Catnip Addiction: Is it Dangerous to My Kitty?

[lisab]

My kitty has a catnip addiction. I'm totally serious...she'll meow and meow until I give her a pinch of it, which I do because...well I just want her to shut up. Her will is stronger than mine and she can meow for hours!

Don't suggest a 12-step program...she'd have to WANT to change and she really doesn't.

Is catnip dangerous to cats? Am I a bad person for enabling my kitty's addiction?

 

[turbo]

Can you tease her with toys until she's so played-out that she wants a nap more than catnip?


(Fight really hard not to throw cat-nap into answer. Just because it's lisab.)

 

[lisab]

Can you tease her with toys until she's so played-out that she wants a nap more than catnip?

Oh no, once she asks for the "stuff" she's set on it!

 

[turbo]

Well, hook her up with a supplier, and let her earn her fix. Catnip pimping ... hmmmm.

 

[Moonbear]

You need to make her a catnip patch.

 

[turbo]

How about if you plant some fragrant herbs that cats might like? Basil is nice, as is lemon-grass, and parsley. If you make her a window-box of "salad" plants maybe she'll shift her attention to them. If she chews them up and rolls in them, she'll smell nice, too. (Just resist the urge to marinade her...)

 

[Moonbear]

How about if you plant some fragrant herbs that cats might like? Basil is nice, as is lemon-grass, and parsley. If you make her a window-box of "salad" plants maybe she'll shift her attention to them. If she chews them up and rolls in them, she'll smell nice, too.

I think she'd eventually wise up to the attempts to "cut" her catnip.

You just need to replace her addiction with one that's more socially acceptable. Maybe a nice stray Tom will wander around and she'll have a sex addiction.

 

[GCT]

My cat's time with catnip was short, he became disinterested, my advice is to check upon the actual catnip itself perhaps the content is not at the right level, also you should change sources. Give it some real grass, another guess is that your cat is getting something that it really needs at the moment from the catnip , although I'm not certain as to what this could be ... why do cats dig catnip?

 

[turbo]

You just need to replace her addiction with one that's more socially acceptable. Maybe a nice stray Tom will wander around and she'll have a sex addiction.

Leave it to you, Moonie!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

My kitty has a catnip addiction. I'm totally serious...she'll meow and meow until I give her a pinch of it, which I do because...well I just want her to shut up. Her will is stronger than mine and she can meow for hours!

Don't suggest a 12-step program...she'd have to WANT to change and she really doesn't.

Is catnip dangerous to cats? Am I a bad person for enabling my kitty's addiction?

We have a basket full of catnip toys and just leave it out. Several times each evening, presumably when the day's work was done, Einstein would up to walk up to the basket, plant his face in it, and get totally baked. He lived to be a very healthy 17 until he met his fate with a speeding car.

 

[tribdog]

Leave it to you, Moonie!

No, a Tom would be better. Why would you even suggest Moonbear would do something like that?

 

[turbo]

No, a Tom would be better. Why would you even suggest Moonbear would do something like that?

Because she's got a probe/stimulant thing going with sheep. She could probably scale down to cats, but there's not a lot of research grant money available there, since they already seem to be able to reproduce explosively with no sex-aids. Just sayin...

 

[binzing]

Ha ha, interesting...

You could try mixing her catnip with a something that doesn't effect her, and slowly make the level of the fake higher and higher.

 

[Ouabache]

Ha ha, interesting...

You could try mixing her catnip with a something that doesn't effect her, and slowly make the level of the fake higher and higher.

I was thinking of that, cut the nip with a placebo. If you want to wean him/her off of it, I would try one of the other Nepeta species, giving kitty a mix of 90% nip for awhile, then cut it to 80% and so on down to 10%, over a length of time. Since you're cutting kitty's stash, she may eventually lose interest. It is guessed the nip mimics one of the cat pheromones and give some (not all) cats the typical silly response.

 

[vanesch]

I saw this:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/question303.htm

 

[Mental Gridlock]

My kitty has a catnip addiction. I'm totally serious...she'll meow and meow until I give her a pinch of it, which I do because...well I just want her to shut up. Her will is stronger than mine and she can meow for hours!

Don't suggest a 12-step program...she'd have to WANT to change and she really doesn't.

Is catnip dangerous to cats? Am I a bad person for enabling my kitty's addiction?

You're not a bad person, although enabling her addiction isn't going to solve anything.

It's like a child too old for the bottle and who refuses the cup and doesn't stop crying until they get a bottle. You have to endure the crying and be firm until eventually the child learns that they're not getting the bottle.

Same thing with a cat. What you should do is get rid of every single trace of catnip in your house including the toys and throw them all in the bin and get rid of them forever. Then don't ever allow any more into the house.

Your cat will meow for hours or days but won't get any catnip as you won't give it to her. If she won't shut up then put her food and water and litter box in the bathroom and lock her in there until she isn't meowing all the time when she's out.

You'll have to put up with the whining for a period, but eventually she'll stop. She only cries now because she knows that results in a fix. Eventually she'll realize she's not getting any more no matter what. Eventually she'll forget catnip even exists.

 

[porums]

My kitty has a catnip addiction. I'm totally serious...she'll meow and meow until I give her a pinch of it, which I do because...well I just want her to shut up. Her will is stronger than mine and she can meow for hours!

Don't suggest a 12-step program...she'd have to WANT to change and she really doesn't.

Is catnip dangerous to cats? Am I a bad person for enabling my kitty's addiction?

