An Overview for Beginners

To get you high, obviously, you just need a bottle of whisky. But defining the crazy actions of your cats by the theory of ‘drunken-cat’ seems silly. Then what makes your cat behave wacky? It may be due to Catnip (Nepeta Cataria). But how? Want to know why? We get you there.

Also, in order to get the best catnip products, be sure to check out our catnip’s recommended products for your kitties. Before directly jumping to the mechanism-cum-actions of catnip, let’s finish some basic first.

What actually Catnip is?

Catnip, scientifically named Nepeta Cataria, an herb from the mint family that can have a sedative effect on your cats. Other names of catnip are catmints and catwort.

You can often see them on the roadside as a half-meter tall herb with stalked heart-shaped leaves. You can easily identify these herbs by its beautiful white-purple flowering. They also have an accent taste of mint along with a strong scented fragrance.

Now, you get to know the basics of catnip but have you ever thought why Nepeta Cataria is commonly named Catnip? The word ‘nip’ itself symbolizes ‘a quick bite’ which represents the cat’s funny responses towards the catnip.

So, what’s in catnip that alters your cat’s behavior. This is due to the active ingredient called nepetalactone. 

More about Nepetalactone

Nepetalactone is an essential oil, present in the high concentration (77% to 99%) in catnip plants. These essential oils are usually seeps-out from the microscopic fragile bulbs which are on the leaves, stems and seed pods.

Hence, when your cat rubs the catnip, it ruptures these microscopic-fragile bulbs that release nepetalactone. And this explains why your cats go-on rubbing to the catnip.

Mechanism and Effects of Catnip on Cats?

Mechanism of Catnip for Cats

Sadly, there isn’t much information regarding the exact mechanism by which these crazy responses are provoked in cats. However, scientists had confined a general step that explains the reason for this bizarre behavior of the cat.

When nepetalactone enters the cat’s body, particularly through the cat’s nasal cavity. They get absorbed by the nasal tissue especially through ‘olfactory bulb’, a region where they bind to certain neuro-receptors.

These web of neuro-receptors have a large proportion of sensory neurons. That eventually acts as the receptive command for the other neurons, which again simulates the various parts of the brain. Brain’s parts that are mainly affected by the catnip’s active ingredient are amygdala and hypothalamus.

Note: The amygdala is the medial temporal lobe of the brain that is responsible for emotional responses whereas the hypothalamus is responsible for behavioral responses.

These crazy simulations and behaviors usually end up in 10-15 minutes. In the meantime, the cat’s body works on the excretion of metabolites i.e. try to eliminate Nepetalic acid (a major metabolite of nepetalactone). And finally excretes-out through urination.

This all explains the tipsy behavior of the cats when they are in contact with catnip’s products.

Effects of Catnip for Cats

However, there are too many short-term effects that your cat has to deal with. But catnip has minimal-to-no long term effects. Yet one thing is common in both i.e. the kitten whose age lesser than 3 months probably doesn’t show any sign of catnip highs. (Source)

And from the study, it also seems that 70% of cats only show positive symptoms of catnip.

Short Term Effects of Catnip on Cats

For most, Catnip has a short-term effect on the cat’s emotional and behavioral responses. There are majorly seven characteristics responses that you can observe when they are on high. These are:

1. Sniffing: Your cat might get sniffing the catnip products again-and-again followed by unnecessarily padding the catnip toys or plant.
2. Licking: You can often notice (licking) more in lazy cats than the aggressive one.
3. Chewing and Head Shaking: While eating the food, cats usually tilt-and-shakes their head. But here, it might only due to the simulation of neuro-receptors of the mouth (vomeronasal) by nepetalactone.
4. Chin and Cheek Rubbing: If you are a cat owner, you know cats love to rub their chin and cheeks against the surface. And these rubbings becomes more frequent when your cats are on high because of catnip.
5. Head-over Rolling and body rubbing: You probably witness head-over rolls of your cat on the carpet, and the rubbing body to you as well as to other kinds of stuff.
6. Stretching and leaping: You might watch them in their morning hours. But in the influence of catnip, their brains simulate stretching and leaping. They usually stretch their front limbs followed by scratches and short jumps.
7. Spontaneous Vocalizations: They sound “meows” to show their aggression. And if you have an aggressive cat then try to avoid the use of catnip products.
8. Long-term Effects of Catnip on CatsAs stated earlier, there are insufficient data on the action of the catnip on the cats. Yet, it is known from the histological examinations, cats with regular doses of catnip don’t show any permanent damages or alterations. So, you can say that there is no long-term effect except your cats use to it and eventually after some time gets unaffected by catnip.