Keeping The Floor Cat Food-Free

2008-01-24T08:21:00.000-08:00

Submitted by Pet Hacks

We started off as a one cat household. Our first cat was a fairly tidy domestic short hair who neatly ate his food right over his dish. When we added our little Maine Coon mix to the household that was another story. Maine Coons like to do things with their paws and it's not unusual for them to try to eat their food out of their own little "hands". Unfortunately their "hands" have the dexterity of paws so kitty's attempts to pick up her food and eat it by hand resulted in cat food all over our floor. She was driving us nuts, sweeping the floor 10 times a day and wasting so much of their food.

I finally got her mess-making under control with a simple cereal box. I took a large empty cereal box and used some duct tape to seal up the top of the opening so I had a perfect sealed rectangular box. Then I used an exacto knife and ruler to cut a rectangular opening on the top of the cereal box. I left enough border around the rectangle to form a lip on the box. Then to make the container a little prettier I decoupaged some shredded magazine strips all over the outside of the box and lined the inside of the box with some red duct tape. Once I was finished I just stuck the cat food bowls into the cereal box and left that out for the cats. When our devilish Maine Coon tried to scoop food out of her bowl it landed neatly inside the cereal box rather than on the floor. The lip I left on the top of the box made it impossible for her to maneuver her food out of the box so she was left with no option but to eat her food right out of her bowl like a normal kitty. She still digs around there with her paws but all her attempts to make a mess on the floor are foiled by the cereal box caddy holding the cat food dishes.

Built-in Kennel

2008-01-23T00:14:00.000-08:00

Submitted by Dian

Last month I was pet-sitting for my son's new puppy at my house. Since she wasn't house-broken I couldn't give her the run of the house without supervision. Instead of buying a kennel at the store to contain the rambunctious new pup I put her in our guest bathroom shower which has a glass door. Any messes she made were easy to clean up and since the shower door could be closed the puppy could be contained when I wasn't able to watch her.

Keeping Kitty Out of Plants

2008-01-22T09:21:00.000-08:00

Submitted by Zelda

To keep our cat from digging up the potted tree in our living room we added a couple of layers of small rocks to the top of the plant's soil. This kept the soil inaccessible to our cat and still allowed the plant to breathe and be watered.