Put your finger into its mouth, it will shut up.
Many cat player loves it

 

[BobG]

Interestingly, catnip makes a good mosquito repellent.

As a graduate student at Iowa State University, Peterson worked with entomology professor Joel R. Coats to study the effectiveness of catnip oil as an insect repellent. They treated one end of a glass tube with concentrated nepetalactone and confined 20 mosquitoes inside the tube. Most of the mosquitoes crowded to the untreated end of the tube. The scientists reported that it took 10 times as much DEET (N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide) to produce the same repellent effect as nepetalactone.

DEET, a synthetic chemical, is by far the most widely used active ingredient in insect repellents, Coats says, and it has had a "very good" safety record over its 50-year history as a consumer product. However, he says there exists a market for nepetalactone and other "natural" repellents because of isolated reports of adverse reactions to DEET and also DEET's tendency to dissolve rubber materials.

A crude extract of nepetalactone is easily obtained by boiling or steam-treating catnip, collecting the steam, and extracting the oily component with hexanes. The compound's volatility could account for the fact that it is effective for only a few hours as an insect repellent.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

My kitty has a catnip addiction. I'm totally serious...she'll meow and meow until I give her a pinch of it, which I do because...well I just want her to shut up. Her will is stronger than mine and she can meow for hours!

Don't suggest a 12-step program...she'd have to WANT to change and she really doesn't.

Is catnip dangerous to cats? Am I a bad person for enabling my kitty's addiction?

haha, I grow catnip in a pot on my balcony. When we go out I always give him a leaf from it. He loves it, but doesn't seem to be addicted.

 

[hypatia]

haha, I grow catnip in a pot on my balcony. When we go out I always give him a leaf from it. He loves it, but doesn't seem to be addicted.

Your a cat nip pusher? I would of never suspected.

 

[Moonbear]

Your a cat nip pusher? I would of never suspected.

What? You thought he only got people addicted to PF? How do you think he supports his ring pop addiction?

 

[Evo]

I had a cat that absolutely *loved* catnip*. I would throw some on the floor and he would roll himself in it. He never got to the point of demanding it though.

 

[LowlyPion]

Eventually she'll forget catnip even exists.

I don't think cats ever forget.

Forgive? Maybe. After serious pampering.

They don't understand tough love.

 

[binzing]

Conversely, you could feed into her addiction and build a vaporizer that constantly blows out catnip vapors *without* the harmful effects of smoking. Might smell good.

 

[lisab]

I think I'm just going to have to live with the fact that I'm a feline addiction enabler. Oh the shame...

 

[Kabloom]

I thought cats didn't like sex, the females at least. Don't the males have some sort of "spiky" velcro-like material on their genitals?

 

[tribdog]

wow, off topic a bit. But I'm pretty sure cats don't hate sex, because I've heard of cats. I've even seen some so unless they are REALLY long-lived I think there's some sex going on.

 

[jackiefrost]

I tried smoking catnip when I was a kid. Later, I dropped an empty coke can off of a building service transformer that I was sitting on (it was cold out and the transformer was cozy). For the first time in my life I seriously wondered about gravity and electromagnetism. I fell in love with Einstein and Maxwell that night and have been a physics phreak ever since. I'm all for catnip!

jf

 

[Bungie]

My cat is becoming an compulsive obsessive catnip addictive overnight! He knows where the catnip is stored and sits outside the cabinet for hours staring me down, whining, and attacking me when I walk by to give him more organic catnip. he does not give up! I thought if I give hime some he'll wear himself out, but he only becomes more demanding and more aggitated to get more...it didn't take long to get there...help...I miss my cat that was "normal"...I want to please hiim...but this is nuts...I have to give him "lines" of catnip every 10 minutes or he'll attacke me, attack the other cat or go on demolition mission on the furniture......or get the munchies...

 

[GeorginaS]

You're not a bad person, although enabling her addiction isn't going to solve anything.

It's like a child too old for the bottle and who refuses the cup and doesn't stop crying until they get a bottle. You have to endure the crying and be firm until eventually the child learns that they're not getting the bottle.

Same thing with a cat. What you should do is get rid of every single trace of catnip in your house including the toys and throw them all in the bin and get rid of them forever. Then don't ever allow any more into the house.

Your cat will meow for hours or days but won't get any catnip as you won't give it to her. If she won't shut up then put her food and water and litter box in the bathroom and lock her in there until she isn't meowing all the time when she's out.

You'll have to put up with the whining for a period, but eventually she'll stop. She only cries now because she knows that results in a fix. Eventually she'll realize she's not getting any more no matter what. Eventually she'll forget catnip even exists.

I'm going to assume you're kidding. About the whole of this. If not, and you treat cats this way, shame on you.

Lisab, I'm going to assume you're kidding with the "oh the shame" part and serious about wondering if your cat constantly wanting a catnip fix is okay. Of course it's okay. It's wonderful for them in so many ways, if your kitty wants a fix every day, what's the problem? It's not addictive, and it makes them feel nice in so many ways. My kitty really loves the Cosmic Catnip, that's the super-powered stuff, but if I give it to her for too many consecutive days, it loses its appeal for her. I leave off for a few days, and then give her more, and she's all enthused again. She licks its, eats it, rubs her face in it, and rolls in it. I can distract her from at least one snack a day with it. It's all good for them with no downside. Why on Earth would you deny someone you love that? And why on Earth isn't there an equivalent for humans?