[HN Gopher] Why cats are crazy for catnip
___________________________________________________________________
Why cats are crazy for catnip
Author : pseudolus
Score : 173 points
Date : 2021-01-21 12:25 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.sciencemag.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.sciencemag.org)
| ivan_ah wrote:
| Direct link to research paper:
|
| [ The characteristic response of domestic cats to plant iridoids
| allows them to gain chemical defense against mosquitoes ]
| https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/4/eabd9135
| ivan_ah wrote:
| On a lighter note, and for anyone who hasn't seen cats on
| catnip in practice, check this out:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0OB9p0zqx0
| yokaze wrote:
| Most cats, that is. 50-70% do not respond to catnip.
| EE84M3i wrote:
| >Most cats, that is. 50-70% do not respond to catnip.
|
| Wouldn't that be the opposite of "most"?
| cmrdporcupine wrote:
| I suspect like most things in nature it's a bell curve; of
| varying responses. My cat responds, but not super
| enthusiastically. I've had other cats that just ignored. And
| other cats that went crazy for the stuff.
| malobre wrote:
| Source ?
|
| According to
| https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5356310/ only
| around a third of cats does not respond to catnip.
| jbarberu wrote:
| My anecdata confirms this, one of my three is not a nip-head.
| helen___keller wrote:
| I've considered growing _actinidia kolomikta_ , a species of kiwi
| berry vine, which is noted on wikipedia as being highly
| attractive to cats. The article mentions _Actinidia polygama_ so
| I wonder if it 's just the entire genus
| throwawaygal7 wrote:
| I think it is most of the genus, I've seen cats eat the shoots
| on Actinidia plants (Arugata).
|
| I know silvervine is in a lot of catnip mixed, I think not all
| cats react to whatever pheromone is in catnip so a lot of mixes
| have several different euphoria in them to try to increase
| efficacy.
| alex_duf wrote:
| So an insect repellent that cats, big or small are going to be
| attracted to?
|
| I mean, I don't think I'd want to put that insect repellent in
| the savannah, north america or a place that has lots of feral
| cats.
| leblancfg wrote:
| > Our findings suggest instead that rolling is rather a
| functional behavior.
|
| People smoke weed all the time and it decreases violence. But
| that's not why they do it.
|
| Chances are just as good that the insect repellant is just a nice
| side effect of these cats getting high, not the other way around.
| matsemann wrote:
| > _Chances are just as good that the insect repellant is just a
| nice side effect of these cats getting high, not the other way
| around._
|
| In evolution, couldn't it be that the trait of enjoying catnip
| made them more resilient to mosquitos and thus had a higher
| chance of surviving, or so?
| leblancfg wrote:
| Sure thing, although I would argue the increased evolutionary
| fitness would be very small. The fact that they roll in it vs
| just inhaling it to me also suggests this.
|
| Maybe their use of the word "functional" is different than
| mine, and we're saying the same thing. But to me there's a
| big difference from saying e.g. "Our findings suggest that
| chimps using sticks to dislodge food is a functional
| behavior."
| 3395810 wrote:
| They get high from ingesting it. Not from rolling around in it.
| leblancfg wrote:
| Maybe go watch a cat and report back =)
| Kagerjay wrote:
| Cats become sedated when ingesting catnip, rolling or
| around/smelling it causes them to get "high"
| de_nied wrote:
| > People smoke weed all the time
|
| > and it decreases violence
|
| https://i.imgur.com/61JXtJ7.png
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| I mean, have you ever heard of someone high on THC acting
| belligerent? I sure haven't. Alcohol, meth, cocaine, bath
| salts, everything else, absolutely. Ask a cop how often he
| gets called for a DV issue because someone is drunk.
|
| But weed? Nah. People on weed just want to eat pretzels and
| watch cartoons.
| INTPenis wrote:
| How dare you.
|
| Jamie, pull that up.
| de_nied wrote:
| -3 karma. Jamie, I said citations, not downvotes.
| rpiguyshy wrote:
| i recently moved into a house with some other people. they have
| cats which they have owned for many years. after living here for
| a while, i was sitting on the couch watching star trek with these
| people when one of the cats came up and sat on my lap. they were
| shocked. that cat didnt sit on any of their laps, ever. and they
| became a little jealous. this happens literally every time i take
| up residence with people who own cats. their cats become very
| attached to me and the owners become jealous. one time, very very
| jealous.
