From your post I understand that the roses were outside and that the cats had the "run" of the outdoors. I've known inside cats to eat roses but I think that is only because there wasn't anything else. Cats want some green in their diet but I would think if they had another choice they'd leave the roses alone...unless they are getting even with you for some reason! :-) Have you fed them lately?

Cats want some green in their diet but I would think if they had another choice they'd leave the roses alone...unless they are getting even with you for some reason! :-) Have you fed them lately? --laura

ROFLPIMPS!!!! There's food all over the place, including our patio roof. They'd barricade the doors if they were ever kept waiting. In fact, one has us trained to get up at sunrise to put down wet food. If we listen, she'll let us go back to sleep. If we keep her waiting, she'll pee on our laundry. The other 11 are more outdoorsey. They tend to eat bugs and mice more than plants.

Do you have any rabbits around? They can do lots of damage in a short time, and they're low to the ground, so I'd suspect them.

Jen

Rabbits, definitely.

Stop blaming the poor pets!

Don't forget woodchucks. They ate all the buds off my new roses.

In SW Utah I'd suspect deer or rabbits. Skunks and Raccoons are much less likely.

Never in a million years would I blame a cat for eating roses!

We had a cat who had to taste every plant that came in the door. He even threatened to eat my silk flowers, if he did not get what he wanted. I would not rule out the cats.

Taste a leaf sure, eat a rose bush all the way to the ground, no way.

I doubt it was the cats or the dog. Of all the plants my cat gets into, the ones he leaves alone are the roses. I had a cat years ago who had a thing for African violets. At the age of only 7 months, he devoured 4 HUGE African violets in one day while I was at work. I came home to find nothing but the pots, soil and root balls, all sprawled across the floor, having been knocked down from a high shelf.

There is an adolescent squirrel in my garden eating the rose buds off. I saw him doing it today, while cheerfully bouncing about. He actually stopped and smelled the Grootendorst. Little rat...

Cheers,
Michelle

They will also pull the nice blue and white Asian pot you put it in off the table onto the pavement, where it will smash. They do not discriminate between thorny and thornless varieties. No, I don't think they would eat the whole thing (that sounds rabbity to me too) but I find most animals will nosh a little on any edible leaf.

RABBITS !!!

I'd look to the dog. My pal's labrador decided to eat a 5 gallon size Othello English rose clear down to the dirt one afternoon. And that rose was so thorny that there wasnt any space on the canes between the thorns!( No harm done to the dog however). I've seen tortises eat cactus pads but every now and then, somebody's dog thinks its a goat! My cats might roll on a mini and flatten it,but I cant imagine them eating one entirely.

That is almost certainly Rabbit behavior. Seen it occasionally in my garden. They like to gnaw off plants right at soil level. Cats won't do that, no way, no how.

This posting is way late but pretty funny, have to add to it. When I lived in the mountains I looked out my window one evening and I had a rose bush, the next morning all I had was one leaf left on the ground. I blamed the moles or the ground squirrels like in the cartoons, they pulled it from below the ground whole plant and all, very neatly no large hole, just one leaf left. PS I had up to 20 feral kitties and cats I was feeding a huge bag of cat/kitty chow each week as I found them homes, they did not eat the bush, nor did the deer so neatly eat the bush. With all the cats the rabbits would have been toast same as ground squirrels, I blame it on below ground critters!

I'm betting on rabbits, too. I have stray cats swarming my neighborhood and getting under my house, but they never eat the roses. Mostly they'll nibble grass now and then. I did have a cat recently decide that one rose pot was the perfect size for lounging in, and it lay on top of my baby Glowing Amber several times, finally breaking the stem half-way through right at the soil line. Grrr!. I should have potted it in a smaller pot and not left so much space. Lesson for me, I guess. The plants still trying. I replanted it a bit deeper and stuck a protective cage around it. I'm hopeful.

My indoor only cat will eat mini roses "down to the ground". However the few times I have let me cats hang out in the front yard they head striaght for the grass. They love yummy grass.