An expert has revealed her eight tips for preventing your cat from wrecking the Christmas tree this festive period. Our feline companions are highly intelligent animals with inquisitive natures and innate hunting behaviours, even when confined to indoor living.

Christmas trees offer an elevated vantage point for cats to survey their domain while also presenting them with glistening and dangling decorations that mimic prey. It's hardly surprising that cats regard Christmas trees as an indoor playground and enjoy creating mischief around the festive centrepiece throughout December.

Shani, a cat behavioural specialist at Wild at Heart, posted a video on TikTok for worried pet owners who might be experiencing difficulties with their cats toppling the Christmas tree.

She said: "With most of my methods I'm going to focus on prevention. Now we need to remember cats see their world vertically, so if they see a tree they want to climb that thing.

"We can't necessarily blame them, but we can enable them to transfer that very natural instinct on something that we would prefer them to climb and not the Christmas tree.

"Make sure you have tall cat trees, I'm talking at least five feet tall and every time you see your cat use the cat tree you need to reward and reinforce that behaviour."

She advised viewers that positioning a cat tree near the Christmas tree is acceptable, but cautioned people it shouldn't be positioned close enough for them to reach the baubles. Shani then advised people to secure the Christmas tree firmly, so it can't be toppled over and if you have a real tree, ensure the water is fully covered with a guard.

The expert went on to say: "You also want to put your favourite ornaments up on the top, and some people even suggest putting bells on the bottom because sometimes cats don't like the sound of the bells.

"Sometimes cats just want to be under the Christmas tree and you can enable them to do this in an appropriate way by providing a bed or a tunnel.

"If your cats are using the trunk of the tree as a scratching post, you can cover that with tin foil, they [cats] generally don't like the feeling of that. Some people will also cover the entire bottom of the tree with tinfoil.

"Other options are also pine cones because cats don't like the feeling of pine cones on their paws. There is also a ton of different sprays and scents that you can spray your entire tree down, even under the tree that will deter your cat."

Shani reminded pet owners to cover any wires and cables and be patient. She said: "Realise they aren't climbing the tree or messing with the tree to annoy you or to be an a*****e, they are just cats, they have instinctual behaviours and need to climb things."

One commenter said: "I put tinfoil all over the bottom and it didn't work at first, but they haven't touched I.T. for a week and a half now."

Another person who tried the hack said: "This is genius! Why do cats hate foil so much lol."

However, some cats are not deterred by the hacks, with one individual remarking: "We have a tunnel under the tree, cat tree 6 feet away, she climbs on the tree guard you showed and like playing with tinfoil. We're struggling."