What Is Catnip?

: What Is Catnip?

: They become happy. They might even become kitten-like.

: Loose catnip is available from pet shops as well as online stores

: You can control your cats intake or perhaps even look at designs and decide that you can make these toys yourself.

What is Catnip?

Here we have a plant that looks innocent, however, if your cat finds it, then his mood is going to change to a more excited mood than he was in before he found the patch.

In other words we have a plant that cats like that produces an effect on them which can only be described as similar to a drug induced state which affects humans – it alters their awareness of their surroundings and their feelings.

Though you might be concerned about it, there actually is nothing dangerous about catnip. After all, it is only another herb that belongs to the mint family and everyone loves the smell and taste of mint, don’t they?

Crush the leaves and you get an oil that is really attractive to cats and when they bite it, they release the oil into their own mouths, the effect of which will last around quarter of an hour. They become happy. They might even become kitten-like.

Just know that it is safe. Of course as with anything, gorging on it is going to be detrimental to one’s health and if your cat happens to be greedy about the dose, then he might end up with a really bad case of vomiting and diarrhoea.

What a great stress reliever when your cat is emotionally upset. One of those times might be when he has been to the Vet and back. Sometimes those trips can cause havoc to your cat, especially if it is a visit for something quite unpleasant. Giving him some to play with at this time would be a good thing.

Too much at any one time and on too often occasions, will naturally get him so used to it, that catnip will not make any difference to him so our advice would be to save it for a treat. Perhaps you could compare it to you getting the odd bar of chocolate as a treat for yourself. Too much of it then makes you quite blasé about having more in some cases.

Humans can also benefit from having some as well. I have a rule in my house – if you can’t eat it then don’t put it on your skin or feed it to your pets. It’s great for making an upset stomach feel much better.

If you don’t have any growing in your garden, or the neighbours don’t have any either, then you will need to get it from the shops. Clever people have designed toys containing the crushed leaves and these can be brought on as well as offline. Look out for the toys that you can fill yourself as then you can make sure what part of the plant has been used to fill it with. I hate to say it, but some business people only look at selling stuff without thinking if it is entirely safe for someone interested in purchasing, which is why I am recommending being able to fill it yourself.

Loose catnip is available from pet shops as well as online stores, therefore you can control your cats intake or perhaps even look at designs and decide that you can make these toys yourself. And if you are a fussy buyer, needing to know the source etc, then opt to grow your own catnip – it’s such an easy decision to make, the only flaw with that that I can see, is that you might attract everyone’s cat in the neighbourhood!

You will know when it is time to refill the toys – he will lose interest in it as soon as the oil has all been released, therefore happening to find it on the floor when you always saw it between his lips being carried everywhere, is a sure sign that it’s lost its attraction. Depending on the toy, replace or refill are the next actions to take.

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Debbie Nicholson

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