Q: For Christmas I was given a gift of a 6-foot-tall palm tree in a 24-inch-wide pot. It is sitting on the floor in my living room in front of a sunny window. My issue is not with the tree _ but with my 2-year-old indoor cat who for whatever reason likes to use the soil in the pot as a litter box. She jumps up onto the pot and somehow finds the room to dig a hole in the soil and poop or pee in it. She still uses her regular litter box, as well, so I have no idea what criteria she uses in deciding where to go. I try spraying her with water from a squirt bottle when I see her digging in the pot, but this only seems to teach her to do it when we are not home or at night. Are there any suggestions you can give to me to solve the situation?
A: She is using the plant basically because it is there. To her mind it is just a big tall oddly shaped litter box that feels and smells appealing. When you spray her with water, she just regards that as illogical and confusing human behavior.
What you need to do is to make the potting soil unattractive to her. The easiest way to do this is to insert a multitude of toothpicks half their length into the soil around the plant. They will not hurt her should she try to paw at them, but it will make the pot impossible for her to use as a toilet. Putting a layer of white marble chips over the soil as a mulch will work as well.
It might also help if you get a bag of plain potting soil _ one that does not have any timed-release fertilizers or similar chemicals in it _ and throw a handful of it into her litter box every day for a while. She seems to enjoy the smell and texture of it so a bit of soil mixed in with her litter will get her attention away from the palm tree and redirect it back to the litter box. As time goes by the novelty of the tree will wear off, and you can then gradually start to pull the toothpicks out until you no longer need them.
Q: We got a coonhound-mix puppy six months ago. He is very smart and is now totally potty trained. However, he is now as big as a pony and has a mouth as big as a bear trap. He is tall enough to reach on top of our counters and devour any edibles left on them. Loaves of bread or fruit or a box of cereal _ everything goes down his throat. We scold him when we see him doing it and he seems contrite for a minute, but after that he is right back at it. One day he even got a bunch of bananas that were left on top of the fridge.
A: This is not really a training issue but actually a management issue. If you could follow the dog around all day every day and correct him (note I say correct and not punish) from going for every food item that is not in his bowl, he would surely learn this.
When I was a kid, there was an elderly man on my block who knew a lot about dogs and taught me a great deal. He always trained his dogs to never eat anything found laying about. (In the rural area of Georgia where he grew up, this was the only way to ensure that your dog would not be poisoned by some dog-hating neighbor.) So any dog can be trained to do this. Consistency is the No. 1 rule in training any animal. So the whole family needs to apply themselves to not leave any edibles out and instead to lock them up. Then, when you can apply yourself to a training session, you can put out a loaf of bread and take the dog into the kitchen and correct him every time he goes for it. When the lesson is over, you put the bread away so the dog no longer has the opportunity to take it off the counter and thus the memory of the lesson is retained. He will learn this all in time since he is such a smartie.
Q: My rose-breasted cockatoo has perfect plumage, and I want to keep it this way. I know that you need to mist a bird with water daily in order to keep it looking like this. However, my husband keeps the house at 68 degrees in the winter, and I am wondering what is the lesser of the two evils _ spraying the bird and taking a risk on him being cold or not spraying him and worrying that he may feather pluck?
A. Feather plucking has many more causes than just a bird not being misted daily, but you are correct in that it is an important part of bird keeping and is especially important in the winter months when the air is dry. You are also correct about the bird feeling chilly after being wetted down. I solved this problem with my birds by getting a clamp lamp like you use to keep a reptile's cage warm, along with a 100-watt reptile heat lamp. After you spray down your bird, clamp the heat lamp on the cage right over the bird and turn it on. The birds love this and spend at least an hour ruffling their feathers under the heat lamp and preening them. Just be sure to keep the lamp's cord well away from the bird's cage. If the cord is within reach, the bird would surely chew on it and thus ruin a good time.
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