Benefits of catnip for cats

Cats are often said to be strict carnivores and for good reason. But any carnivorous diet also has its share of plants. 

Cat owners already know it. To see the interest that your cat can have in a pot of fresh grass, you wonder if it's natural? Is it good for their health? How to give them the grass?

Catnip actually refers to two things that are quite similar. On the one hand, the grass that the cat will therefore consume for its needs, and then, also refers to herbs with particular smells, and which appeal to the cat (without necessarily eating them). 

In both cases, it meets his needs and is not dangerous for his health, on the contrary.

 Benefits of catnip for cats

Contents of this article:

1- Catnip: why he likes to smell it?
2- A carnivore also needs vegetable fiber
3- What are the health catnip Benefits? Are there any risks?
4- Catnip, a drug for cats?

Read more: 10 Cat-Safe Plants for Your Home or Garden

1- Catnip: why he likes to smell it?

The cat is an extremely ritualized animal, and we gradually understand that the good psychological health of an animal, whatever it is, depends on the realization of its natural behaviors, in particular rituals. 

This provides relaxation, the release of soothing hormones, and decreases stress and anxiety. 

For the cat, many of these rituals can be basic needs: 

Grooming

use of scratching posts, etc… and naturally, everything that revolves around food pleasure can give rise to ritualization; the grass is no exception.

Eats grass

it rubs itself in the twigs before nibbling them. He spends time smelling the different plant essences, and he only nibbles on the most appetizing parts.

It is therefore a pleasure for your cat, in addition to biological interests. You can vary the plant essences and test your cat's preferences. 

Moreover, you will often see it in spite of you going towards some of your plants to nibble the leaves.

watch out for potentially toxic plants in your house.

Read more: How to Choose the Right Cat Litter?

A study focused on 4 essences: 

• Silver vine (which is used a lot in the manufacture of scratching posts),
• Catnip (commonly called "catnip"),
• Valerian.
• Honeysuckle is the one that offers the least interest for cats, but the 4 essences are still very attractive. Offering it in the cat's environment, available, is a good olfactory enrichment.

2- A carnivore also needs vegetable fiber

A strict carnivorous diet (that of the cat in particular) does not mean a meat-only diet. a carnivore eats animals, which means that he eats meat, but also fat, skin, hair, bones, and the digestive tract and its contents… there are many different elements and in particular a non-negligible vegetable part.

For a cat, it is estimated that about 5-10% of the plants are part of its diet. Most of it is the remains of plants in the intestines of rodents that it consumes, but it also eats some greenery, directly.

Generally, the cat has attracted the grass

It rubs its muzzle and whiskers in the grass and nibbles the end of the blades of grass. A cat that goes out will find its happiness without difficulty around our homes, but an indoor cat cannot fulfill this basic need, so we have to provide it ourselves.

The cat's mode of feeding is nibbling

You can add the grass to the daily distribution of food, leaving it self-service (and not necessarily in the same place, you can vary). The cat will then dispose of this food according to its wishes. This is in addition to his usual diet.

Read more: Causes of itching in cats

Do not hesitate to make a food transition

In order to guarantee that the cat digests the new food gradually if he discovers a passion for grass, offer him first gradually, for a fortnight, before leaving it at will, in order to avoid indigestion and vomiting.

 Benefits of catnip for cats

3- What are the health catnip Benefits? Are there any risks?

We often associate this habit with a purge, because indeed, it happens to see the cat throwing up a few blades of grass after eating it (especially when he is not used to it). The adage is true, even if it is not the primary function of the grass ingested. 

But indeed, vegetable fibers will play a mechanical role in digestion, helping transit. They are therefore not digested, and the interest of fibers in the diet of a carnivore is not so much nutritional, they mainly help the good health of the digestive tract. 

Talking about purging is therefore probably exaggerated, but plants and fibers also contribute to the balance of the intestinal flora.

There is therefore little risk, apart from a food intolerance causing reactions such as vomiting, which is prevented with the food transition. 

Not only does adding grass to your cat's diet correspond better to his natural needs, but in addition the distribution is easy and without risk, you might as well not deprive yourself and offer him this pleasure.

Read more: How to calm a stressed cat?

4- Catnip, a drug for cats?

The cat's response to certain essences may surprise you the association is often made with taking psychotropic drugs. Unfortunately, there is a lack of studies to fully understand this phenomenon, but it would indeed seem that plant molecules, although producing no effect on us, have chemical activities comparable to certain psychotropic drugs in the cat's brain. 

But rest assured, the comparison stops there the biological consequences of these odors are a more relaxed, calmer, and less stressed cat, without the sedative or health effects. 

We can't even talk about addiction, since cats are generally interested in the fragrant object only 2 or 3 times a day, and they know how to stay balanced.

Catnip is therefore an interesting tool, playing on the primordial sense of the cat. 

Offering a variety of smells to the cat and stimulating its sense of smell is like stimulating our eyes with a beautiful film or a beautiful painting it's a necessary entertainment for its well-being and its balance!

I hope I explained the information well. 

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