When giving your cat catnip for the first time, you may wonder – how fast does catnip work?
Knowing when to expect the effect helps to understand whether the herb works on your cat and whether the dose was correct.
The answer depends on many factors, the primary being how catnip was administered. The market is overflown with catnip products – loose herb, toys, sprays, bubbles, tinctures, and treats, to name a few.
We can ascribe all these products into two categories: intended for eating and intended for inhaling. Substances typically work faster when they are inhaled than when they are ingested.
However, the effect’s timeline also depends on a cat’s metabolism, catnip dose, and whether a cat has a tolerance.
Inhaling Catnip
How quickly catnip works depends on whether it was ingested or inhaled. When inhaled, catnip works almost instantly, although some cats need more time to feel the effects – up to 10 minutes.
Inhaling a substance is the fastest way to feel its effects, and catnip isn’t an exception. Inhaling something helps bypass the time-release mechanism of the gastroenteric tract.
To understand why inhaling catnip has such an immediate effect, it may be worth learning how catnip works. Nepetalactone, a chemical in catnip that mimics feline mating pheromones, must first enter the bloodstream before reaching the brain.
Nepetalactone binds to protein receptors responsible for stimulating sensory neurons, provoking a response in the brain’s amygdala region, a neuronal cluster mediating emotional responses.
The element also affects the hypothalamus, the brain’s “control center” that regulates everything from emotions to breathing and the feeling of hunger.
When a cat sniffs catnip, nepetalactone vapors instantly hit the nasal membrane and are absorbed into the bloodstream. Although the way from the nose to the head isn’t far, nepetalactone must first travel throughout all vital organs.
Only after the element goes through the entire body does it enter the brain, and the cat feels its effect. Consequently, the way through the nasal membrane to the brain doesn’t take seconds, as it may seem, but it’s relatively quick.
The effect of inhaling catnip differs from ingesting catnip because nepetalactone doesn’t get metabolized. Simply put, the concentration of nepetalactone is higher when a cat sniffs catnip than when it eats the herb.
As a result, catnip has a more noticeable stimulating effect when inhaled, causing cats to exhibit a reaction similar to the behavior of cats in heat and making them more playful.
Usually, catnip kicks in suddenly, but the effect wears off gradually. A cat doesn’t return to normal in a second, but it becomes less agitated little by little.
The speed of the catnip effect set-off doesn’t differ depending on the product. Whether a cat sniffs loose catnip, plays with a catnip toy, or smells a bed sprayed with catnip oil, the result will be the same.
Ingesting Catnip
When a cat ingests catnip, the effect doesn’t occur instantly, as in the scenario with inhaling catnip. That’s because the active element, nepetalactone, has to surpass more obstacles before reaching the brain and doing its magic.
Any substance that is swallowed must first reach the digestive tract, which takes some time. Then, the chemical elements must be absorbed into the bloodstream through the stomach lining and intestines.
However, even when nepetalactone enters the bloodstream, it doesn’t have an instant effect. First, it travels into the liver, where it is metabolized, causing a reduction in the active element. Finally, the element travels into the brain.
This effect is called first-pass metabolism or first-pass effect, where a substance’s concentration reduces before it reaches the systemic circulation. As a result, inhaled catnip has a different effect from when it is administered orally.
How fast catnip works when ingested depends on a cat’s peculiarities and the dose, but most cats feel the effect after half an hour to an hour. Some cats may feel it slightly sooner or later.
Ingested catnip has a sedative effect, causing a cat to become sleepy and mellow. Some cats may become disoriented, lose focus, and purr continuously.
When ingested, catnip doesn’t make cats roll on the ground or be hyperactive and doesn’t cause aggression. However, ingested catnip may cause a gastroenteric upset in some cats.
The described effect occurs when a cat eats loose catnip or eats catnip treats. If a cat sniffs loose catnip or plays with a catnip toy, catnip will kick in instantly and have a different effect.
