Question Of The Day, Friday, December 15

[Winchester]

Good Morning! And Happy Friday! (Yes, I live for weekends)

Today's question is about catnip and your furkids: Do you give catnip to your cats? Do they like catnip? Fresh or packaged? How do they act with catnip?

I usually give catnip about every other week or so. Our kids love the stuff. As soon as I get the container out, all the cats are on alert. We all go into the living room and I'll put pinches out for every cat. They roll in it, they eat it, they lick it. As they're playing in the nip, I'll sprinkle just a bit on their fur and they'll start licking their fur; we've got five cats on a high and a Beast who's trying to figure out what in the world is going on. Then they'll start running around the house and carrying on a bit. Once they're stoned, nip makes them really hungry, so next on the agenda is a good snack for everybody out in the kitchen, even The Beast, who doesn't know the purpose of the snack, but will take advantage of it.

After their snack, we'll go back to the bedroom and they'll either hop into bed or I'll pick them up and put them on the bed. And while they're sleeping it all off, I'll give the living room a good vacuuming.

The Beast does not understand the concept of nip at all. I gave her some one time; she gave it a sniff, started sneezing like crazy, and went to her bed to watch the other guys with the nip. She has no idea what's going on!

I don't think we've ever had a cat that did not enjoy his or her catnip. Even Ms. Pepe still loves her nip and she's going to be 22 years old in February.

How about your cats? What do they do with nip?

 

[jcat]

Mowgli will sometimes lick a Yeoww catnip toy, but for the most part he's not too interested in dry or fresh catnip and seems to prefer valerian root. He shows absolutely no interest in silver vine.

 

[Kieka]

Rocket recently developed a taste for catnip. Link and Fury have both loved catnip since she was a kitten. I remember she used to look at them like they were crazy but now she steals their toys.

My guys absolutely love Cosmic Catnip toys and the green and purple Pickles (green=catnip. purple=catnip and valerian root). I tend to toss them in the toy box and usually within a week or two the toys have been pulled back out of the box. I don't really limit or control their access to catnip. So they tend to self dose as desired. Sometimes its a constant thing and other times I won't see one of them touch it for a week. Although, I will occasionally use the catnip to redirect one whose being annoying or grumpy (annoying to the other cats, like Rocket last night kept jumping on Fury who was trying to sleep. So I grabbed a pickle and started playing with her on the other side of the room.).

 

[Merlin77]

All of my cats love catnip, and they start rolling around on the floor and play fighting with each other when they smell it.

 

[betsygee]

That sounds like such a cute routine, Winchester . That must be quite a sight. And the poor Beast going "What's going on?"

Ozzy and Hannah love catnip toys. Rico and Zoe are 'meh'.

 

[sivyaleah]

Our 2 love it!
We need to buy more and keep forgetting. We recently bought 2 stuffed "fish" which we thought were already filled with it but nope. I'm sure they both will enjoy playing with them a lot more once they get them high LOL
I've grown it at home too. Fresh cat nip is extremely potent!

 

[foxxycat]

my girls always lick it then roll on it. Honeybee loves her yellow YEOWW banana. Every night she licks and bites it and beats up her S scratcher=we put a box next to the S scratcher with another banana in it-she often goes inside to lick and bite her banana..pumps will scratch the carpet where the cat nip is- she licks it then starts scratching for a few seconds then rolls in it.

we have fresh cat mint and nip= they don't seem to bother it. The mint grows tall-they ignore it once it's over 6" high. but when the baby buds are growing all my cats will roll and chew it up. the cat nip out front would get eaten down to nubs but the other bush growing on the other side doesn't get bothered as much. I often cut the flowers off to keep it growing-they actually like the flowers..so funny watching them! once the branches have dried up they show no interest in it..strange.

 

[Willowy]

I have a lot of catnip growing around the property, but I don't remember to give some to the kitties very often! It's usually when I see them sniffing and rolling on my shoes after I mow that I remember and bring some in for them. Most of them just lick it and roll on it and sit around drooling and looking stoned for a bit. Some get more playful, some will smack the cat next to them for no reason, lol.

I have a few packets of the dry stuff (usually the little packs that come with the cardboard scratchers) but they don't like it as much.

 

[LTS3]

Neither of my cats have any reaction to catnip Emma will occasionally lick the Yeooww catnip apple but that's about it. I haven't grown fresh catnip but I don't think it would make a difference, although Leroy would just eat the leaves until he pukes

 

[Lari]

I bought a big container of catnip the day I got Lelia because the bf said I was gonna need it.

So, of course, she's not into it at all.

I've tried about once a month since in case she was too young at first, and the last time I tried she came over all like "oh hey, the human's giving me something" sniffed it and then gave me a clear as day "that's it?" expression. Not at all impressed.

Cats.

 

[bodester413]

I've given both fresh and dried to Bodhi. He doesn't seem to react very strongly to either one.

 

[denice]

Both of my cats react to it. Patches especially. He will roll in it and get what looks like a stoned look. Alice will react to it but not as much as Patches. I have always just used to dried catnip.

 

[Margret]

I've always used dried catnip, too. Jasmine has one catnip mouse, which she adores (and which needs to be replaced), and also gets it on her scratching posts.

