CatitSenses 2.0 Cat Grass Planter, Interactive Cat Toys

I brought the planters because I noticed my cat likes to lay on the cat grass after she gets her full. It comes with seeds, and soil. I didn't need them, because I use The Cat Ladies' products. As you can see in the picture why. They were done at the same time, and this is 6 days later. I followed the instructions online, and only 5 sprouted so far.I've read some complaints about the lid coming up, but I didn't have that problem. It met my expectations so 5 stars. It was easy to put together, and has a drainage which is another reason why I picked it.

In an attempt to get more enrichment into the lives of our two house cats, I purchased a collection of items from the CatIt sensory line. The cat grass station and the catnip station are huge hits with one of my cats (unfortunately, neither cat is interested in the play circuit, and the slow feeders were a complete NOPE from one cat, while the other gives the lower one a rating of "Meh" and ::yawn::).The cat I'd initially purchased the entire collection for likes the cat grass station, but will only munch on it for a moment or two intermittently. She's not overly fond of it and doesn't seem to really be into it. I've tried leaving it for her 24/7, and also putting it down and picking it up so she doesn't have constant access, but she's just not hugely impressed. However, my other cat has turned into a legit addict, and will yell at us to put it down for her (I pick it up for watering and to leave under a grow light). This said cat will also overindulge and then vomit (ICK), so I only put it down for her a few minutes at a time so she's not throwing up on my new carpets.I've had this for an extended period of time and have grown several cycles of grass now. There are pros and cons to this station: The mesh top is an awesome feature, as it helps grass to grow nicely, supports the lower area of the blades/stalks, and prevents cats from (mostly) pulling the grass up from the roots; the water collection tray prevents leakage and overflowing onto surfaces; the wide base doesn't have anything for a cat to grab onto, so tipping over or relocating (by a cat dragging it, for instance) is highly unlikely. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any advice or tips for preventing mold and mildew from forming in the tray that holds the vermiculite and seeds. I've tried removing that tray and watering on a drain board in my kitchen sink to allow the water to fully drain out, and thoroughly drying the outer tray so there's no excess moisture, I've watered with only a spray bottle to minimize the amount of water I use, I've also tried spreading out the time between waterings - all to no avail. I'm still getting mold, mildew, and/or fungus in those two bottom trays. Despite that one fairly frustrating flaw (I really don't want my cat's lungs getting blasted with mold, mildew, and/or fungus spores every time she wants to nibble on cat grass, that can't be healthy!), I'm going to keep at my experimentation and see if I can find a way to get the benefits of enrichment and cat grass for my cats, while finding a way to avoid the unpleasant extras of growing it in this item.I'd love it if CatIt chimed in here to give precise instructions for preventing this. This comes with very basic info, but there's nothing provided that tells you to say, only grow it for ten days and then discard and start over, or to only water every four days, etc.One tip that I can pass on to others using this is that I found that by soaking my seed for around six hours or so before planting, my seed sprouts much faster and grows far more quickly (it made an enormous difference). Additionally, I was able to pick up a second unit when there was a sale, so I have the ability to have a new one growing as a mature patch of grass is being nibbled on. I haven't done this yet, but I have that as an option at a price that I was comfortable with.