|
| most people are very blunt. they do not see past the surface of
| anything. they are impressed with superficial charm and not much
| else. they arent able to see inside a person, to figure out how
| their mind works or what it would be like to wear their shoes.
| they dont build models to explain the world and they arent
| interested in knowing how anything works. they dont listen when
| people speak. most people are stupid. and most of the time, this
| kind of talk is cast aside as being too vague and qualitative.
| but i have quantified it with cats.
|
| when you consider a cat, the first impulse is to
| anthropomorphize. and since the cat cant speak, your assumptions
| about what it wants are guided by your anthropomorphism. most
| people only get this far and so most peoples relationship with
| their cats are really relationships with themselves. but some
| people pay close attention to what the cat is doing and how it
| responds to things, and carefully pack away that data instead of
| just writing it off as noise or "thats just what cats do."
| eventually you are able to demonstrate to the cat, through your
| actions, that you understand what it is feeling and what it
| wants. when a cat realizes that you are paying attention, that
| you are listening, it is a very different experience for the cat.
| the cat understands whats going on and will act in a way that is
| designed to communicate. and they will also trust and love you
| much, much more than anyone else because they know you are
| listening. thats the key, they are smart enough to know. most
| people assume they are dumb, and attribute their aloofness to it.
|
| people get super jealous because they think they are showering
| their cats with love. and they try to fix it by loving them more,
| but it just makes it worse.
|
| if a person has cats and has not unlocked this line of
| communication, in my experience they also havent deeply
| understood other humans or anything else. and i almost never meet
| people who have.
| mopierotti wrote:
| I have fostered roughly 25 cats (one at a time), and what you
| wrote about communication resonates with me. Most cats seem to
| develop a sort of pidgin[1] language in collaboration with you
| to communicate how they feel or what they want. It's different
| for each cat, but is usually some combination of vocalization
| tones, body postures/movements, eye contact, or even the
| location in the house they choose to do those things from.
|
| They can be surprisingly great communicators.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pidgin
| yks wrote:
| while you are onto something, it also reads like "all my nieces
| love me and hate their parents because I am around to play with
| them and give them gifts but not around to force them eat the
| food they dislike"
| q845712 wrote:
| I went through the process of befriending a very timid/shy cat
| owned by a housemate and would largely agree. I'd say it
| differently, maybe "seek first to understand and then to be
| understood"?
|
| But in learning how to befriend this "difficult" cat I really
| had to set aside all of my own agendas and ideas, and I learned
| something very generalizable about how to learn.
| Nursie wrote:
| A timely article. I just put some silvervine powder in a paper
| bag and watched our kitties go mental, sticking their heads in,
| rolling around. Great fun.
| S_A_P wrote:
| Catnip is the only socially acceptable drug that I've seen that
| you can administer to animals. Imagine the outrage if you
| substitute catnip with cannabis or alcohol and post it to
| YouTube. Granted in the case of alcohol you most certainly
| could kill the animal.
| jbotz wrote:
| How were they able to patent this? I've known for 20 years that
| catnip works as a mosquito repellent; there was a 2001 paper that
| showed that its essential oil, nepetalactone, was 10 times more
| effective than DEET[1]. Soon after this a variety of "natural
| mosquito repellent" products based on catnip appeared on the
| market. I've made homemade repellent myself by soaking catnip in
| alcohol and it works great, although it wears off faster than
| commercial DEET-based repellent; have to keep reapplying.
|
| Anyway, another patent that shouldn't have been issued.
|
| [1]
| https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/08/010828075659.h...
| CuriouslyC wrote:
| The problem there is the alcohol. Perform an extraction with a
| less volatile solvent. Even cutting the alcohol with glycerin
| would probably work.
| ballenf wrote:
| Were you ever mobbed by cats while using? I could see that
| effect really freaking someone out who wasn't ready for it.
| Like a scene from Hitchcock's _The Birds_ but cats.
| EGreg wrote:
| So you trade mosquitoes for cats...
|
| Sounds like what Israel did but with rats for cats... in a
| different way hehe
|
| https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/concerning-cat-population-
| in...
| buescher wrote:
| Here's the patent. The claims are a little more specific than I
| think you're imagining - that's typical for making something
| like this patentable.
|
| https://patents.google.com/patent/US7524888B2
| leadingthenet wrote:
| Maybe this is a weird question, but why do people give drugs to
| their cats?
