# For those who grow cat grass



## chellemich (Apr 5, 2011)

How do you keep it alive and under control?! I've bought a 'kit' twice and ended up throwing it away both times because it went all yellow and was overtaking my kitchen! I gave it a trim but it just ended up dying after not very long. Are there any kits that you would recommend, bowl sizes, how often to water etc in order to maintain it more successfully?


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## gloworm*mushroom (Mar 4, 2011)

I used the purely kits from pah (i think it was purely...)

But erm, my kittens didnt eat it, at all, and i gave it to my rabbits who enjoyed it very much lmao.

But mine did go yellowy at the top, I guess I just assumed it wasnt something that would last forever.


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## chellemich (Apr 5, 2011)

Thanks. Mine did like it but like yours it went yellow - very quickly. I want to give it one more go! I'll have a look in [email protected]


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## Paddypaws (May 4, 2010)

I would buy a bag of grass seed form ebay rather than a kit in a tray. Then I would get 3 smallish plant pots, put seed in one...allow it to grow, then maybe a week or two later seed up the second, same gap with the third. When one goes past its best just chuck it out and start on the next one, while planting up the first one again.
Simples


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## Dante (Feb 21, 2011)

I bought this stuff for my first attempt:

Great Deals on Cat Grass at zooplus: Cat Grass, 100 g in Tray

It's fantastic, put a whole bag of seed in an old litter tray filled with soil and within 3 days had shoots long and thick (it was like a forest!) enough to eat. Cats both ate it, although I found they preferred the juicy fresh bits so would eat from the bottom up. I probably didn't keep on top of it as best as I should and therefore once it got too long for them, they changed it to their new sleeping pad and completely flattened it..


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## Maria_1986 (May 15, 2011)

I brought this one 
Cat Grass: Gimpet Hy-Gras cat grass at zooplus

And expected to fail - I cant normally grow anything but I think I have managed to keep it going for about 4 weeks now. I trim it every now and then and give those bits to the guineas. I forgot about it for a while and its wilting around the edges, but the last time it did that I trimmed and watered it and it perked up again.

I'm pretty pleased with it, Lillie nibbles it pretty regularly and it lives on the window sill on her room so she has constant access to it.

The one I brought came in a tray and with the 'soil' stuff - it also had these bead things which are supposed to hold water and I think it worked pretty well.


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## luvinsmudge4eva (Aug 9, 2011)

I just bought a couple of seeds and planted them in the garden. they didn't go yelllow but did die down to nothing and not come up to anything after the winter.


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## ibbica (Aug 9, 2010)

We grow "cat grass" in our kitchen window; we usually have 3 pots going, and just buy packages of seed. One pot left out for the kitties to eat, one sprouting a fresh crop, and one drying out in preparation for reseeding 

"Cat grass" is just a cereal crop: oats, barley, rye, etc. Not quite the same as your lawn grass, so don't expect it to behave the same way... a single planting won't last forever (although we did have one of our bunches try to go to seed :huh. If your cat doesn't care for (or is allergic to) one species, you can always try another one.

As for pot size and watering... a deeper pot seems to produce slightly taller and sturdier grass; we initially had very shallow pots from Zooplus that now act as drainage trays for our 'real' pots  Our pots are 4-6" across, just because that's what fits on our window ledge.

When the grass just starts to wilt, we soak it really well, let it sit in its drainage water for ~12h and then drain off any excess water. We usually end up watering about 5-7 days in our kitchen.

A freshly-reseeded pot gets soaked in water, drained right after soaking, and then covered with cellophane until the grass sprouts (we usually don't have to add any more water until we take the cellophane off). Normally we water new sprouts roughly every 2-3 days.

Once the grass is grown enough (about 4-6cm), we put it down for the cats. It normally lasts us 8+ weeks before it gets scraggly enough to really warrant replacement. Not that it's all dead by then, but it does become unsightly as individual stalks are damaged/flattened or die back.

We've had a bit of trouble with fungus gnats here (they're more annoying than harmful, but still...), so to keep them under control I let the pot with the old grass dry out completely before reseeding it. Occasionally I'll also bake the soil and bleach the pot (before reseeding it, obviously!).


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## Lumboo (Mar 31, 2011)

We grow cat grass from seed. I grow it in plant pots and the pots last about 2-3 weeks before it goes yellow. 

It takes about 2 weeks to grow, so when I give them one pot, I start sowing another, so it is ready in time for the last lot dying. My two love it.

All old/dead grass goes straight into the composter so it is all recycled.

Still have a pot in the house even though the cats now go into the garden.


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## chellemich (Apr 5, 2011)

ibbica said:


> We grow "cat grass" in our kitchen window; we usually have 3 pots going, and just buy packages of seed. One pot left out for the kitties to eat, one sprouting a fresh crop, and one drying out in preparation for reseeding
> 
> "Cat grass" is just a cereal crop: oats, barley, rye, etc. Not quite the same as your lawn grass, so don't expect it to behave the same way... a single planting won't last forever (although we did have one of our bunches try to go to seed :huh. If your cat doesn't care for (or is allergic to) one species, you can always try another one.
> 
> ...


Very detailed and helpful - thank you. :smile5:


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## TatiLie (Nov 2, 2010)

I buy the Cat Grass on Sale now at zooplus: Cat Grass Multipack 3 x 100 g and plant a handful per week. It takes a week to be in 'optimum eating height' so I always have fresh grass.

I've noticed that planting them in soil on a vase or just with water in a glass bowl doesn't make a difference on how long it would last. But planting in soil in a vase will prevent the cat of making a mess pulling the seeds out. They might just do like Ari and carry the whole vase around the house.


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## ameliajane (Mar 26, 2011)

I never mastered cat grass. By the time it was tall enough for Declan to consider eating some, it was keeling over, turning yellow and dying and i never remembered to sow more in time. 

Then i discovered the joy of spider plants and have never looked back! Easy to grow, easy to propagate, look nice, very forgiving if a bit neglected and best of all Declan loves them. And they don't seem to make him as sick as the cat grass did.


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