Can Catnip force early male behaviors?

madara

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Out of curiosity my male kitten just started to react to catnip left for my senior cat today, he is suggested by vet to be near 20 weeks soon. Would this force any unwanted male behavior on his behalf before the neutering? I ask because I believe I read this is linked to sexual maturity in felines.

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goldenkitty45

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I've never heard of that. Kittens usually are not interested in catnip till older.

At 20 weeks old (5 months) the kitten should be neutered anyway so he will not spray or try to mate. Catnip has nothing to do with him sexually maturing - kittens as young as 4-5 months old can and do breed. Its more important to get him neutered now instead of waiting.
 
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madara

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Okay that is great news, thanks for the reply. I was surprised he started rubbing over the catnip today as we dont know for sure if he is 15 weeks or closer to 20 now, either way he goes in oct 7th for the big day as I think he is over 5lbs now!
 

cheylink

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I would watch how excited he gets from it. True that kittens usually aren't responsive to it, but there is always early bloomers. Sometimes certain scents get them overly excited.
 

althekitty

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I gave my kitty cat nip when he was six months old and he loves it! No odd behaviour either, actually it helped me to teach him that the scratch post was his and his toys were his and his bed was his etc. I use the normal dry form and the spray form, I tried the catnip bubbles but he ran out of the room, hehehe. We got my kitty from a rescue home and before he was due to be neutered he got cat flu in the shelter, so he was using it before he was neutered, as soon as he was better we had him done and had no probs at all. Hope it all goes well x
 

goldenkitty45

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Charlie was neutered at 3 1/2 months old and he still will get "excited" at times and he's NEVER bred anything
 
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