What the heck is in catnip that makes them go bonkers anyway?

[Deja Q]

pot?!

[tridim]

1. I think it's in the same species or genus as cannabis

So yes, pot. :smoke: Rest assured it'll be made illegal as soon as Merck comes out with synthetic catnip.

Edit: just did a quick google, and there are some related compounds in the two substances, but the plants are not related. My bad.

This is the quote that threw me:
"Possibly the best know of all plants which appeal to cats is catnip, or cat mint (Nepeta cataria). However, the appeal of this herb is not clearly understood. It may be because it contains a drug allied to cannabis-nepetalactone. Certainly cats of both sexes display a sence of well-being when in contact with this plant. Even wild cats, including tigers, roll over and become relaxed. Not all cats, respond and kittens seem immune to it charms. Cat toys contain various forms of the herb."

[MissMillie]

2. I thought it was in the mint family

it even smells minty

[Kathy in Cambridge]

3. Yep-it's related to mint and basil

one of my cats LOVES pesto. The combo of cheese and an herb related to catnip must be iresistible.

[kedrys]

5. Susceptibility to it is genetic

Roughly half of all cats don't care for it, and the other half are dedicated stoners :) .

So why, out of my 7 cats, are 6 dedicated stoners? :P

[sybylla]

6. I used to have a cat that went crazy when I had candy cane breath.

I would blow in his face and he would paw at my mouth. Eventually he figured out how to get his own fix, taking the candy canes off the tree, dragging them to a secluded area and chewing on them through the wrapping. He was a nut when it came to mint so we never let him have catnip, figuring it would be too strong for him.

We also had a cat that loved cooked apples like apple pie or apple tarts. We used to have to hide them from her. Found an apple tart on the floor one morning. She climbed to the top of the refrigerator where we had hid it (seemed like a good idea at the time). It landed right side up so I didn't have any cleaning up to do, but it had big bites out of it. My hubby almost cried when I threw it away.

[indy_azcat]

4. Weed and Nip are not even closely related

And it's a pheromone thing :o

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catnip

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_sativa

[jmowreader]

14. Not all kittens are "immune to its charms"

You remember my cat Titty Boy? The one that started nursing before he was completely born? (He died about seven months ago; at the time the Lounge was in the midst of Cat Memorial Overload so I didn't announce it then.) We gave his mom some catnip about a month after he was born; TB found it, took one sniff and started acting just like his mom.

That cat was really advanced for his age. He figured out how to crawl out of his bed (that had 6-inch-high sides so he couldn't crawl out of it) in his second day. He took one whiff of the first solid food we ever fed him and buried it--he'd never seen a litter box, never seen wet food before, but knew how to demonstrate he didn't like what we fed him. He did all manner of things he wasn't supposed to be old enough to do.

[madmom]

7. my cat climbed the back of my chair...

because I had Ben-Gay on my neck and shoulder, he wouldn't leave me alone.

[MissMillie]

8. catnip

http://science.howstuffworks.com/question303.htm

[Hugin]

9. I've always felt slighted that humans had no equivalent herb...

Intelligent Designer, my eye!

[chickenscratching]

10. catnip, is that a female I smell?

From what I've read, catnip supposedly releases similar chemicals to those released by females during heat.

[jobycom]

11. It drives my female cats into frenzies

We have trouble storing the stuff because two of my cats will try to claw through any cabinet or container we keep it in.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. One of the cats I shared a house with in graduate school

had a bad trip on catnip.

One cat was staggering and turning goofy backward somersaults, but the other crawled under the dining room table, wrapped her paws around a leg of the table, and stared straight ahead with a look of horror on her face.

Both were females, by the way.

[LoZoccolo]

13. You know what's messed up? Cats like earwax.

I've heard many stories about how people throw cotton swabs away that they've been using to dig earwax out of their ear (and I should mention for all you folks at home that you should never stick them in your ear to begin with, least of all because it can push the wax back to where it can't just fall out and it can accumulate if not because you can damage your ear) and later their cat will go through the waste basket and fetch the swab and start eating the wax.