Catnip question

do only adult cats respond to catnip?

i ask because i tried giving nikko catnip a few months ago and got nothin' as a response... (he was 6/7 months at the time)

he's grown quite considerably in the last few months, basically turned from a kitten to a cat, and i try giving him catnip tonight for the first time since then, and he's practically orgasming...

my little kitten jesse though, doesn't seem to care much, and seems confused that nikko is so riled up and looking so silly rolling around...

:shrug:

The same thing happened with my cat Manilla. However, Morty seemed to enjoy it when he was a kitten, but that could be because catnip was always in toys that he liked to play with.

LOVE it and others just never care. My cat Eli never cared; David loved it.

:kick:

they have actually found a 'catnip' gene in cats which predispose them to a fondness for the stuff.

we have 4 cats - one ignores the catnip completely, another will sniff at it and roll in it, a third will eat a bit of it -- but the 4th cat gets all glassy-eyed and dazed just at the slightest wiff and then eats it all up...

http://chemistry.about.com/library/weekly/aa103001a.htm
Catnip

Catnip, Nepeta cataria, is a member of the mint or Labiatae family. This perennial herb is sometimes known as catnep, catrup, catwort, cataria, or catmint (although there are other plants that also go by these common names). Catnip is indigenous from the eastern Mediterranean region to the eastern Himalayas, but is naturalized over much of North America and is easily grown in most gardens. The generic name Nepeta is said to have been derived from the Italian town Nepete, where catnip was once cultivated. For centuries humans have grown catnip for humans, but the herb is best known for its action on cats.

---snip----

Domestic and many wild cats (including cougars, bobcats, lions, and lynx) respond to the nepetalactone in catnip. However, not all cats react to catnip. The behavior is inherited as an autosomal dominant gene; 10-30% of domestic cats in a population may be unresponsive to nepetalactone. Kittens will not show the behavior until they are at least 6-8 weeks old. In fact, catnip produces an avoidance response in young kittens. The catnip response usually develops by the time a kitten is 3 months old.

When cats smell catnip they exhibit a range of behaviors that may include sniffing, licking and chewing the plant, head shaking, chin and cheek rubbing, head rolling, and body rubbing. This psychosexual reaction lasts for 5-15 minutes and cannot be evoked again for an hour or more after exposure. Cats that react to nepetalactone differ in their individual responses.

and really they don't need it anyway! The purpose of catnip is to make grown cats act like kittens!

Once the animal is at least 5 months old you can try them on catnip and see for yourself whether they like it or not. I only had one cat who was neutral to it out of 7 cats I've had

One of my current cats took about 2 years to learn to appreciate the pleasures of catnip. I gave both my kitties some last night.

I hate to say but my older kitty seemed to have a bad trip. Twice she woke up meowing very unusually - as if she had had a nightmare. Poor Geneva!!!

and some percent of grown cats never will. One of my 5 does not.
One of them - and of course it's Razputin - enjoys it but gets very aggressive when he eats it. I think he did not react to it until he was about a year old.

liked it. Some sooner than others. I never bought any, I just set plants out all over the back yard. Sometimes it would be hysterical back there. There would be all of my cats and their friends from all over the neighborhood getting high and acting goofy. My cats are all gone now, but I still grow catnip. That way I can enjoy ocassional visitors from the neighborhood.