|
| Is it to see them have fun? Is it so the owners have fun? Is it
| good for them?
|
| I never quite understood why catnip was so socially acceptable
| when we view other drugs with such different eyes.
| aaron_m04 wrote:
| > Is it to see them have fun? Is it so the owners have fun?
|
| Yes
| waheoo wrote:
| How dare you?! Won't someone think of the kitty cats?
| dylan604 wrote:
| Not all humans view drugs in the same manner. In some locales,
| it is accepted to use drugs recreationally. Other places deem
| that same usage unacceptable. If you look at the similarity in
| the gov'ts that deem that usage as unacceptable, there's a
| common overall belief that is not scientifically based.
| dalbasal wrote:
| Some sort of drug is usually acceptable culturally. Alcohol,
| very widely. Cannabis, more recently. Mild drugs like coffee.
| "Prescribed recreationals" like xanax in some circles. In
| many places Hashish or opium are still seen as
| traditional/acceptable.
|
| I grew up in Israel, where qat is legal, seen as equivalent
| to coffee and culturally acceptable. It's fairly common as an
| ornamental plant.
|
| Giving your cat whiskey would cause an uproar, but I guess
| catnip gets a grandfather exception.
| pushrax wrote:
| As far as anyone knows, catnip is completely nontoxic to
| cats, but ethanol certainly is toxic. Cats also simply
| don't like the smell of alcohol.
|
| Eating very large quantities of catnip can give them
| gastrointestinal discomfort though.
| dalbasal wrote:
| Sure, I wasn't recommending it. I'm just pointing out
| that it's culturally acceptable to give cats catnip.
| Culture happens, and sometimes it's rational. Sometimes
| it's not.
| TulliusCicero wrote:
| The impact of recreational drugs is often seen as destructive,
| in terms of basic physical health, or behavior (e.g.
| addiction).
|
| If catnip isn't destroying cats' lives, what's the harm?
| nkrisc wrote:
| I think most people realize the futility of trying to apply
| human morality to non-human animals.
| elliekelly wrote:
| Along the same lines, does it gives cats a "hangover" of sorts
| afterwards? The article describes catnip as similar to heroin
| for humans. I've never done heroin but I would imagine the
| withdrawal is really unpleasant which is what then causes
| addiction. Do cats experience the same come down? Can cats get
| addicted to catnip if they have access to an unlimited supply?
| echoradio wrote:
| The behavior I notice with my cats when they have some 'nip
| is they get a little active then have a time where they just
| mellow out. But cats also sleep about 16 hours a day, so it
| is hard to determine at what point being mellow shifts into
| their typical nap time.
|
| I don't think there's a long-term tolerance that builds up. I
| get the sense it is short-acting. I've read once a cat has
| catnip, giving them more in a 15-20 minute window is
| pointless because they've already been "activated" by it.
| They need to come down from the initial dose first.
|
| My cats' vet has suggested to use catnip to encourage
| activity (they're a big chunky and need some exercise).
| dokem wrote:
| I bought a ton of catnip and my cat seemed to become
| indifferent to it pretty quickly. Maybe it just dried out,
| though.
| rconti wrote:
| If you keep drugging your cats, they'll never be able to hold
| down a job.
| INTPenis wrote:
| You raise a really good point actually.
|
| I've met christian, conservative, Swedish country-side folk who
| frown on anything the government considers illegal or drugs.
|
| But at the same time will use catnip on a new cat toy as a tool
| to make the cat take to it. Or just watch it roll around for
| their own amusement.
|
| Maybe that's a fringe example but I have had that experience a
| couple times.
|
| More often I have contact with younger people in their 20s and
| 30s who don't view human drugs as anything morally wrong and
| just enjoy giving their cat what they assume is enjoyment.
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| Yes, it is to see them have fun. The cats definitely appear to
| enjoy it. My cat has learned to recognize the sound of me
| opening the tub of catnip and will come running across the
| house to get some.
|
| Good for them? Maybe. It's certainly not _bad_ for them. This
| has been very much studied. Cats can 't overdose on catnip. At
| worst, after 5-15 minutes of sniffing and rolling around in it,
| they stop responding to it.
|
| > when we view other drugs with such different eyes.
|
| Because most drugs humans take are harmful. The hard stuff like
| meth, cocaine, heroin, etc., is easy to overdose on. Alcohol
| can make some people belligerent and can easily be deadly.
