[HN Gopher] Why do cats love catnip?
___________________________________________________________________
Why do cats love catnip?
Author : sgfgross
Score : 63 points
Date : 2022-06-22 15:36 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (oa.mg)
(TXT) w3m dump (oa.mg)
| gumby wrote:
| Discussion from last week:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31748884
| sebastianconcpt wrote:
| I didn't knew I needed to read this :D
| hunterb123 wrote:
| Natural mosquito repellant and it helps with digestive problems.
| Our cat meows for it when his tummy hurts.
|
| They are also attracted to the smell (outside cats always find
| it) and it clearly gives them a buzz of sorts.
|
| The effect it gives seems to vary between cats, our cat gets
| calmer / drowzy / sleeps right after, but others seem to get more
| energetic.
|
| The cat may not realize "hey I need this for mosquitos" just that
| it "feels good" and it relieves later problems, so the brain
| subconsciously seeks it out in the future.
|
| For the plant, it benefits from the cross-pollination fuzzy faces
| provide.
|
| It really is like weed for cats, it helps with many ailments and
| once you start using it the smell attracts you to it.
| dominotw wrote:
| I've had three cats none of which really cared for catnip
| Karellen wrote:
| > about one-third of cats are not affected by
| catnip.[6][7][26][34] The behavior is hereditary.[35]
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catnip#Effect_on_felines
| 0des wrote:
| squares
| klondike_ wrote:
| Some cats prefer fresh catnip over the dried stuff sold in
| stores
| neuronic wrote:
| Try a different catnip. Some catnip we bought was fully ignored
| while other brands were basically slammed out of our hands on
| sight.
|
| No clue why, maybe some outlets sell fakes or there are
| different kinds?
| sdflhasjd wrote:
| Some cats respond to Valerian root instead.
|
| Also, there's definitely some potency or freshness qualities of
| catnip.
|
| I'd tried it with my cat and thought for years she didn't
| respond, but I ended up with a small sachet and she went
| bonkers, but I don't know what the difference was.
| poulsbohemian wrote:
| >Also, there's definitely some potency or freshness qualities
| of catnip.
|
| My cats (7 of them) looooove the dried, store-bought catnip,
| but have very little interest in the fresh stuff out of my
| garden. Thought I might try drying some of the stuff from the
| garden as a kind of clinical test to see if the store bought
| stuff is somehow different from what I'm growing.
| gwern wrote:
| There may not have been any. There's some evidence that
| catnip response is not just context-sensitive in that the
| same cat a few days apart might respond differently, but also
| that catnip insensitivity might change over the span of a few
| years. Like most things about catnip, any reason for this is
| a mystery.
| dllthomas wrote:
| I think this explanation is likely correct, but some of the
| reasoning seems irrelevant (or only somewhat relevant?). If cats
| were attracted to some other component of the smell of
| (specifically) these plants, and engaged in the same behaviors,
| it would produce the same benefit. The fact that the chemical
| they are detecting actually _is_ the active ingredient seems...
| almost coincidental?
|
| Unless cats, over their evolution, encountered a larger range of
| iridiod producing plants?
| moffkalast wrote:
| Brb, lining my windows with catnip.
| exolymph wrote:
| Because it gets them high.
|
| Disclosure, I didn't click on the article, but that's their fault
| for the headline being dumb.
| politelemon wrote:
| But the headline looks very straightforward and non-clickbaity,
| doesn't it? I didn't see why it would be considered dumb.
| leto_ii wrote:
| I have actually noticed a similar thing going on with olives. Our
| cat would go crazy over them, and I don't think it had anything
| to do with mosquitos.
| bigmattystyles wrote:
| Sometimes I'm in a rush and don't shower out of the lap pool, I
| physically have to keep my cat away from chlorinated items. She
| comes up to me and will just start chewing on my chlorinated
| hair, it's crazy. FWIW, she couldn't care less about catnip.
| BLKNSLVR wrote:
| Had the same experience many years ago when I used to swim
| regularly. The cat would not only love to lick and chew
| chlorinated hair, but also heavily snuzz my discarded towel.
| MitchellCash wrote:
| As a child my cat would favour drinking water from our
| chlorinated pool rather than her water bowl. Interesting to
| read another anecdote about cats and chlorine. They say
| curiosity killed the cat, but maybe I'll take the gamble and
| see if I can find an answer as to why!
| kuhewa wrote:
| My cat loves the end of a carrot, like the greenish part you
| cut off and discard.
| fizzpack wrote:
| Our cat goes crazy for olives. He'll slurp up the juice from a
| can of olvies if we look the other way.
| nsxwolf wrote:
| My cat loved to rub green olives all over himself.
| PebblesRox wrote:
| Growing up we had cats that loved to chase olives around the
| kitchen floor. They would also gnaw on decorations made of
| olive wood, so those had to be put away.
| simonebrunozzi wrote:
| Why? Simple, it's called "cat" nip, that's why they love it!
|
| Ok, ok... Bad joke...
| UncleOxidant wrote:
| I would think that cats' fur would already protect them from
| mosquitos pretty well. They should also test on fleas - maybe
| repelling fleas is a bigger reason why cats do this?
| pengaru wrote:
| > I would think that cats' fur would already protect them from
| mosquitos pretty well.
|
| While camping in Big Basin during a really bad year for
| mosquitoes, my neighbor campsite had a pet Husky. Whenever they
| let the dog out of the tent dozens of mosquitoes would quickly
| converge on its face and nose. It looked like something out of
| a horror movie.
