My cat loves olive wood!

When everything is quiet in the house, I suddenly hear noises from the kitchen!  What is it?  Again one of my cats (12 years old, castrated male) has found the olive wood bread board, which he licks, and licks and licks. He ignores all the other wood boards nearby, it's just the olive wood he's interested in.  Can anyone explain this strange behaviour?  Is there a specific chemical/natural substance involved?

Bob

What do you cut on the bread board?  It may be that.  I've never heard of cats being especially attacked to olive wood, but you never know with cats...

And welcome to TCS!

I've heard olives are like catnip to cats ,maybe that's the cause. My cat Catness is obsessed with olives we have to monitor the olives while we snack. She licks, rubs and plays with the olives. I don't think the olives are toxic but they just discovered chocolate is not to long ago.

We seldom use it and then for nothing any different than on the other boards.  Perhaps I should cut onions once!  There must be some exotic essence in the wood(?)

I got a set of Olive wood coasters last fall. I hardly ever get to use them because one or all three of my cats knock them off the coffee table and lick them. They seem to be like kitty crack! The cats LOVE them.

Hi yes, I have five cats that all fight over putting their cheek scent on every piece of Olive wood we own. They rub up against our olive bowl and olive zest box. They spend many minutes pushing them around the counter, rolling on them, drooling on them, pushing them to the ground to further cuddle with them at the new destination of their choosing. Cats. Love. Olive wood.