Catnip effect?

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Chakolate - 11 Oct 2003 21:47 GMT

Hi, all,

A quick question if you don't mind.

I give my cats quite a bit of catnip, both fresh and dried. A few weeks
ago, some workmen started sandblasting the house next door, and one of my
cats, Pi, got very spooked. He hid all day while they were there, making
noise with the machines and shouting.

A months after they had finished, he was still very easily spooked. Even
the little girl who comes to visit scared him. Since her first act on
visiting is always to give the cats treats, they love her and usually come
running.

It occurred to me that the catnip may have been exaggerating his paranoia,
so I stopped it for a while. He became, slowly, his old self again. He
also dropped the extra pound he'd been carrying around.

As a test, I gave him more catnip last night, and he's been hiding all day.

Okay, well I guess that wasn't all that quick, :-) , but here's the
question: Has anybody else observed this sort of behavior? Is it really
the catnip? My other cat hasn't changed a bit, with or without the catnip.

TIA,

Chakolate

Signature

On sadness:
The cure for this ill is not to sit still,
Or to frowst with a book by the fire,
But to take a large hoe and a shovel also,
And to dig till you gently perspire.
--Rudyard Kipling

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Priscilla Ballou - 11 Oct 2003 22:07 GMT

> Hi, all,
>
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
> question: Has anybody else observed this sort of behavior? Is it really
> the catnip? My other cat hasn't changed a bit, with or without the catnip.

Hmmmm. I'm harking back to times in my college days when I'd hide in my
room, paranoid and stoned out of my gourd.

Otherwise, I'm of no help to you at all, I'm afraid! Mine don't get
catnip that often.

Priscilla

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Cathy Friedmann - 11 Oct 2003 22:30 GMT

Do you know, when replying to Chakolate's post, I thought I was in another
ng, w/ an OT post?! Then your reply reinforced that feeling. ;-)

Cathy

--
"Staccato signals of constant information..."
("The Boy in the Bubble") Paul Simon

> > Hi, all,
> >
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
>
> Priscilla

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Priscilla Ballou - 11 Oct 2003 23:06 GMT

> Do you know, when replying to Chakolate's post, I thought I was in another
> ng, w/ an OT post?! Then your reply reinforced that feeling. ;-)

Yes, I did notice the constellation of thread participants myself. :-)

Priscilla

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Chakolate - 12 Oct 2003 00:31 GMT

I thought the same thing when I read the reply: "Oops, I meant to post to a
cat group".

:-)

> Do you know, when replying to Chakolate's post, I thought I was in
> another ng, w/ an OT post?! Then your reply reinforced that feeling.
[quoted text clipped - 48 lines]
>>
>> Priscilla

Chakolate

Signature

On sadness:
The cure for this ill is not to sit still,
Or to frowst with a book by the fire,
But to take a large hoe and a shovel also,
And to dig till you gently perspire.
--Rudyard Kipling

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Chakolate - 12 Oct 2003 00:30 GMT

Priscilla Ballou <vze23t8n@verizon.net> wrote in news:vze23t8n-
3E3588.17083411102003@news.verizon.net:

> Hmmmm. I'm harking back to times in my college days when I'd hide in my
> room, paranoid and stoned out of my gourd.

Yes, that's what made me think of the catnip. Pi *really* gets stoned on
the nip, too. After he's eaten whateve he was given, he rolls around on
the floor where the catnip was, and tries to bite anybody who comes by.

And the weight gain just seemed like "munchies".

> Otherwise, I'm of no help to you at all, I'm afraid! Mine don't get
> catnip that often.

Chakolate

Signature

On sadness:
The cure for this ill is not to sit still,
Or to frowst with a book by the fire,
But to take a large hoe and a shovel also,
And to dig till you gently perspire.
--Rudyard Kipling

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Cathy Friedmann - 11 Oct 2003 22:15 GMT

> Hi, all,
>
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
>
> TIA,

I don't know the answer re: Pi, but no, I haven't noticed that sort of
effect. But who knows, maybe it has that effect on him. Maybe some other
cats out there react as he does (if that's what he's reacting to), or maybe
it's a Pi sort of idiosyncrasy.

One of my cats, Demelza, never reacted to catnip till she was about 7 yrs.
old - I'd read (many sources) that approx. one-third of cats just don't ever
react to catnip, so I assumed she was one of them. Till one day she
reacted. Demelza becomes a 'wild woman' with catnip; funny to observe. ;-)
Otoh, she short-circuits on it fairly quickly - IOW - she becomes satiated
after a very short while; 5 - 10 minutes, & then ignores it & acts normal
again. I've read that cats just don't OD on catnip - that they have
built-in saturation points, & from what I've seen w/ my cats, I'd agree. My
other cats hare wallowed in it/eaten it for 15 - 20 minutes at a time, tops.

Besides Demelza, my other 3 cats have all liked catnip from when they were
young (maybe 1 - 2 yrs. old), some more than others. Debbie *loved* it -
dried or fresh - and her reaction was the opposite of Demelza's - Debbie
would get all mellow, eating it & rolling round in it, in a happy but mellow
sort of way. It appeared to really relax her, so during her last 4 - 5
years when she chronically ill (liver disease & then also CRF) I gave it to
her fairly frequently - maybe 3X/week, esp. if she was going through one of
her occasional medical slumps - I think it provided
forget-I-don't-feel-so-hot & just-feel-relaxed-&-actively-happy interludes
for her.

Cathy

--
"Staccato signals of constant information..."
("The Boy in the Bubble") Paul Simon

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Someone Somewhere - 15 Oct 2003 18:12 GMT

> I give my cats quite a bit of catnip, both fresh and dried. A few weeks
> ago, some workmen started sandblasting the house next door, and one of my
> cats, Pi, got very spooked. He hid all day while they were there, making
> noise with the machines and shouting.

My cat goes into hyper alert mode when he's on catnip. The slighest sound from anywhere produces a
reaction normally reserved for when he's spotted prey somewhere, and if you try to poke him or play
with him, he goes crazy and tries to attack you while he's rolling around on his back. Within about
3 minutes, he's completely back to normal, with no apparent behaviour changes for the rest of the day.

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