| Tobacco causes cancer, among other things depending on how you
| consume it. Marijuana is the least harmful, but as far as I'm
| concerned, the jury is still out on whether or not it's as
| harmless as people think it is, especially if smoked.
|
| But catnip? It's completely harmless. The cat will sniff or eat
| it, roll around in it, and appears to experience euphoria, but
| there are no health dangers in it.
| echoradio wrote:
| Your post reminded me of this humorous drug education film
| parody:
|
| https://vimeo.com/44733000
| shaftway wrote:
| I clicked on that fully expecting it to be the demonstration
| of various drugs on spiders:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2HipedgM3I
| derefr wrote:
| In general: if an animal is observed to purposefully do
| something in the wild, _and_ that thing isn't known to be
| harmful to the animal, then most people will consider that
| thing to be a valid "enrichment" activity -- i.e. something
| that would be good to offer as an activity for animals of that
| species, in captivity, to engage in when they seem bored
| /understimulated.
|
| I don't know about cats with catnip specifically, but many wild
| animals are observed to purposefully seek out and consume
| rotten (i.e. fermented, alcoholic) fruit to get drunk/high. (We
| _know_ that alcohol is harmful to animals, so we don't _tend_
| to offer e.g. captive apes rotten fruit; but we also don't
| really stop them from hoarding fruit to make it _become_
| rotten, and then eating it. It's a natural thing that they do.
| Cats gonna scratch each-other up play-fighting. Apes gonna
| drink.)
|
| But why do we have such a different mindset toward this?
|
| I think one big difference is that the human social norms on
| the acceptable recreational activities _for humans_ are mostly
| defined /circumscribed by what _doctors_ think is okay (i.e. we
| take the lead of the medical establishment -- if doctors are
| chill about something, there isn't usually a social norm
| against it, while if doctors get upset, other people also get
| upset.) And doctors don't like recreational drugs very much,
| because they usually think in a "harm reduction" mindset rather
| than a QALY mindset: they'd rather decrease "risk of a loss of
| capability to experience a satisfying life", than increase "the
| area-under-the-curve of satisfying-life-years."
|
| Meanwhile, the human social norms on the acceptable
| recreational activities _for animals_ are mostly defined
| /circumscribed by what _zoologists_ think is okay. Zoologists
| are the people with voices and platforms to talk about animals,
| since engaging in animal conservation and study tends to
| directly correlate with seeking funding for that conservation
| and study, which is usually implemented through educational
| outreach activities (i.e. building zoos /aquariums/nature
| parks, giving tours in conservation areas, etc.) And
| zoologists, traditionally(?), mostly care about what they
| _observe_ happening in nature. The whole field of zoology is
| built on observing animals in nature to figure out "what they
| do." So our norms on animal recreation lean much more toward
| "natural = good" (regardless of harm potential) than
| "potentially harmful = bad" (regardless of naturalness.)
|
| If _veterinarians_ had the voices and platforms instead, I
| assume you'd see much more of a harm-reduction mindset in our
| social norms toward animal recreation.
| jerf wrote:
| "I never quite understood why catnip was so socially acceptable
| when we view other drugs with such different eyes."
|
| Do you treat "drugs are bad" as an axiomatic statement, or do
| you accept "drugs are bad" as the contingent conclusion of a
| series of more fundamental statements?
|
| We drill the former into (young) children because it is true
| enough for them, and they aren't ready for the latter.
|
| If you can understand the latter, then take the underlying
| statements, and apply them to the cats. You'll find most of
| them simply don't apply to cats. Maybe a couple of them
| slightly do, but none of them work like humans. Humans have a
| unique capacity to be affected by drugs due to our superb
| executive functioning. Non-humans are all but incapable of
| bending their entire life around drug-seeking behavior the way
| we are partially because we're really good at making them, and
| also because we're uniquely good at _refining_ them. (It 's a
| long cognitive distance from "let the fruit sit a while to
| taste fun" to "let's build a still!".)
| chmaynard wrote:
| A thought-provoking question, thanks for asking.
| lreeves wrote:
| For the same reason I smoke weed. They clearly love it and it
| has no adverse effects (just don't let them eat it, use it in
| toys).
| the-dude wrote:
| > has no adverse effects
|
| I used to think that too. And I still smoke ( hash, which is
| different ).
|
| However, it does make me complacent, which sometimes make me
| endure situations I would otherwise change.
| lreeves wrote:
| Oh I meant catnip, haha. I think pot definitely has some
| mild side-effects for sure.
