Protecting The Trunk Of My Green Malayan Coconut Palm From A Cat?

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

Here are a couple of photos of how I am trying to protect my Green Malayan Dwarf Coconut Palm from what I think is a cat that has been scratching its claws on the trunk.  I hope the damage is only cosmetic.

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

[jfrye01@live.com]

That's a great idea. I may have to do the same thing for my washies.  The cats love scratching them to shreds...:( 

[DoomsDave]

Hmm.

I have some palms that have scratch marks, from the cats climbing them before they got eaten by coyotes. Archies, about halfway up the present trunks, which were about half as tall as they are now.

As long as we're on the subject, cats and palms can get along well, in that palms are like grasses and cats like to eat grass. So you need to protect the palms sometimes, especially when they're really small.

Below is a picture of Great Great Grandma, who appreciates the warmth of the plastic mini-greenhouses, and hungrily eyes sprouting Roystonea borenquenia underneath. They also like to nibble the dead palm leaves I save for the fireplace!

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

  On 4/13/2017 at 5:13 AM, jfrye01@live.com said:

That's a great idea. I may have to do the same thing for my washies.  The cats love scratching them to shreds...:( 

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Yeah the trunk on my coconut palm looked okay until a cat started scratching it a few months ago.

 

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

  On 4/13/2017 at 8:35 PM, DoomsDave said:

Hmm.

I have some palms that have scratch marks, from the cats climbing them before they got eaten by coyotes. Archies, about halfway up the present trunks, which were about half as tall as they are now.

As long as we're on the subject, cats and palms can get along well, in that palms are like grasses and cats like to eat grass. So you need to protect the palms sometimes, especially when they're really small.

Below is a picture of Great Great Grandma, who appreciates the warmth of the plastic mini-greenhouses, and hungrily eyes sprouting Roystonea borenquenia underneath. They also like to nibble the dead palm leaves I save for the fireplace!

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Oh, the life of a cat.  She looks like she doesn't have a care in the world!

[Steve Mac]

Mr Coco,

I believe that Dooms just gave you your solution,  "before they got eaten by coyotes."

Just kidding puss puss.

No Mate, that cat damage is less than superficial. The natural cracking goes way deeper than that.

The cat has only frayed off already dead material. Only you would notice it.

I do not think that It will affect the life or health of the palm. It is cosmetic.

I have seen numerous palms (not coconut) whipper snippered through to 20% of their diameter quite happy.

But if you think that the fence is also less attractive, you might try an anti - animal spray or powder.

I found that 'Deep Heat'  muscle rub stopped our cat scratching a door. 

 

[Tropicgardener]

Save the Coconut......... Mulch the cat

[Jerry@TreeZoo]

[palmfriend]

John,

way back home I had two lovely cats by myself: "Lady Lisa" sharpened its claws at the cat tree I provided (=good cat),

but "Peter The Boy" didn`t and chose my massive leather sofa for his "training" (=so, not a real gentlemen cat, but a heartbreaker) which

didn`t hold up for long and I finally had to dump it - so, at this point I would say: They can probably damage things seriously in the long run,

if not stopped. (And btw, there was absolutely no way of moving his attention to other things when it came to his work out "protocol".)

One more thing, my cats were common house cats, but after seeing a fully grown Maine-Coon-cat at a friends place for the first time in real -

and I don`t know what kind of cats you have - I would say: Protect the tree!

best regards

 

[DoomsDave]

  On 4/14/2017 at 9:01 PM, Jerry@TreeZoo said:

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Be careful not to shoot in the foot . . . .

[DoomsDave]

  On 4/15/2017 at 12:04 AM, palmfriend said:

John,

way back home I had two lovely cats by myself: "Lady Lisa" sharpened its claws at the cat tree I provided (=good cat),

but "Peter The Boy" didn`t and chose my massive leather sofa for his "training" (=so, not a real gentlemen cat, but a heartbreaker) which

didn`t hold up for long and I finally had to dump it - so, at this point I would say: They can probably damage things seriously in the long run,

if not stopped. (And btw, there was absolutely no way of moving his attention to other things when it came to his work out "protocol".)

