Is Catnip dangerous for Cats?

A long time ago the first human beings discovered the astonishing effects that catnip has on cats. Delighted by the amusing behavior of a cat being "high" on catnip they created toys filled with that herb. Those toys are nowadays pretty common and almost every cat has its own "dope" at home.

A small Documentary about Catnip and its Consequences

Catnip belongs like the common peppermint herb to the mint family. Its a native resident in southern Europe, Africa and Asia.

Neither the catnip that's filled into the toys nor the catnip that grows on our balcony or garden is directly noxious for cats. (But beware: There is one exception: The Matabi plant is related to common catnip and causes a strong addiction that makes cats stop eating and drinking until they die in some cases. The Matabi plant, though, only grows in certain parts of Asia and is not for sale in Europe or Northern America.)

The component that's so incredibly attractive to cats is the essential oil within the catnip plant. Cat's can smell and find it from kilometers away. Just like peppermint oil the pure oil of the catnip plant in high concentrations leads to skin irritations of both cats and human beings.

The concentrated oil, though, is usually nowhere for sale and so rare that it isn't dangerous to any cat and its owner at all.

There is another point, though, that's got a more dangerous character than the possible irritations catnip oil can cause (especially since almost every essential oil causes skin irritations used in a high dosage): It's the condition a cat is transferred to when confronted with catnip.

Catnip seems to be a Hallucinatory

Catnip causes trance-like conditions for approximately 50% of the cat population. Those conditions can be compared with trips human beings get on LSD.

A usual catnip-"trip" takes between 5 and 20 minutes - depending on the dosage of the herb or its oil, the age of the leaves (fresh catnip makes higher than dried leaves) and the kind of catnip.

The cat incessantly sniffs the catnip, licks the leaves, gnaws them, rolls over them and rubs its fur on the plant. The cat is in a condition far away from reality. It knows nothing but the plant as long as the trip takes.

Some cats even seem to have visions impassively staring into the void, haunting imaginary prey or cutting capers.

Catnip in Moderation is Harmless

You as a cat owner should overthink your attitude toward catnip. It's more than a mere toy. It's a druglike device that can lead to negative consequences like the loss of reality. Or would you hand out marihuana or LSD to people you like for your own amusement if it was legal? Think about it!

On the other hand cats don't seem to get abstinence syndromes (like a headache) after a catnip-"trip". Therefore the occasional play with a catnip toy is neither dangerous nor reprehensible.

Allowing your cat to have a "trip" once a week, can't really be harmful. Most of us can openers also drink a glass of vine or beer on our weekend!

How you can cook Cat Food Yourself

There are a lot of reasons to switch canned and dry cat food from the supermarket for your own self made cat food.

Be it that you want to cater a new kind of taste for your cat or that you are suspicious of a product that's entirely made of offal in times of avian and pig flu.

Even cat's that are refusing to eat their usual food (e.g. when they are sick) sometimes react very positive to self made food.

Lots of studies indicate how superior self made cooked or raw food is compared even to the most expensive cat food. And, believe us, your furry nosed friend will also know the difference!

Alternative Cat Diet: B.A.R.F.

The so called natural diet BARF (it means both Bones And Raw Food or Biologically Appropriate Raw Food depending on who you ask) which was originally used by dog breeders has also swapped into the cat owner communities. Today a lot of cat breeders feed their cats appropriate raw food which keeps their cats stronger and healthier than with canned food. Barfing is more than a mere trend: More and more vets advice their patient's owners to try the new diet because raw food is so much closer to the original diet wild cats ate before they were domesticated.

Of course, a grown cat who ate dry and canned food all her life won't eat raw meat from one moment to the other - no matter with how much love you cooked it. The changeover from normal cat food to B.A.R.F. takes time and patience.

Therefore we advice you (especially if you only want to cook cat food as a variation to her usual food) to feed your cat diligently cooked meat enriched with some other things.

A Cat Food Recipe that you can cook Yourself:

Here is a good recipe that you can easily follow and even change on your own depending on which ingredients you have:

Ingredients (for 4 serving or 2 days):

- 200 g raw, natural (free of salt and other spices) chicken
- 10 g vegetables (for example broccoli) or (soaked) wheat bran
- 4 salmon oil capsules (for each dish one)

Preparation:
Cut the chicken into medium sized cubes (approximately 1-2 cm edge length). Remember: You want your cat to chew it and not to gobble it down.
Put it together with the hackled vegetables or the wheat bran into a pot and cover it with as little water as possible.
Heat the pot and let it boil for 5 to 10 minutes until the chicken is done. Pour off the water carefully and fill one fourth of the cat food into a clean feeding dish (The remaining three fourth of the food should cool down and be put into the fridge until you need them.).
Wait until the food is tepid. Now break the salmon oil capsule and mingle the oil with the food.

It's done. Call you cat!

PS: If you aren't disgusted by it you can also cook the giblets for your cat. Giblets and other innerts are abundant in vitamins and trace elements and also very popular among cats. So if you've got 50g of giblets you, of course, only take 150g of chicken instead of 200g.

This recipe can be changed easily. For example you can take fish instead of chicken or a different kind of vegetables.

You cat will love it!

Picture: CC 2.0 by Kai Hendry