| _underfl0w_ wrote:
| Complacency is a huge downside. I'm also much less
| motivated to work on side projects.
|
| Not to mention the toll on the lungs. Ask Willie Nelson if
| you'd like anecdata about how that can play out over a
| lifetime.
|
| I've recently made the leap to edibles exclusively after a
| stint with a hot-air vaporizer (a la Volcano devices) and I
| now find the resin smell of smoking incredibly off-putting.
| The coughing, hacking, and lung stiffness that results from
| a bong rip even more so.
|
| Doesn't lessen the complacency, but the delay your
| metabolism introduces can help you get started on projects
| before it sets in!
| idlewords wrote:
| I started off giving my catnip once every few weeks or so. Soon
| it was multiple times a day. Now the cat just lies around on
| the sofa all day, waiting for the next fix. I dare not stop
| because I fear its claws. The active, happy animal I knew is
| gone, replaced by this sleepy, torpid monster--just another
| victim of catnip addiction.
| zvrba wrote:
| My cats get high after eating tiny bits of green olives. They
| roll, are crazy for more, will literally lick my clothes if I
| spilled a drop of the pickle, and one of the gets a bit playfully
| aggressive. Just the smell of olives attracts them like crazy.
| Have also tried catnip, but no observable effect.
|
| I don't overdo it, I don't have olives very often in the fridge,
| and even then they maybe get a tiny piece once a week.
| dokem wrote:
| My cat acts the same towards my sweaty post-workout socks. He
| can't seem to get enough of 'em. And he doesn't seem to care
| for cat nip nearly as much.
| SideburnsOfDoom wrote:
| Cats are known to like fatty and salty foods, and not have a
| "sweet tooth". Olives are oily, and preserved in salt
| hrnnnnnn wrote:
| Our cat loves olives too, it's the only vegetable he'll eat.
| Always wondered if it was a unique quirk but I guess not!
| gverrilla wrote:
| I'm curious: what was the situtation when they first ate
| olives?
| blindm wrote:
| Is the high similar to heroin/morphine etc in humans? Because if
| it is, then is catnip not addictive to a cat? What if a cat
| discovers whole fields of the stuff and decided to revel in it
| until death? It's unlikely but it could happen
| failrate wrote:
| Anecdotr: one of our cats, upon presented with unlimited
| amounts of catnip, consumed it until it became basically
| K-holed and then refused to touch the stuff for a few years
| afterwards, suggesting the equivalent of a hangover.
| minitoar wrote:
| Lol we've all been there, if only eating too many sweets.
| Nursie wrote:
| Stops having an effect pretty quickly. They'd wander off, then
| maybe come back later. I've observed mine do that with catnip
| and silvervine.
| soulofmischief wrote:
| A cat is not going to OD on catnip.
|
| Also, from the article: "Big or small, the felines surrendered
| to the substance, rubbing their heads and bodies in the patches
| for an average of 10 minutes"
| leadingthenet wrote:
| Sooo, more like DMT for cats?
| wasdfff wrote:
| My parents grow large bushes of catnip. The cat walks up to the
| bush, chews it some, and passes out in the bush. Seems to enjoy
| himself.
| FrozenVoid wrote:
| What if a human discovers whole aisles of cheese and decided to
| relish in it until casomorphin overdose?
| lordnacho wrote:
| Selection. People who are in their cheesy death throes don't
| have a free hand to write on HN.
| taneq wrote:
| I've made my choice, leave me be.
| leadingthenet wrote:
| Aren't personal attacks like this a ban-able offence on HN?
|
| Edit: twas a joke, guys...
| aasasd wrote:
| Why must you tantalize me so.
| Schiphol wrote:
| > Most scientists and pet owners assumed the only reason that
| cats roll around in catnip was for the euphoric experience,
| Miyazaki says. "Our findings suggest instead that rolling is
| rather a functional behavior."
|
| There is no incompatibility between proximal and distal, what
| they call functional, explanations of behavior. Once you have a
| brain with a reward system, a good way to encourage (discourage)
| a behavior that is (dis)functional is to make it
| (dis)pleasurable.
