20 Pet Safe Indoor Plants (and the Popular Ones to Avoid)

Plant toxicity lists online are copied from each other and frequently wrong, mostly because common names are ambiguous — half a dozen unrelated species are sold as 'palm', and only some are safe. Every plant below has been checked against the ASPCA's toxic and non-toxic plant database under its botanical name. That is the reference vets use, and it is the one to trust.

#20 plants that are safe for cats and dogs

#Popular houseplants that are toxic

The oxalate group — which covers most of the popular aroids — sounds alarming but is rarely dangerous. The crystals are needle-shaped and embed in the mouth on the first bite, which hurts immediately and stops most animals from eating any more. Serious cases are uncommon; distressing ones are not.

#If your pet eats a plant

1. Take the plant away and rinse the animal's mouth gently with water if it will tolerate it.
2. Identify the plant by botanical name — photograph the label or the plant itself.
3. Call your vet, or an animal poison line, and describe the plant, the amount and the time.
4. Do not induce vomiting unless a vet instructs you to. With oxalate plants it forces the crystals back through already-irritated tissue.
5. Watch for drooling, pawing at the mouth, vomiting, lethargy or loss of appetite over the following 24 hours.

#Checking a plant before you buy it, step by step

1. Find the botanical name on the label

   Not the common name. 'Palm' covers both the harmless parlour palm and the sago palm, which causes liver failure in dogs.

2. Search that exact name in the ASPCA database

   It is the reference vets use, and it covers cats, dogs and horses separately. A search takes about ten seconds on your phone in the shop.

3. Photograph the label

   Nursery labels get lost or fade within months. A photo means you can identify the plant later if an animal ever chews it.

4. Decide the position before you pay

   If it is toxic, know now whether you have a hook or a high shelf genuinely out of a cat's jumping range. Buying first and improvising later rarely works.

5. Keep the vet's number where you can find it

   Along with an animal poison line. For lilies and sago palm, the first hours matter more than anything else you do.

#Living with plants and a determined cat

• Give the cat its own grass. A pot of cat grass (oat or wheat) redirects most chewing away from your other plants.
• Use height selectively. It stops dogs and some cats; an athletic cat treats a high shelf as a destination.
• Hang the toxic ones. Pothos and philodendron are ideal trailing plants for ceiling hooks well away from furniture.
• Cover the soil with large pebbles. It deters digging and litter-box use, and reduces fungus gnats as a bonus.
• Skip repellent sprays on foliage. Most are ineffective, and citrus oils are themselves irritating to cats.

If you have a chewer, build the collection from the safe list and treat the toxic favourites as hanging or high-shelf plants. That combination is what actually works long term — not hoping the cat loses interest, which in my experience it never does. Our hanging plants guide covers which trailing species are safe and how high is high enough.