Are rabbit's foot ferns safe for cats and dogs?
Davallia fejeensis · Fern
Non-toxic to cats and dogs
Davallia fejeensis is confirmed by species. The furry rhizomes creeping over the pot rim are the part a cat bats at, and they are as harmless as the fronds.
Source: ASPCA Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants.
Safe for both. Davallia fejeensis is on the ASPCA's non-toxic list for cats and dogs, which matters more here than with most ferns, because the furry rhizomes that creep over the rim of the pot look exactly like something a cat should investigate. They can. The fuzz is not an irritant and the plant is not a poison. The thing worth knowing instead is that those rhizomes are supposed to sit on top of the compost, and burying them is the usual way this fern gets killed.
Worth knowing anyway
Nothing here poisons a cat, but a stomach can still object to a pile of chewed frond, and sickness that repeats over a day or so is a vet call. Watch the rhizome rather than the leaf: it is the part animals want to gnaw, and a cat that strips them is taking out the growth points, which harms the fern far more than the fern harms the cat.
Living with one
Hang it or stand it on something with a clear drop, because the rhizomes only look right when they can creep over the edge, and height keeps them out of reach of a cat that has decided they are prey. Medium light suits it, and the catalogue puts water around every five days, easing back over winter. Compared with a Boston fern it will accept 50% to 70% humidity, which is the difference between a bathroom and an ordinary room.
How to care for rabbit's foot fern
The starting schedule and conditions Kounts Care sets up for this species. Watering adapts from there based on the daylight where you live.
- Water
- About every 5 days, less in winter
- Light
- Medium light
- Humidity
- 50% to 70%
- Temperature
- 16C to 24C
- Soil pH
- 5.5 to 6.5
- Family
- Fern
Let the app remember this for you
Kounts Care holds your plants and your pets in one household, so it checks every new plant against the cats and dogs you actually own, names them in the warning, and runs the check again over your existing plants the day a new animal arrives. Toxicity warnings are free at every tier.
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Questions people actually ask
Is a hare's foot fern the same as a rabbit's foot fern?
The names get used for each other constantly, and the catalogue treats hare's foot as an alias for Davallia fejeensis, the plant on this page, which the ASPCA lists as non-toxic to cats and dogs. If a label carries a different botanical name, the listing here does not automatically travel with it. Look at the botanical name rather than the animal in the common name.
Should the furry rhizomes be buried in the compost?
No, and this is where most rabbit's foot ferns are lost. The rhizomes creep across the surface and over the rim of the pot, taking in air as they go, so pressing them under the compost tends to rot them. Pot it shallow, leave them exposed, and pin a stray one down onto damp compost only if you want it to root there.
My dog pulled a rhizome off the pot. Is it dangerous?
Not as a poison. Davallia fejeensis is on the ASPCA non-toxic list for dogs as well as cats, so a chewed rhizome is a loss to the fern rather than a hazard to the dog. Any mouthful of plant material can bring on vomiting, and if that carries on, call your vet or an animal poison line. The fern regrows from the remaining rhizomes, slowly.
How does the app know when to water a fern like this?
It starts from the catalogue interval for the species, around five days here, then adjusts to the daylight where you live and to what you actually log. Skip a few and the schedule notices rather than nagging you on the same fixed day. You photograph the plant to identify it, and the schedule and the safety check are set up from there.