|
| I'd assume cats have similarly vulnerable areas on their head
| where the fur is thin to nonexistent. And that's an especially
| irritating region to have covered in itchy bites.
| dylan604 wrote:
| How much catnip would be needed for me to receive the same
| benefit from rolling in it? I currently have 5 separate plants
| growing for my fur baby's use, but now I'm thinking I'll need
| more for myself
| bregma wrote:
| You know it has a really strong smell, right? You're going to
| repel more than just mosquitoes but then again if you
| publicly share your life with a fur baby it may not make any
| difference that you might notice.
|
| Also, it might be in the mint family but it makes terrible
| juleps. Do not recommend.
| mikestew wrote:
| _Also, it might be in the mint family but it makes terrible
| juleps._
|
| Where I grew up in Indiana, the stuff was a weed (yes, our
| cats were constantly high all summer). That's how I found
| out that it not only makes for a nasty tasting tea, it also
| will not get humans intoxicated.
|
| (OTOH, maybe it needs decarbonization like cannabis. _You_
| try it first, I already took one for the team.)
| msoucy wrote:
| It sounds like there's a story to that last line and now
| I'm curious.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Weed has a really strong smell too, and it is a good litmus
| test in that it repels uptight peeps away and attracts like
| minded people.
| jspash wrote:
| I'm not uptight - live and let live - but I absolutely
| cannot stand the stench. It's revolting to me. Oddly, I
| smoked it a bit in high school. But back then it had a
| much fainter, sweeter smell. Nowadays it smells like a
| skunk died on top of a bed of rotting cabbage sitting in
| the sun for 3 days. It makes me retch.
|
| But have at it if that's your thing!
|
| I'll be waaaay over there. Upwind -----------> :)
| jrockway wrote:
| I live across the street from a college dorm. People go
| outside to smoke, and sometimes the pressure in my
| building pulls in air from outside. It's absolutely
| miserable to have your house smell like weed.
|
| I'm all for legalization and everything, just ... do that
| somewhere that doesn't affect me. It's funny because
| they're obviously forced to smoke outside to increase the
| indoor air quality for their dorm-mates, but then it
| ruins mine in exchange. Oh externalities.
| 0des wrote:
| The stuff they have at stores now, when it is being
| burned, reminds me of antiquity like an old book with
| some remnants of potpourri in there. It resembles a very
| faint incense aroma.
| dwighttk wrote:
| Smells so much like burning hair I wonder if dealers cut
| weed with hair sometimes :D
| edm0nd wrote:
| If I was at a bar and someone smelled like cat nip because
| they rolled in it, I would buy them a beer for sure. It
| also might mean I'm at DEF CON.
| shagie wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catnip#As_an_insect_repellent
|
| > Nepetalactone is a mosquito and fly repellent. Oil isolated
| from catnip by steam distillation is a repellent against
| insects, in particular mosquitoes, cockroaches, and termites.
| Research suggests that, while a more effective spatial
| repellant than DEET, when compared with SS220 or DEET, it is
| not so effective as a repellent as it is when used on the
| skin of humans.
|
| The research for the spatial repellant aspect is: https://www
| .sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/08/010828075659.h...
|
| And for the skin based one:
| https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16119554/
| dylan604 wrote:
| See, there you go ruining a perfectly bad joke with
| science.
|
| However, I'm now inclined to get that copper/brass
| distiller I've always wanted. I was going to make my own
| essential oils, but now I'll just use it as mosquito
| defense for my back patio
| amelius wrote:
| That would only change your mosquito problem into a cat
| problem ...
| Raidion wrote:
| Have you seen cats on catnip? They're def getting a buzz. Feel
| like this is missing something.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Or it's just more nuanced than "why do people like weed"?
| __blockcipher__ wrote:
| But it might be that they get a buzz as an evolutionary
| strategy, similar to why humans find sugar so appealing (it
| signifies caloric density). So the cats certainly get a high
| but maybe they get the high because of the insect repellent
| action of iridoids (per the article; I don't have any special
| knowledge of this).
| BudaDude wrote:
| That could be true. But it could be like weed where Human
| brains have receptors for Cannbanoids but they don't do much
| without the help of weed.
| kuhewa wrote:
| We don't yet understand the endocannabinoid system in great
| detail, but all signs point to it having critical roles in
| a number of physiological processes including memory, mood,
| fertility, immune response, appetite etc.
|
| Cannabinoid receptors 'don't do much' without the help of
| of some 19% THC sativa in the same way the dopaminergic
| system doesn't do much without the help of methamphetamine.
| However, that 'not much' is actually necessary for us to
| function.
| derrasterpunkt wrote:
| There are lots of cannabinoid receptors in the body and the
| body produces its own cannabinoids (e.g. Anandamide). There
| is no need for weed - when it comes to those receptors.
| autoexec wrote:
| This makes me wonder about the people who seem immune to
| the effects of cannabis. If the problem is their
| receptors would that impair their ability to take
| advantage of Anandamide and the body's other cannabinoids
| as well and if so, what are the impacts?
| aaaaaaaaaaab wrote:
| No.
|
| Their mutated receptors can reject THC while still
| accepting their own endocannabinoids.
| 0des wrote:
| Every time I have encountered one of these people, they
| try a single dab and suddenly it's myth-busted.
| system16 wrote:
| > Study find cats rub and roll against these plants transferring
| compounds known as iridoids to their fur that repels mosquitoes
|
| Interesting, but why only cats? Why don't other mammals have a
| similar reaction to these plants?
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2022-06-22 23:01 UTC)