Catit Cat Toys Cat Grass Seeds (Set of 3)

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.

The planting kit itself is very good. Good quality. But the instructions are not detailed enough. If you put too little water, it won’t sprout. If you put too much water it molds. Kinda hard to balance it.

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.

Good quality, nice size, fast seed growth, easy to put together, lightweight

Cat loves it, eats it as soon as it's grown! Quick to sprout and good quality grass

Of ik doe iets verkeerd maar anders is dat een dure gras soort

Calidad buena. Ya estoy listo para plantar semillas en el. Solo una observación para futuros compradores, no viene con semillas incluidas. Otra cosa. Una vez plantadas las semillas y empiecen a crecer, manténganlas alejadas de su gato hasta que estén ni en crecidos los tallos. Mi gato acaba de arrancar varios tallos que apenas estaban asomándose por las rendijas del producto.

I just bought a second planter to go in Julius' play tracks and after reading earlier reviews, I understood this was JUST a planter, no seeds. After buying a separate seed/vermiculite kit (x3), this arrived and it IS the complete set! No harm in having extra, I guess. Now for the good stuff. My cat absolutely LOVES his grass and this is a great setup for him. There aren't instructions but it was easy enough to google so I didn't screw it up (even though I still did). You'll notice in the photo below (where King Julius is holding court over his stuff) that the planter is missing the green topper that the grass grows through–do not, under any circumstances, let your curiosity take over and pull that lid off as the grass starts to peak through! You won't get it back on–it’s like trying to stick an open tent into its bag. Curiosity killed this cat. It's VERY easy to grow, but I suggest using only half the seeds–it’s more than enough to get some full greenery! And, I spritz it with water bottle once a day. It's lasted now two weeks with him sucking on the ends 24-7 (he’s Siamese, he likes to suck on things…) and it’s still green. The store-bought stuff would be browning by now. I bought the second planter after the green top debacle. It doesn’t make too much of a difference–the vermiculite and sprouts are solid in there–but it would look nicer if the planter was whole. Plus, Julius gets cranky without his grass and moving forward, I intend on growing these properly and swapping them out as needed. HIGHLY recommend! Paws up to Catit! ** My only complaint (minus my failure to follow instructions) is that it took Amazon FOUR days to deliver, even though I selected one-day shipping with Prime. Odd because it was in stock. Next time I need something for him, i'll likely just get it from the pet store. It's quicker.