Every cat I've ever had has loved catnip, but one of them turned into a "mean drunk" whenever I'd give it to her, going after the other cats, and I don't mean just playing hard, she was actively trying to start fights, so I avoided giving it to her.

Margret

 

[neely]

my girls always lick it then roll on it.

That's exactly what my cats have all done. Carleton licks it until it's soaking wet and I have to remove it.

 

[nansiludie]

Yes, mine love catnip, they've had the dried kind, the spray and the stickers. I can't find anywhere near me that sells little potted plants. I tried to grow it from seeds. it never sprouted.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

My girls have a few toys they like and I've sprinkled it on the floor before. The cardboard scratchers I get them always have a little baggie of it. I don't give it too often. I was nervous to let Noodles have any after she went into heart failure. That was 3 years ago this last week! Sometimes I've needed something small to push my Chewy order high enough for free shipping. So that's when I've picked up some new toys.

Mooch rolls a lot in it but they both wrestle and bunny kick their toys if it's a good one. The yeow brand is definitely the favorite here. Both will try to eat it too.

 

[Mother Dragon]

I grow catnip every year. Sometimes it weathers over, too. One year we had a huge pot full of nip. We saw a large area at the center of it had been crushed down. We were baffled until we realized a neighbor's cat had spent the night in it. That poor cat was probably stoned for a week.

Feather would sell her cat soul for catnip. One day I spilled a fairly big pile of it (maybe two tablespoons) and she immediately took possession of it. She rubbed, she wallowed, she guarded, and finally, she ate every bit of it. That poor girl was blotto for the rest of the day and night. She was much more prudent after that.

Two-Stroke got mean on it. He got stoned on celery tops. He would behave with those just like the others did with catnip. I never did understand why.

One year I planted some big, healthy catnip plants and was quickly able to harvest some of it. I gave each of the three nip-loving cats a whole sprig. They took one sniff and walked off after giving me a baleful glance. I knew it was catnip because it had been labeled, it looked like catnip, and it smelled like catnip when I picked it. What had happened? I picked up one of the rejected sprigs. Harrigan, our resident poltergeist, hid out of sight, snickering to himself. I smelled the sprig. It smelled like fresh lemons. I took another whiff. Harrigan slapped his knee at my bewilderment. What had happened to my catnip? It wasn't surrounded by anything even faintly lemony - rosemary, basil, sage, Mexican mint marigold (Texas tarragon). I was both puzzled and angry because the nursery had done me - and the cats - wrong. Harrigan kept giggling.

I scooped the offending plants out of their pot and hustled down to the nursery. The people there are very nice and they know their stuff. I showed the plants to them and asked what they were. Catnip, of course. Harrigan nodded agreement. I asked them to smell it. Catnip. Smell it again. Lemon. Now they were puzzled. They called their resident herb expert over. She took a pinch and sniffed. "Mmmmm," she said. "Lemon catnip."

Lemon catnip? Isn't that an oxymoron? Apparently not. Why would anyone produce highly desirable catnip and then make it smell and taste of citrus, which cats are supposed to hate? Harrigan nodded happily. They exchanged the nasty plants for some properly-labeled real catnip, which we all repeatedly sampled before I took it home. The cats loved it but Harrigan didn't.

 

[Mother Dragon]

I keep pom-poms in sealed bags of catnip. They pick up the scent and the kids adore them. Chocolate rubs on them. Darwin lies down and cuddles them. Velcro does a complete circus with them.It's easy to recharge them, too.

 

[micknsnicks2mom]

all of my cats love catnip, and it's in the form of catnip toys. our DeeDee didn't react to it for a few months or so after we adopted her, but she's now happily enjoying catnip filled toys with Dude and Punky! mine really like the Yeowww brand catnip toys.

 

[Winchester]

Before we got The Beast, we used to keep little meeces (mice are called meeces around here) from Foster and Smith around. They come in a large cardboard cheese-shaped wedge; I think they're 50 to the wedge, but I'm not sure. Anyway, the cats love the little meeces, especially Tabby. I'd always put 2-3 meeces into the container of catnip and let them go for a month or so. Then get them out and throw them on the floor, where they're immediately pounced on, picked up, thrown around the living room, and carried off to who-knows-where.

We've found a meece in our bed, I found a meece in the bathroom sink, you get the idea. Tabby had a pretty little pink meece, called Pinky, which she used to bring to the kitchen table while we were eating dinner and present it to us. She loved Pinky. Pinky disappeared for about a week and Tabby was devastated. I found Pinky under the kitchen stove, brought her out, cleaned her off, and threw her on the floor. Tabby came out into the kitchen. "Pinky!" And she dived on poor Pinky, picked her up and took her to our bed. I found Pinky in bed later on that night. We eventually had to get of poor Pinky; she was skinless and she had seen better days. I've never found another pink meece.

The Beast, however, likes the little meeces, too, and they're just small enough that we're afraid she'll choke on them. She has plenty of her own toys that she ignores completely, but will take away all the meeces and tuck them under her top bed. We stopped giving out meeces because of the possible choking hazard. But Tabby found one a couple months ago and she was so happy! She had a meece! Which The Beast promptly took away from her. Bad Beast.