Why Do Cats Like Catnip? What It Does and Which Cats It Skips

Cats like catnip because of one compound in the plant, nepetalactone, which they pick up by smell rather than by taste. That is the short answer to why cats like catnip. The longer answer matters more if your cat walks straight past the catnip mouse, because the response is inherited and roughly one cat in three does not have it.

Catnip toys are sold on the assumption that every cat wants one. Plenty of owners find out otherwise, decide their cat is broken or the toy is a dud, and stop there. Neither is usually the case.

What Is Catnip, and Where Does Nepetalactone Sit?

Catnip is Nepeta cataria, a perennial herb in the mint family that can reach about three feet tall. The active compound, nepetalactone, sits in the leaves and stems, which is why dried catnip is sold as crumbled leaf and flower rather than root or seed. Sniffing, licking, and chewing crush that plant material and release more of the oil, so a cat working a toy over is making the smell stronger as it goes.

You will find it loose and dried, stuffed inside toys, sprayed onto scratching posts, or growing in a pot on a windowsill. Fresh and dried both work, and individual cats have preferences between the two.

If you also have a dog in the house, set your expectations low: most dogs show little interest in catnip.

Why Do Cats Like Catnip? What Happens in the Nose

The response runs through smell. Nepetalactone binds to receptors in the olfactory tissue of the nose, and the behavior follows from there, which is why a cat does not have to eat catnip for it to work.

What you see is a fairly fixed sequence:

• Sniffing, then licking, chewing or biting the material
• Head shaking
• Rubbing the chin, cheeks or head into it
• Rolling over, often repeatedly
• Sometimes drooling, and kicking at the toy with the back feet

It looks like mating behavior. It is not, and researchers have been clear on that point for decades.

Texas A&M's College of Veterinary Medicine describes nepetalactone as a stimulant by smell, and says it has a sedative effect when it is eaten. Either way, the window is short. The same source puts the psychoactive effect at roughly 15 to 30 minutes, and notes that frequent exposure may reduce how much effect catnip has.

Researchers have started to work out the pathway underneath the behavior. A 2021 study in Science Advances tested nepetalactol, the closely related compound that makes silver vine work, and found it raised plasma beta-endorphin levels in cats. Blocking the cats' opioid receptors switched the classic rubbing response off. The rolling is a reward circuit firing, not a quirk of taste.

Why Some Cats Ignore Catnip Completely

The most useful single fact about catnip is that it does not work on every cat, and that is entirely normal. In a 2017 study of 100 domestic cats published in BMC Veterinary Research, 68 percent responded to catnip, which leaves about one in three who did not. The same authors pooled three earlier studies and found the same picture: 53 non-responders out of 170 cats.

The trait is inherited, so an adult cat who has never shown a flicker of interest most likely never will. It is not a health problem, and it says nothing about how playful or affectionate the cat is.

A quiet response is still a response

A 2017 paper in Behavioral Processes scored both active and passive reactions in 60 cats, and found that only about a fifth showed the dramatic version. The rest responded passively instead: more time held in a sphinx-like position, less movement, less vocalizing. A cat who settles down beside the toy and goes still may be having a response, just not the one in the videos.

Then there is the material itself. In the 100-cat study, the researchers ordered their plant material immediately before testing and kept it sealed, dark, and at room temperature so the active compounds would not degrade. A catnip mouse that has been under the sofa for two years may simply have nothing left in it.

Can Kittens Have Catnip?

Yes, though a young kitten probably will not react, and the lack of a reaction tells you nothing about the adult cat they will become. The Behavioral Processes study found the active response in juvenile and adult cats only, never in its infant group. The 100-cat study did not test kittens at all, because its enrollment floor was six months of age.

So the sensible approach with a kitten is to offer a pinch, expect nothing, and try every couple of months again. A kitten who ignores catnip at ten weeks may well respond later in their first year.

Is Catnip Bad for Cats? What Too Much Looks Like

Catnip is generally believed to be neither addicting nor harmful, which is the wording the research itself uses. That is not the same as harmless in any quantity, and two authoritative sources draw the line in slightly different places.

Texas A&M says an overdose is unlikely, but that too much can cause nausea and vomiting, and that catnip should be taken away if that happens. The ASPCA goes further and lists catnip in its toxic plant database as toxic to cats, naming nepetalactone as the toxic principle and vomiting and diarrhea as the clinical signs. The same entry notes that catnip sedates some cats and stimulates others, which is a reminder that the reaction varies by individual.

Neither source gives a safe-versus-unsafe amount in grams, so the useful version is practical rather than numerical:

• Offer a pinch rather than a handful, and put the rest away
• Take the toy away if your cat settles in to eat the stuffing rather than roll on it
• Stop offering it and call your vet if vomiting or loose stools follow a session

The more common problem is over-stimulation rather than toxicity. Some cats get swatty or possessive over a catnip toy, and a growl or a hiss over it means the session is finished. In a multi-cat household, hand catnip out separately for the same reason.

If Your Cat Ignores Catnip, Silver Vine Is the Better Bet

This is where the 2017 study earns its keep. Those same 100 cats were also offered silver vine (Actinidia polygama), Tatarian honeysuckle, and valerian root. Silver vine drew the most responses at 79 percent, ahead of catnip at 68 percent, with Tatarian honeysuckle at 53 percent and valerian root at 47 percent.

The number that matters for a catnip-indifferent cat is narrower than that. Of the 31 cats who did not respond to catnip, almost three quarters responded to silver vine, and about one in three responded to Tatarian honeysuckle. Across all four plants, 94 of the 100 cats responded to at least one of them.

What to buy

Form matters far more with silver vine than it does with catnip. In the 2017 study, the cats responded to powder made from the plant's dried fruit galls, which are deformed fruit caused by a gall midge, and ignored both its normal fruit and its leaves. Only one cat in eight reacted to woodchips.

Later work complicates the leaf part. A 2023 paper in iScience found that drying silver vine leaves changes their chemistry and sharpens the response, and concluded that dried leaves are the most suitable material for this kind of enrichment. The same study reported no hallmarks of addictive behavior after continuous exposure, and no rise in blood markers of stress or of liver or kidney injury. So the practical rule is galls or dried leaf, not fresh plant.

Catnip Is Not a Calming Tool

If you came to catnip hoping to settle a nervous cat, this is the section to read twice. The characteristic response is a short burst of activity rather than sedation; a third of cats will not respond at all, and the effect fades within half an hour. Handing it to a cat who is already wound up by a thunderstorm or a house full of visitors is unlikely to help.

Start with the trigger, not the toy

Enrichment and calming are two different jobs. Catnip, silver vine, and a scratching post the cat actually likes belong to the first. The second starts with the trigger: what changed, when it started, and which signs of stress appeared first. A cat who is hiding more, overgrooming, or eating less needs a veterinary exam before anything else, because pain, dental disease, and urinary problems all read as anxiety from the outside.

Once a medical cause has been ruled out, daily support can sit alongside that trigger work rather than replacing it. Under The Weather's Calming Powder For Cats is veterinarian-formulated and mixes into wet food, which suits cats who object to anything unfamiliar in the bowl. We are not veterinarians, so check with yours first, particularly for a cat under five pounds, a cat who is unwell, or one already on prescription medication.

In practice, "my cat does not like catnip" is rarely the end of the experiment. It is a result, and a useful one. It tells you to test silver vine galls next, to check how old the toy you have been offering actually is, and to stop asking a stimulant to do a sedative's job. Those are three separate decisions, and only one of them involves buying more catnip.