kittens and catnip

I tried doing a search for this topic and didn't come up with much help... (or I'm too lazy right now )

How old should a kitten be before you give them catnip? I don't want to go to early...

Thank you for any help.

I'm not sure if there is an exact age to start kittens on catnip. I started mine when they were about 2.5 months when I purchase a cardboard scratchpost for them. The catnip was already inside the cardboard....they didn't bother using it though.

Now that they're older the only one who bothers with catnip would be Aragorn, both of my guys now are 7 months.

they say MOST kittens do not start to responed to catnip until they are around 6 monthes old. Nimby, stormy, blizzy, & triny are all slightly under 6 monthes and catnip does almost nothing for them. Marble is just over 6 monthes and he LOVES the stuff!

Same as Princess Purr here: none of mine were interested in the catnip till about almost 6 mths. Ginza and Mozart get silly on it now, but it still does nothing for Kayla (16mths old).

I've read that it can affect them as young as 2 months sometimes, but usually after 4-6 months.

Osiris reacts to it already, he was 10 weeks old on 10/2, so he is about 2 1/2 months old. He is a silly guy!

Mine are 7-8 months and wild enough WITHOUT catnip!lol

Hi,

Late in seeing this, and I apologize in advance, as I didn't read all the replies, so this may be repetitive.

In all the research I've done when researching this for a faq, what I found was that not only must a cat inherit certain genes to be a catnip responder, most cats who are a catnip responder, will not respond until the age of sexual maturity. And that can vary depending on breed, or mix of breeds in your kitten's heritage (i.e. my American Curls matured very young - even younger than some other American Curls - in part I would guess due to the siamese/oriental breed genes giving my guys their colorpoint gene...so my guys were beginning to mature at 4 months).

I'd say wait until they are about 4 months old and then use a fresh, potent bit of catnip, or very fresh toy, to assess if they respond.

What fun! For a 4 month old, a catnip ball toy would be great for those kitten-soccer games

Saki was sniffin crazy at this cat nip fish I have... he's only 3 months

Originally posted by Sicycat
Saki was sniffin crazy at this cat nip fish I have... he's only 3 months

Click to expand...

Clearly a very advanced little boy <G> (even if he is already "tutored")