House plants and cats

Recently we learned that there are some house plants that are good to have in ones home that give off oxygen while you sleep and absorb carbon dioxide. Once upon a time, we had both of these in the house, but it was before we had cats.
The two we are talking about are Aloe Vera and Snake Plant. Currently we don't have only 4 Hoya plants and one Christmas Cactus plant and they all hang from the ceiling.
Has anyone had any experience with Aloe Vera or the Snake Plant, and if so could you please let us know about them.
We have also learned that Aloe Vera is very toxic to cats - don't know about the Snake plant. Is there a possibility that one could surround the Aloe Vera with a kitty proof wire cage or something so the cats can't get at it?
Any suggestions or experiences with either of these house plants would be greatly appreciated.

I think just about all plants that have chlorophyll will absorb carbon dioxide and give off oxygen--so you aren't really limited to just Aloe Vera or the Snake Plant. Anything green would give you the same benefits, and there must be some out there that are totally non-toxic to cats?

Plants and trees are great! I'm with HRP though - Unless we're mistaken isn't that what all trees and plants do?

Be careful with plants and cats though - some plants are poison to cats......Aloe Vera as you have discovered is on 3 lists that are toxic for cats.

http://www.pets.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=51825
https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/cats-plant-list
http://www.pets.ca/cats/articles/safe-plants-and-poisonous-plants-for-cats/

Hope that may help -

Hi everybody:

Thank you for all the replies to my posting of yesterday.
Something that we already knew was the ability to give off oxygen. What we didn't know about was some of the air borne chemicals, such as gassing of fresh paints, laminated wood style flooring, and molds, to start naming a few.
Specific plants target more so than others. This is what caught our curiosity, due to the fact that we are presently in a very old home and it has had some cosmetic updates done in recent years by a previous owner. We suspect because of the age, that there are mold issues.
We're thinking mostly of our health and the health of our animals. due to the flooring off-gassing of formaldehyde, with the animals walking on the floor - they are closer to it than we are.
We do understand that some of the plants are poisonous to the animals and we are wondering if anyone has a method of kitty proofing them.
Below is a web site illustrating NASA's work with plants for the purpose of removing certain toxins from the air. I think it's worth looking at.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Clean_Air_Study

In a super crowded multicat household my parents never experienced any problem with snake plants and there's plenty of those ;)

If a cat just brush by an Easter Lily and get pollen on his fur then lick himself this will the cat sick or kill it. Easter is not far off so you really keep all plants away from pets , we have no idea what they been treated with to bugs off them.

Do you put out cat grass for the cats? It's just oats but you can buy it in some grocery stores in little pots. WE do this and they like it and don't eat any of the house plants, they prefer the cat grass. You can buy oats and start your own from seed too.

WE had a close call recently. OH took the plants off the grow light stand to fix something on it. Next thing we noticed Lucy was foaming at the mouth and vomitting foam. WE found a climbing arrow plant he'd been rooting with some of it's leaves chewed up. Dr. Google said foaming was an effect it had on cats. It would kill them if they ate huge amounts of it. We noticed the cat grass needed replacing, Lucy had obviously felt a need to eat some greenery so she ate what it appeared the OH had set down for her. Yikes. We are much more careful not to not run out of cat grass and the arrow plant went in the garbage. Lucy is fine.

How big is your aloe vera? If it would fit in a large wire birdcage, that might be a good option. You can even find decorative ones with filigree and bright paint. Might be pricier than you want for a solution, though, especially if your plants are large... :o

http://www.tailsmart.com/11-detoxifying-plants-that-are-safe-for-cats-and-dogs/

These plants might be good alternatives and are said to be safe for pets. You could double check that on other sites, preferably Veterinary sites.

Hi there HRP and LB:

Thank you so much for your replies to our posts. We do not have an Aloe Vera plant right now but we're thinking seriously of getting one some time in the near future. The idea of putting it inside a bird cage is excellent - we never thought about that. It won't have the entertainment value for our kitty cats, with a plant inside instead of a feathered friend, but it should do the trick of keeping them safe.

Also thank you so much for that web site with the lists of toxic and non-toxic plants for animals and their health benefits for everybody - that is excellent. Shall keep that for future use as well.