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New cat utterly unresponsive to catnip, wonder if defective. Have never encountered a cat that didn't go cray for the nips until now. Last cat was so into it, I
by dirtyid 6y ago
New cat utterly unresponsive to catnip, wonder if defective. Have never encountered a cat that didn't go cray for the nips until now. Last cat was so into it, I worried whether she experienced withdraw symptoms. Literature on that is pretty mixed though.
- JoeAltmaier 6y agoCan't smell? Can detect food when hidden?
- code_duck 6y agoSpeaking to an Australian friend, I learned that 25% of cats don't respond to catnip at all - or cat mint, as they call it. Apparently the branch of the cat family in Australia are ones that don't have the catnip genes, so she had never witnessed a cat acting crazy in the characteristic cat way. My previous cats did two different things - one would instantly flop down and roll in the catnip, then lazily lick it off her paws. The other cat would make a beeline for any catnip and intently eat all of it, shoving aside the rolling cat.
- gwern 6y agoI've compiled all of the reported catnip studies and run some large-scale surveys of my own: https://www.gwern.net/Catnip https://www.gwern.net/Catnip https://www.gwern.net/Catnip-survey https://www.gwern.net/Catnip-survey Globally, catnip immunity rates are closer to a third, but Australia is at the extreme with about half cats not responding. Villani 2011 https://www.gwern.net/docs/catnip/2011-villani.pdf https://www.gwern.net/docs/catnip/2011-villani.pdf establishes that catnip response is highly heritable but polygenic (not Mendelian), and to a first approximation, no one studies cat genetics - so it will be difficult to prove that there's some sort of founder effect on Australian/Mexican/Spanish cats causing a lower genetic propensity.
- glenneroo 6y agoThis is quite amazing. The longer I read, the more impressed I am that you went through all the trouble. Considering the time and money spent on surveys, et al., was this ever published as a study? p.s. This is the ultimate thread-killer. Had this been posted at the very top of the thread, most of the comments and speculations posted would be irrelevant. Can @dang please pin this to the top? ;)
- gwern 6y agoNo, it hasn't been published anywhere. I did it because I was curious.
- throwawaygal7 6y agoI believe some cats dont react to it based on genetics, there are other things you can try! Maybe silvervine or valerian?
- Nursie 6y agoSilvervine, particularly japanese silvervine powder from smack.co.jp, seems to get them all. Our female kitty doesn't care at all for the 'nip, but goes crazy for that stuff.
- matsemann 6y agoNot all cats respond to catnip. Also, some don't care for it as kittens, but when older they enjoy it.
- dominotw 6y agoI have four 'siberian' breed cats and two in the past. none of them have responded to catnip even one bit.
- rurp 6y agoOne of my cats didn't care for it at all his first 5 or so years of life, but now loves the stuff. I've also read that something like 30% of cats don't like catnip at all.
- Broken_Hippo 6y agoNew cat? Is it young? This could be the issue. And like others have said, a minority of cats just don't care for it. Neither of my cats go as absolutely nuts over it like some other cats: That said, they both know which toy has a pile of the stuff in it for them to eat freely and somewhat regularly have some bites.
- dirtyid 6y agoRate limited account, can't reply to everyone. But thanks for all the advice, going to try to peddle some of these other substances on her. She's 3yrs old, olfactory fine, maybe too fine, yaks rudely when I'm on the can.