Can you give your cat too much catnip?

My friend asked me this question tonight. I have no idea. I do not overdo it with my cat. When he cat acts out she "dopes" him up. SHe has m curious about this also.


Oops sorry I did not see the earlier post.

Answering that specific question though, you should not be giving your cat catnip when he acts in a way you don't want to encourage because he will think he's being rewarded. If anything it should be a random treat given occasionaly, not a drug used to modify behavior.

I would like to disagree with this:

When my cat is intent on destroying something, I give him/her a small pinch of catnip. This would distract him/her because otherwise the cat would be right back at what he/she was doing before I pull him/her away.

But the best way to deal with undesirable behavior is to let the cat know that they are doing something wrong by saying "no", waiting a few seconds, and redirecting them to something better, like a toy or a scratching post. By rewarding them they think they are doing something good, so you are encouraging them to do it again.

I must agree with Zissou.....when a behavior has a positive outcome (a reward) it will continue and even get worse. Many decades of research on human and animal behavior shows that the best way to train an animal or human to do a specific behavior is to give a reward after the behavior occurs.