3 ms·
Speaking 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 fam
by code_duck 6y ago
Speaking 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.