Does your Cat love Nepeta cataria, Catnip or Catmint?

Nepetia cataria is better known as catnip, a member of the mint family. Beloved for its ability to drive cats crazy with a pinch of the herb, dried or fresh, catnip is easily grown in the home garden. Mature plants will flower and self-seed, and mature leaves can be used for a variety of purposes in the kitchen and home. It reaches maturity in about 80 days.
Catnip is a member of the group of plants commonly known as catmints, although the name catnip is reserved for this species alone. It is hardy to U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 3 through 9 and is an herbaceous perennial that will spread in the garden through seeds. It attracts hummingbirds, butterflies and birds as well as cats, and must be protected from the latter by wire netting.
When flowering plants reach sexual maturity, they bloom. Catnip will bloom the first year it is planted. It produces flowers beginning in July, but will continue blooming through September. Long stalks form, and the white flowers cluster on the tips. Flowers are quite small, only about 3/8 inch, and have two lips. Petals are usually spotted purple but can also be solid purple.
Catnip leaves are grayish-green and covered with a fine down. They grow opposite one another on the plant’s square stems, and have a pinnate shape with toothed edges. Catnip leaves are mature when they are about 3 inches long, although they can be harvested when they are smaller, like mint. You can dry them in the shade (not the sun, or you will ruin the oil), and can add them fresh to salads, soups, stews and teas. The fresh leaves have a minty flavor.

Catnip brings the good animals into the garden and keeps the pests away! Irresistible to cats and bees, it is a spreading, carefree joy in the bed or border, blooming all summer with fragrant flowers and foliage. 

Asking only full sun, Catnip grows readily in poor, dry, sandy, or hot soils where little else is successful. It grows readily and returns reliably for years of pleasure. Zones 3-8. 


For cats that are affected by "the nip" it seems like the experience is something pretty great. When you give the susceptible feline a leaf of catnip, first you see the fur ripple as the cat catches that first whiff. Then the cat really gets into it, rolling on the leaves, and zooming around the room. If you have more than one cat, often they'll chase each and play vigorously. Most of the big action is in the first 5 or 10 minutes. Either exhaustion or burn out sets in and the cat has to nap for a while afterward.

Apparently, the catnip-induced frenzy isn't bad for the cat. Unlike illegal human drugs, which arguably have similar affects, no one has been able to find anything bad about kitty catnip joy. In fact, people have used catnip as a medicinal herb for centuries.

Since we are talking about cats here, yes, it is possible for a cat to get bored with catnip. If you buy every catnip toy in the store, your cat probably won't feel the thrill anymore. But if you use it sparingly, it's cheap entertainment.

One simple toy you can make if you have a bit of catnip is what a friend of mine used to call a "drug rug." You take an old washcloth and sprinkle it with dried catnip. For some reason, it seems like rolling on the drug rug is even more fun for the cat than the normal catnip thrills.

If your cat is susceptible to catnip, you may also discover as we did that catnip is used in some teas. We give our cats boxes to play with after they're empty. We threw an empty box of Celestial Seasonings Tension Tamer tea on the floor for the cats and noticed that one cat stuck her entire head in the box and wandered around.

After that dopey kitty performance, we read the ingredients. And sure enough, there's catnip in there. You can't fool a cat when it comes to catnip.



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