|
| A similar distinction in explanations of human behavior is what
| anthropologists call
| [emic/etic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emic_and_etic). The
| emic viewpoint is that of the subject themselves; the etic
| viewpoint is that of the anthropologist (the ethologist in this
| case). A classical, and beautiful example is Malinowski's
| description of the [Kula
| ring](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kula_ring) in Papua New
| Guinea. Participants in the ring see themselves as exchanging
| presents; Malinowski showed that there is a further political and
| economic significance to the ring. The two perspectives are
| perfectly compatible.
| armada651 wrote:
| I think you're misreading that paragraph. It is specifically
| saying the euphoria is not the _only_ reason that cats roll
| around in catnip.
| Schiphol wrote:
| The "rather" connotes mutually exclusive alternatives,
| doesn't it? (I'm not a native speaker.)
| armada651 wrote:
| I think it translates best to "echter" in this context.
| Which doesn't necessarily exclude other possibilities.
|
| However the sentence can simply be read in two ways. Both
| interpretations are equally valid.
| andyjohnson0 wrote:
| Native English speaker here.
|
| I read it as qualifying the degree of functionality in the
| rolling behaviour. That is: the rolling behaviour is
| functional to a significant extent, but is not entirely
| functional.
| selimthegrim wrote:
| "I had rather a good time."
| svachalek wrote:
| Interesting, as a native speaker I am only familiar with it
| meaning mutual exclusion, with a range of connotations from
| "the former is the opposite of correct" to "let me adjust
| that thought slightly". However, Merriam-Webster supports
| my experience with the first 4 definitions and then drops a
| "but also" as the fifth. Sometimes I hate English.
|
| https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rather
| dalbasal wrote:
| Etic/emic is an insightful metaphor, mr airport. These things
| are complicated.
|
| Even in your type example, I doubt that papuan chiefs were
| oblivious of the political elements gift giving. OTOH, a purely
| etic viewpoint is (anthropologically) incomplete too. The
| political/economic machinery that outsiders/scholars find
| doesn't work, or make any sense, without the emic/cultural
| perspective. The same could be said of most political
| processes. The US just changed presidents. Leading up to it was
| weeks/months of ritual. Processes and procedures in many state
| chambers, and such. Most of it doesn't have a practical role,
| yet its culturally essential.
|
| We're often warned not to personify animals. I think more often
| we make the mistake of personifying people, so to speak. We
| always have rationalisations, but the way it works is usually
| after the fact... or only rational within an
| irrational/cultural frame.
|
| Leonard cohen said that free will is overrated. It exists but
| is rarely exercised. More often, we act because we are
| compelled.
|
| If cats were people, they'd roll in catnip because they're
| compelled to do so... but then cite this article and mosquitos
| as the "reason."
| Ensorceled wrote:
| Why was this:
|
| > The team, which has already patented an insect repellent based
| on nepetalactol,
|
| At the BOTTOM of this article.
| matthewmacleod wrote:
| Because it's a pretty reasonable place to put openly declared
| competing interests in a news article about a paper in one of
| the publisher's journals?
| aceazzameen wrote:
| Cats are going to love people who spray that stuff on.
| tgtweak wrote:
| Cat cologne missed opportunity tbh
| dirtyid wrote:
| New cat utterly unresponsive to catnip, wonder if defective. Have
| never encountered a cat that didn't go cray for the nips until
| now. Last cat was so into it, I worried whether she experienced
| withdraw symptoms. Literature on that is pretty mixed though.
| dirtyid wrote:
| Rate limited account, can't reply to everyone. But thanks for
| all the advice, going to try to peddle some of these other
| substances on her. She's 3yrs old, olfactory fine, maybe too
| fine, yaks rudely when I'm on the can.
| Broken_Hippo wrote:
| New cat? Is it young? This could be the issue. And like others
| have said, a minority of cats just don't care for it.
|
| Neither of my cats go as absolutely nuts over it like some
| other cats: That said, they both know which toy has a pile of
| the stuff in it for them to eat freely and somewhat regularly
| have some bites.
| rurp wrote:
| One of my cats didn't care for it at all his first 5 or so
| years of life, but now loves the stuff. I've also read that
| something like 30% of cats don't like catnip at all.
| code_duck wrote:
| Speaking to an Australian friend, I learned that 25% of cats
| don't respond to catnip at all - or cat mint, as they call it.
| Apparently the branch of the cat family in Australia are ones
| that don't have the catnip genes, so she had never witnessed a
| cat acting crazy in the characteristic cat way.
|
| My previous cats did two different things - one would instantly
| flop down and roll in the catnip, then lazily lick it off her
| paws. The other cat would make a beeline for any catnip and
| intently eat all of it, shoving aside the rolling cat.
