Catnip Bad For Kittens
Nepetalactone is the active chemical in catnip responsible for sending most felines into a frenzy.
Catnip bad for kittens. The herb s influence is genetic so not all cats respond to it according to the humane society of the united states. The only danger of your cat eating too much catnip is that they might get an upset stomach. Unlike fresh and dried catnip plant leaves stems and seeds most catnip sprays contain so small an amount of nepetalactone to be appealing to cats. Sprinkle a bit of the.
The ability to appreciate the herb is genetic with slightly more cats in the fan club than not. Stop worrying it s 100 safe and non addictive for all cat breeds. Although catnip is totally harmless and safe around kittens both to smell and to eat it isn t necessarily effective. If a kitten is going to be a catnip lover you usually can tell that when he is 3 to 6 months old.
In fact don t be surprised if your cat doesn t show any interest in them at all. You can also provide enrichment for an indoor kitty by creating catnip toys. While not entirely bad or unsafe for cats catnip sprays are usually not as potent. These hard wired preferences aren t immediately apparent though since kittens under the age of 3 months don t react to catnip at all.
Other than that there is zero reason to worry if catnip is bad for cats. I have a 3 month old kitten and she has been sneezing like crazy for the past few days. Catnip is generally safe for kittens. I remember reading somewhere that catnip should only be for older cats.
Kittens don t typically develop a reaction to catnip until they re between 3 6 months old. There s absolutely no ingredient in catnip that can harm your cat. And honestly kittens already are bundles of joy and energy and don t really need to be stimulated by catnip. The only new thing that we have introduced are little toys and on the bag it says that it has catnip in them.
The remaining 20 30 of cats and kittens under 6 months are unaffected. Also referred to as catmint catnip effects between 70 80 of cats. The good news is catnip is non toxic to cats of any age including kittens. One thing that is important to note about using catnip for kittens is that some may attempt to eat it in addition to just sniffing it or playing with it inside of a pet toy.
Sprinkle a little of the herb on kitty s cushion to make it more attractive to your feline friend. Photo by roxanne desgagnés on unsplash. But of course you won t want to give a kitten too much catnip as over ingesting can lead to vomit and diarrhea and kittens have much smaller bodies and thus lower tolerances in general than full grown cats. Catnip is safe for kittens but don t be surprised if it doesn t work on them.
It s perfectly safe to give a kitten small amounts of catnip however.