One more thing, my cats were common house cats, but after seeing a fully grown Maine-Coon-cat at a friends place for the first time in real -

and I don`t know what kind of cats you have - I would say: Protect the tree!

best regards

 

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Maine Coon cats can be impressive. That young lady is of normal size. So's the cat, normal for him.

My kitty's a Maine Coon mix, and he's nowhere near the size of the cat above, but he's far and away stronger than the others I have.

Wow, scratching a leather sofa! I got leather sofas and chairs to keep cats from scratching them. So far, it works.

 

[Xerarch]

look at that thing!

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

  On 4/14/2017 at 2:15 AM, gtsteve said:

Mr Coco,

I believe that Dooms just gave you your solution,  "before they got eaten by coyotes."

Just kidding puss puss.

No Mate, that cat damage is less than superficial. The natural cracking goes way deeper than that.

The cat has only frayed off already dead material. Only you would notice it.

I do not think that It will affect the life or health of the palm. It is cosmetic.

I have seen numerous palms (not coconut) whipper snippered through to 20% of their diameter quite happy.

But if you think that the fence is also less attractive, you might try an anti - animal spray or powder.

I found that 'Deep Heat'  muscle rub stopped our cat scratching a door. 

 

Expand  

Steve,

I figured that it wouldn't do much harm, but I really resent the ugly scratch marks on the once beautiful trunk of my palm.  I took down the little fence a couple of months ago, and I don't seem to have had any more cat scratching problems.

John

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

  On 2/12/2018 at 3:56 PM, DoomsDave said:

Maine Coon cats can be impressive. That young lady is of normal size. So's the cat, normal for him.

My kitty's a Maine Coon mix, and he's nowhere near the size of the cat above, but he's far and away stronger than the others I have.

Wow, scratching a leather sofa! I got leather sofas and chairs to keep cats from scratching them. So far, it works.

 

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That's HUGE!  I have never seen any kind of house cat even close to that size!

[tacobender]

Never noticed any problems like that.

[Nakheel1412]

Our cats love scratching their claws on some of our palms and other plants (Cestrum nocturnum, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, trees...), most of the time the damage is essentially a matter of esthetics ;
The big trees (Syagrus romanzoffiana, Washingtonia robusta) show little to no damage (exactly what @gtsteve mentionned), while one small A. cunninghamiana showed heavy damage (they used to scratch their claws on the crownshaft and the spear), which is why for now I protect the palm (to prevent fungal diseases) ; They seem to ignore other small king palms, maybe because the surroundings are "slippery" (mulch) ;

Ugly for sure, but does the job, I'll remove this once I heavily mulch the surroundings of this palm :

Edited February 13, 2018 by Nakheel1412

[DoomsDave]

  On 2/13/2018 at 5:43 PM, tacobender said:

Never noticed any problems like that.

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Does he lick the cats to death?

[ZPalms]

  On 4/13/2017 at 8:35 PM, DoomsDave said:

Hmm.

I have some palms that have scratch marks, from the cats climbing them before they got eaten by coyotes. Archies, about halfway up the present trunks, which were about half as tall as they are now.

As long as we're on the subject, cats and palms can get along well, in that palms are like grasses and cats like to eat grass. So you need to protect the palms sometimes, especially when they're really small.

Below is a picture of Great Great Grandma, who appreciates the warmth of the plastic mini-greenhouses, and hungrily eyes sprouting Roystonea borenquenia underneath. They also like to nibble the dead palm leaves I save for the fireplace!

Expand  

When using these little greenhouse things do you just sprout the seeds then move them immediately? I've been looking for some, I wish they made these things specifically for palms with deep trays 

[GottmitAlex]

Nothing like a silenced 22 for this application.