| gwern wrote:
| I've compiled all of the reported catnip studies and run some
| large-scale surveys of my own: https://www.gwern.net/Catnip
| https://www.gwern.net/Catnip-survey
|
| Globally, catnip immunity rates are closer to a third, but
| Australia is at the extreme with about half cats not
| responding.
|
| Villani 2011
| https://www.gwern.net/docs/catnip/2011-villani.pdf
| establishes that catnip response is highly heritable but
| polygenic ( _not_ Mendelian), and to a first approximation,
| no one studies cat genetics - so it will be difficult to
| prove that there 's some sort of founder effect on
| Australian/Mexican/Spanish cats causing a lower genetic
| propensity.
| throwawaygal7 wrote:
| I believe some cats dont react to it based on genetics, there
| are other things you can try! Maybe silvervine or valerian?
| matsemann wrote:
| Not all cats respond to catnip. Also, some don't care for it as
| kittens, but when older they enjoy it.
| Nursie wrote:
| Silvervine, particularly japanese silvervine powder from
| smack.co.jp, seems to get them all.
|
| Our female kitty doesn't care at all for the 'nip, but goes
| crazy for that stuff.
| dominotw wrote:
| I have four 'siberian' breed cats and two in the past. _none_
| of them have responded to catnip even one bit.
| JoeAltmaier wrote:
| Can't smell? Can detect food when hidden?
| lemcoe9 wrote:
| Another opportunity for a shameless plug of my website:
| https://ipkitten.com
|
| It simply serves you a random kitten GIF (some of which involve
| catnip) and provides your IP address alongside some other
| connection information.
|
| EDIT: The ARIN JSON endpoints have rate-limited me, so ISP
| information is currently unavailable.
| spiffytech wrote:
| Perfect - looks like this will be my new go-to IP checking
| tool.
|
| I'll add it into my kitten dev toolbox alongside
| https://placekitten.com/
| tgtweak wrote:
| You should cache the cidr ranges and arin responses for a
| decent amount of time since they seldom change.
| pantalaimon wrote:
| It only shows IPv4
| cafeoh wrote:
| only shows IPv6 for me.
| qwerty456127 wrote:
| They are not. I haven't met a cat crazy for catnip or valeriana
| since I was a kid. They either ignore them completely or express
| occasional moderate interest.
| zwieback wrote:
| I tried growing some catnip but the plants got eaten right down
| to the roots by someone. I tried again this time with a cage
| around the plant and it worked great but my cat just gets annoyed
| when I wave it in her face. Apparently she falls in the sober
| population
| cosmodisk wrote:
| Not just catnip,valerian too,which is a 'top recreational drug'
| for cats, apparently. When we were kids,we used to give small
| amounts of valerian root to our cat to chew. The cat would
| literally tear anything apart just to get it. Then,a few minutes
| later,it gets high, and just keeps rolling over purring with
| satisfaction.
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| Our cats are definitely more into valerian than catnip, they
| dive face first into the stuff, eat it, roll around in it, etc.
| With catnip, no reaction.
| eps wrote:
| Valerian is _the_ cat drug in my home country. Mentioned it
| once to a friend, a Canadian, and brought him a bit the next
| time I went back home for a visit. His cat had no reaction.
| Zero. But the catnip worked as expected.
| gwern wrote:
| That's a little surprising, since Bol et al 2017 (https://b
| mcvetres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12917-...),
| testing catnip/Valerian/silvervine/honeysuckle on ~100
| cats, found that the response to each is correlated. (I get
| a tetrachoric correlation of 0.6 for catnip/valerian in my
| analysis: https://www.gwern.net/Catnip#optimal-catnip-
| alternative-sele... )
|
| I think you probably just got unlucky there.
| eps wrote:
| Possibly, but I do wonder if there's a difference between
| American and European cats as far as the drug response
| goes.
| jrimbault wrote:
| Olive wood too. Many cats will lick a piece of olive wood and
| seem to get some kind of high from it.
|
| I've seen many cats lounging under (or on top of) olive trees
| in the Alps around Nice (France).
| RandallBrown wrote:
| The cat I had growing up was OBSESSED with olives. He would
| eat one, then roll around in the spot where it was on the
| floor. It was the same reaction he had to catnip, but more
| extreme.
|
| My current cat is much less interested in olives, but loves
| catnip.
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