Can Baby Kittens Have Catnip
But of course you won t want to give a kitten too much catnip as over ingesting can lead to vomit and diarrhea and kittens have much smaller bodies and thus lower tolerances in general than full grown cats.
Can baby kittens have catnip. But you won t know if your kitten is one of them until sometime between ages 3 and 6 months. He may wind up falling in love with his catnip toys when he gets a little older but don t be discouraged if he never seems to care. Catnip s allure is in its volatile oil. The herb s influence is genetic so not all cats respond to it according to the humane society of the united states.
What exactly is catnip. Large cats like tigers can be sensitive to it as well. Read more here to learn more about this great little plant and why cats love it so much. It s perfectly safe to give a kitten small amounts of catnip however.
About one cat in two inherits a sensitivity to the herb. Very young kittens and older cats seem less likely to have a. If he s still young give it some time. Most cats must be at least six months old before they ll react.
These hard wired preferences aren t immediately apparent though since kittens under the age of 3 months don t react to catnip at all. The catnip reaction is inherited and some cats are totally unaffected by it. Newborn kittens aren t usually responsive to catnip at all until they are about 3 months of age. It is generally considered safe to use catnip for kittens but it is important to note that some cats may not prove very interested in the herb especially kittens that are younger than two to three months old and some elderly cats.
Even then about 1 3rd of cats won t react at all and another 1 3rd are moderately affected. If a kitten is going to be a catnip lover you usually can tell that when he is 3 to 6 months old. Cats must inherit the tendency to react to catnip not all felines do. Some cats become like a lazy drunk while others get a wired up crazy.
Among those cats who do like catnip you ll find two basic kinds of reactions. Kittens although catnip is totally harmless and safe around kittens both to smell and to eat it isn t necessarily effective. Only about 1 3rd of cats react strongly to catnip.