Why Does Catnip Take So Long to Work?
Sometimes, catnip takes unusually long to work. Different reasons may cause the effect to set off late. The first one is a cat’s slow metabolism. If a cat’s body works and pumps blood through the organs slowly, catnip will take more time to reach the brain.
For this reason, older cats may need more time to feel catnip effects. Another possible explanation is that catnip has lost its potency. Over time, catnip becomes less potent, similar to how cooking herbs give less flavor when they get old.
The less nepetalactone is in catnip, the slower the effect will occur. So, if your cat doesn’t react to catnip as fast as before, the chances are that you need to buy a new bag of catnip or refresh the catnip toy.
Sometimes, the reason is tolerance. Cats that have catnip too often become less responsive to its effects, and some may lose responsiveness entirely.
If you suspect that your cat might have catnip tolerance, make a pause for a few weeks and is if that helps.
Why Doesn’t the Catnip Work?
You gave your catnip and wait, wait, wait, but the effect doesn’t occur. Zero changes in the cat’s behavior. If your cat doesn’t react to catnip, the chances are that it has been unresponsive to its effects since birth.
According to research, only 50%-75% of cats are responsive to catnip, meaning that another 25%-50% lack a gene responsible for recognizing nepetalactone. Such cats will never experience the catnip “high.”
However, a lack of responsiveness to catnip doesn’t mean you cannot sedate or stimulate a cat – try catnip alternatives, such as silvervine and Tatarian honeysuckle.
Because catnip mimics feline mating pheromones, kittens do not react to it. They cannot yet recognize mating pheromones, so most kittens show no interest in the herb.
In the best-case scenario, a kitten will play with a catnip toy as if it was a regular toy. Thus, don’t expect a kitten to react to catnip – whether in 15 minutes or an hour after ingesting or inhaling it.
Catnip may also stop working because of tolerance. Similar to how people develop tolerance to caffeine, nicotine, and other addictive substances, cats need more and more catnip to feel the same effect if they consume it frequently.
The only difference is that catnip doesn’t cause an addiction. Cats cannot resist it, but they don’t have withdrawals when they can’t have catnip.
Lastly, a cat may not experience any effect if the catnip dose is too low. This is a common problem with ingesting catnip. When a cat smells catnip, it can sniff as much as it pleases until it feels the effect.
However, to feel the effect of ingesting catnip, a cat must eat enough. The tricky part is that catnip manufacturers don’t provide any dosage instructions, and that’s because there are no universal guidelines.
How much catnip to give a cat depends on a cat’s weight, age, and whether it has a tolerance. As a rule of thumb, half of a teaspoon of catnip is enough for cats that don’t have catnip frequently.
Cats of larger breeds may need to eat a tablespoon of loose catnip to feel its effects for a long time.
How Long Does Catnip Effect Last?
How long the catnip effect lasts depends on how it was administered, the dose, the cat’s metabolism speed, and other factors. When a cat inhales catnip, it enters the brain faster than when a cat ingests it, so the effect doesn’t last as long.
The effect of inhaling catnip only lasts for 10-30 minutes in most cats, although it may wear off quicker if the dose is low.
The effect is unlikely to last longer than half an hour because a cat cannot smell more catnip than it should. In contrast, the effect of ingesting catnip lasts for a good while.
Most cats will remain sleepy for an hour or two after ingesting catnip, but some may experience the effect for longer. For example, if a cat has eaten fresh catnip flowers that are highly potent, it may be mellow throughout the entire day.
Some cats will only feel the effect for 20-30 minutes because the dose is low or a cat has already developed tolerance to the herb.
Catnip’s effect always wears off gradually, so you won’t notice a drastic difference. A cat will simply become less energetic until it returns to the norm.
Cats cannot experience the effect of catnip again as soon as its effect wears off because they temporarily lose responsiveness to nepetalactone. Most cats regain responsiveness to catnip is several hours.