Catnip & kittens

[Catsnclay]

What is the proper age to introduce catnip to a kitten?

[Freedom]

I've heard that they don't always respond to it prior to 6 months.

If they like it, I say go for it! Like toddlers, isn't the whole idea to get them tired so they will SLEEP?

[caffeitina]

6 months is about right. When Luna was a kitten and I would give Howard (who is 2 years older) his catnip, she would ignore it. Now that Luna is 1.5 years old, they've started to fight over it...and Howard, being much bigger and a full-on catnip junkie, usually wins. But that hasn't stopped Luna from trying

[Catsnclay]

Taz is about 8 months old, but she didn't seem to interested in it.


She was more interested in what her 2 brothers were so excited about.


Maybe in another month or so she will be more interested in it. I just didn't want to give some to her and have it do bad things to her!

I can't remember, but why is it you are not suposed to give it to them so young???

[catmandu]

Thats About Right,about 6 Months Is Just About Right.
Although Some Of The Lucky Found Cats Never Respond To Catnip, For Some Reason My Siamese Never Have Shown Any Interest In Catnip What So Ever!!!!

[MyCatMowgli]

I can't remember, but why is it you are not suposed to give it to them so young???

Because they dont react to it.

Ive also heard that if you expose them to it alot while young, they will never react to it when they grow up.
Not sure if thats true though.

[Barbara]

I think it was one of our Australian members who said that not all cats respond to catnip anyway. Ours like it but are not crazy about it. Tigris prefers valeriane- it's all about the drug that's in your culture

[Miranda Brooks]

You can put catnip out any time you want with kittens as it won't hurt them. However, all the stuff I've read about it when I researched it when I was fostering kittens said that most kittens either can't smell it or don't respond to it until they are older. That's what happened with mine. They ignored it and somewhere around 5 months they started to notice it or smell it or respond to it.

[Kirsten]

Only 70% of all cats react to it, as far as I know.

This is what I found on www.drsfostersmith.com:

"The catnip reaction is inherited in an autosomal dominant gene. Up to a third of adult cats, in which the gene is not present, are totally unaffected by catnip. Kittens under 3 months of age do not usually react to catnip, either."


Well, personally it surprises me that they say "kittens under 3 months of age", this is new to me; I thought it was 6 months...

Kirsten

[ShylanHal]

Neither of my girls go nuts over catnip, and Clover only with the freshest, as far as I can tell. They're total nutcases without it.

Try it on your kittens! See what they do!