So Lucky was having some stool problems. His pathetic little grunts would wake me up at 3:00 in the morning, and I felt so bad for him as he struggled to do his business. He's only two years old. There has to be a solution for this.I decided to grow wheat grass to see if it would help with his problem. Now, I have a brown thumb. When I try to kill a plant, it grows. When I try to grow a plant, it dies. I decided that I needed a kit to get started, so I ordered this.First strike against it....no instruction manual. Hmm. Now, I did order a three-pack of growing kits, so I'm not completely stupid. I figured that I should combine one of each of the packets from the growing kit. So far so good. I put them into the little planter, which I hope I've assembled correctly. I should have been good to go, right?A few days go by, and nothing happens. Hmm. These are plants. Perhaps they need water?That seemed to do the trick.Now, I purchased this for my cats. I specifically purchased it for Lucky, but I figured both cats would make liberal use of it. It turns out, only one cat is getting any use out of it at all, and it's the wrong cat.You see, Azrael has made it her personal mission in life to stand guard over this thing to make sure that none of the grass seeds ever poke out of the green screen. I'm not even remotely kidding. It has been about a week, now, and I rarely see her move from standing over top of this. When a sprout does threaten to reach the screen, she finds a way to pull it out. She'll then eat the green stalk and leave the rest behind.That's when Lucky enters the picture because he loves batting the remaining roots and seed around. He even went so far as to leave one on my pillow yesterday, and I'm pretty sure that the noise I made when I first saw it could be classified as a scream.On the one hand, Azrael's insistence on making sure that the little blades of grass don't go *is* keeping her from eating all of my shoe laces, and that's a huge bonus. A single pair of shoe laces costs about the same as this planter, and she goes through two pairs a week. Essentially, this is a good investment if you take that into consideration alone. However, if I want this to see any benefits on Lucky's digestive health, there is a good chance that I'll need to buy another.UPDATE: If you are going to buy this, do not, I repeat, do not buy the seed kits that the company also offers.One afternoon, I came home from work with a weird smelling house. It wasn't strong, but it was definitely unpleasant. It smelled like someone had some really bad halitosis. I checked my kitties, and their breath was not compromised. So I waited it out.I woke up the next morning to find that the smell had become unbearable, and I had no idea where it was coming from. I tore apart my kitchen looking for it to no avail. It was only later in the day, when I checked the water level on the planter, that I realized that the smell was the growing medium that they include with the seed kits.The stench was horrible. I cannot over emphasize that enough. It is one of the worst smelling things I have ever had the misfortune of experiencing. I almost threw the entire thing away because I didn't want to deal with cleaning it. Instead, I brought it outside and sprayed it off with a hose using a liberal quantity of my car soap. That smell was stuck in my nose for the rest of the day, and my hands still had that smell even after I washed them.I'm leaving a four-star review for the planter because it does what it is supposed to do. I will not leave such a pleasant review for the seed packs.UPDATE:I have a couple of additional comments here that might make the experience of owning this planter more pleasant to would be buyers.First and foremost, you do not need a whole packet of seeds. In my second attempt at growing, I used Mircacle Grow soil that you can usually find at Ace, Home Depot, or even Costco. I used a half of a packet of seeds, and they still came in extremely thick. For my next round, I'm going to try a quarter packet to see how it goes.The grass really took off. On Saturday, I noticed a few shoots peeking through the grate. On Sunday, I noticed that Azrael had apparently gotten bored with attacking the shoots, because about a dozen of them had grown past the grate into bona fide blades of grass. On Monday, I had a large tuft of grass about four inches high, and by Tuesday, they had grown so large that they couldn't support their own weight anymore. A week has passed since then, and they are still very healthy looking. Except for the fact that they won't stand up.A deeper planter might resolve that issue, but my goal here isn't necessarily to have something that is aesthetically pleasing. My goal is to provide my cats with a little bit of grass to munch on to help with their digestive health.So far, I don't see my cats eating the plant anymore. However, I know they are because they are leaving blades of grass all over the house.I'd say that this is a win overall. There are just a couple of minor gripes, but I'm satisfied with my purchase.

My cats loved having grass available at the most crucial time of shedding. There were slightly unclear instructions, but I found a video from another user and it worked out great. It was fun to watch the grass grow so quickly!

My three indoor-only cats love this! Easy to grow/fast growing grass - nice sized, sturdy base. Cats love munching on the grass and rubbing against it from the safety of the living room.

Fast growing, easy to maintain…

Adorei o vaso. Além de lindo tem uma base de borracha que não deixa molhar as superfícies.

My cats were loving the grass within 3 days of planting... love it!!

L'objet est vraiment d'une finition parfaite et les semences de bonne qualité : l'herbe a déjà germé 4 jours après le semis. Je félicite aussi le service de livraison par Colis Privé qui, ne m'ayant pas jointe le 1er juillet, m'a laissé le choix d'une seconde date de présentation du colis. Les autres boutiques devraient s'en inspirer !