My husband put Animal Planet on one day for Taj, and he was mesmerised by some pandas. He went straight over to some bamboo we had growing in a vase, and started playing with it. Now he likes to pull out a piece, grab it by the leaves, and pull it around the place, chewing on the leaves and the stalk.

Is this some latent ALC behavior????? It's quite funny to watch, but I wonder if it's healthy. Not for the bamboo obviously:) When he has wrecked this vase full, I thought I might pick him up a piece from the florist sometimes to play with.

By the way, he's booked in to get neutered on Monday. We can't wait, as he can't come in our bedroom without weeing...

Hmmm.... Do you know if it is actually bamboo that you have in the vase. There is a plant that is fairly common as a household plant called "lucky bamboo", but it is not actually bamboo. You can grow it with just rocks and water. It is actually a member of the lily family and after doing a quick google search, it looks like that plant is toxic to cats. Don't know if that is your plant, but you might want to check.

Thank you very much catscratchfever. After thinking back to our lucky bamboo or "happy plants" in Australia, I'm pretty sure what we have is lucky bamboo, particularly as it grows in water, not soil. Since we live in Hong Kong, I never thought that it might not be real bamboo.

I really appreciate your response. I will throw out our unhappy plant straight away:(