also distract him from chewing your plants.

Best of luck

[Englishbird]

yep mine were done at around 6 months too.

you could also try bringing in some turf with grass and showing him he's allowed to chew that but not the other plants - mine got the hang of the fact that they're allowed to scratch the scratching post and not the furniture (well, most of the time) so it could work.

[Marvin84]

one tsp vinegar in a water bottle and spray in at the cat when he chews the plants. This and giving him more toys to play with (spray them with catnip) should help your plants...

[milly143]

thanks for all the tips! He has tones of toys to play with but then he seems to think everything is a toy. Will give some of them a go.