About silver vine and cat nip

NEPETA plants are also called catnip or cat mint because it contains nepetalactone, a feel-good compound that many cats adore. Silver vine is often called Asian and Japanese catnip because it has the same effect. However, silver vine is a member of the Actinidia genus whereas nip is from the Nepeta genus.

Tests show that kittens aged less than three months don’t react to nip at all. In some cases, cats aren’t interested until they are one or two years old. Also, about half the adult cat population thinks it’s the bees knees – the other half can’t be bothered.

Silver vine seems to appeal to more cats than nip although definitive studies don’t appear to have been conducted yet.

In most cases, the effect of both plants is temporary. Cats go wild for about half an hour, and then the toy is ignored. Nip can be ignored for days whereas cats seem to go back to silver vine much faster – sometimes within hours. Either way, rationing toys is one way to make sure they stay useful.

On the plus side, nip and vine toys can encourage a lazy cat to exercise.

You can also wind nip-and-vineinfused rope around a cat scratch post to redirect claws from your sofa to the designated scratching place.

One problem is that some cats become aggressive when playing with these plants. Also, very young or very old cats might exhaust themselves. Under these circumstances, sensible owners ration toy playtime.

You can buy vine and toys from Bin at sillylupie-shop.blogspot.com or sillylupie@gmail.com, from pet shops, or you can grow your own plants.

Just look for any plant whose scientific name starts with Nepeta and Actinidia.