2 ms·
One of my cats only responds to it when not being watched. If you give her catnip then she will pretend that it is not interesting until I leave the room. If I
by chillfox 8y ago
One of my cats only responds to it when not being watched.
If you give her catnip then she will pretend that it is not interesting until I leave the room. If I peek in 30 seconds later then she is rolling around with it acting crazy, but the moment she notices that I can see her she immediately stops and resumes pretending that it has no effect.
- gwern 8y agoThat's consistent with Villani 2011's ( https://www.gwern.net/docs/catnip/2011-villani.pdf https://www.gwern.net/docs/catnip/2011-villani.pdf ) finding of considerable measurement error in catnip response: you have to try a cat multiple times to be sure if they are a responder. This, I suspect, may be an issue with a number of catnip studies, since researchers administering catnip may be strangers or not be on good terms with the subject cat, and definitely none of them mention trying to control or correct for this (or any awareness of this beyond Villani). My suggestion is that the response is not totally uncontrollable and so anxiety/uncertainty/stress can 'shut down' the response, kind of like the socially-dependent response to many drugs in humans, like alcohol or MDMA - boozing with your friends at a cheery party with no inhibitions is very different from meeting a stranger & maintaining your vigilance.