(Emphasis mine.)
Source: http://www.vet.purdue.edu/depts/addl/toxic/plant07.htm
If Purdue University’s School of Veterinary Science says it’s OK, who am I to argue?
It’s morally wrong to give your cat his first hit free if you plan on charging him for the future ones, but other than that you’re okay.
I can see no harm in it. The cat enjoys it, there are no negative side effects. Perhaps the OP is expressing concern about being amused by a stoned cat? I see no harm there either.
I have noticed, after Tiger gets a new hit of catnip, that there are a staggering amount of empty pizza boxes laying about and cheech and chong playing on the turntable.
I’m not sure if this is all connected.
Anywhooo, Being that my cat has chewed thru all the cat nip toys ( I strongly suspect he has never had it in his four years of life prior to coming to his new home.) I just give him a pinch or so of the dried stuff. No ill effects and no incessant babbling of Grand Ideas…yet.
Now onto my new question: Does cat nip affect Lions (and other big felines) as well? Have the zoo animals ever been given this?
What plant is catnip related to?
Catnip is in the mint family, so it’s related to peppermint, spearmint, et al.
We had to put one of our cats on a 12-step program. She gets the munchies when she’s stoned on the nip, and got simply too huge for her own good. We had to stage a kitty intervention. It was ugly - the fur was flying! (OK, not so much. But we do limit her to once or twice a month now.)
I use catnip tincture (Alcohol extract) medicinally, and one day came home to a shattered bottle on the kitchen floor. Somehow, she had smelled the nip in extract form through a glass bottle and pushed the bottle to the edge of the counter and off. The bottle broke, and I came home to a deleriously happy and wet kitty lying in the middle of a pool of catnip, drunk and high as a loon.
I now keep the catnip tincture in a locked closet. Seriously. She was like a junkie trying to find more.
cats should take moral responsibility for their own problems and not expect the guvmint to solve all their problems for them…oh, hang on, wrong board.
Oh! Where can I buy a bottle of the stuff? What medical use does it have?
The dangers of catnip.
My Sister had a cat named Pook. He was a largew and fierce cat.
The neighbor had a nice herb garden including a catnip plant.
The ruffian of a cat, ripped the plants out including the roots and brought it home.
Just say no to Catnip. After all it is a gateway drug. 
jrfranchi, does your sister live in Georgia?
No, this was in the Highlands in NJ. Mr. Pook is now long dead, this happened around 1982. The good news is despite his addiction and penchant for fighting larger creatures, he lived to be 20.
I double bagged. Catnip inside of a bag, inside of a ziplock bag…and kitty chewed through both!
[herb geek hijack]
Catnip is usesful for colds and coughs (it reduces muscle spasm and loosens mucus), headaches and easing tension and promoting sleep. It’s also good for digestion and upset tummies in much the same way peppermint is. It’s a carminative, and is used for gas pains and colic in infants and young children. It’s calming (to humans!) and may be helpful along with lemon balm in treatment of ADHD in children. Best brewed from fresh cut plants, it can also be used in tincture or dried tea form. The essential oil of catnip (very hard to find), is a bug repellent shown to be more effective than DEET in laboratory tests. It is especially good at repelling cockroaches!
google catnip medicinal for more information and cites.
[Insert standard herbal disclaimer here. Check with your doctor before taking any herbs, even though he’s not trained in their use. :rolleyes: ]
[/hgh]
Try storing your dried catnip in a ziplock bag in the freezer. It actually keep longer (give it a rub between your fingers to release all those yummy essential oils when you give it to your cat.) and, until cats figure out how to grow opposable thumbs or work in teams, they can’t open freezer doors.
I have actually seen cats work as a team to open stuff up and break things open. Even a cat & dog team to get fortune cookies. (Why I do not know).
But I have never seen a cat get a freezer open.
I have seen a dog that could open a fridge door with his nose.
So watch out if your cat and dog get along, they might outsmart you.
Actually, my vet says it’s 10-20% that don’t react. I have one that loves it and one that thinks I’m nuts for pouring dust on her blanky.
We would rub catnip on the carpeted scratching board for one of our cats, and she would writhe all over it for 10-15 minutes, drooling copiously and ending up all damp and spike-furred. Then she would have to sleep it off, then have a thorough bath all over. Kept her occupied for hours.
You mean, like tobacco?
The answers are “yes” and “yes.” In my misspent youth I went often to the zoo, and often engaged in antisocial acts which would have been frowned upon had I been busted. I used to bring small squares of terry cloth and spray tincture of catnip (haven’t seen it in a while, catnip aerosol) and I would hose the cloths down and poke them into the cat cages. All the cats, from servals to Siberian tigers went batshit for it. Generally it all worked out well, but one nasty male jaguar swatted the hell out of a female to get the cloth away from her. I felt bad about that one. You haven’t seen funny until you’ve seen a bunch of lions goofing on the nip, man…
I also used to bring my chihuahua to the zoo with me zipped into a carrybag–this also perks up big cats, especially getting barked at. Did you know tiny dogs can tree cougars? Very odd, that.
Is it immoral to feed a dehydrated cat water from an Anheuser-Bush water can?
Before you go ahead and buy some, you might want to check and see if its legal in Saudi Arabia. I wouldn’t want to hear of your cat getting its right paw chopped off.