It depends on your cat. The bond between cats and Nepeta is not the same from one animal to the next. Some cats love the plant and roll all over it. Others walk past and feel nothing at all. Whether your cat reacts comes down to its genes and the kind of Nepeta you grow in your yard.
Put two cats in front of the same catmint plant and you can watch them react in opposite ways. One flops down, rubs its face in the leaves, and rolls back and forth in pure bliss. The other sniffs once and strolls off without a second look. So do cats like catmint? Many do, but a big share of cats simply do not respond, and you cannot tell which kind you have until your cat meets the plant.
Roughly one in three cats has no reaction at all. This trait is inherited, so a cat either has the response or it does not. You cannot train it into a cat that lacks the gene. Kittens under three months old usually ignore the plant too. The response often fades in very old cats, so an older pet may stop caring about a bed it once loved.
The trigger is a scent compound called nepetalactone. The plant makes this oil in its leaves and stems. When your cat sniffs it, the molecule binds to receptors in the nose. That signal travels to the brain and sets off the rolling, drooling, and head-rubbing you watch from across the room. The link between nepetalactone cats respond to is the whole reason these plants earn the catnip name. Crushing or bruising a few leaves releases more of the oil, so a brushed plant near a path will pull in more cats than an untouched one.
How strong the reaction gets depends on the species you plant. True catnip is the big one. Its formal name is Nepeta cataria, and it makes the most oil of any catmint. So it pulls the biggest response by far. Ornamental catmints hold much less of the oil. They draw in fewer cats and milder reactions. The effect itself splits two ways. Some cats get wired and playful, while others go calm and sleepy. You cannot pick which way your cat will go, since that too is baked into its wiring.
According to NC State Extension, many cats are drawn to catnip, but the plant can cause vomiting and diarrhea in some of them. That is why a small group of cats seems to dislike it after the fact, even if they liked the smell at first. For most cats the plant is harmless. The fun wears off in about ten minutes, and your cat then needs a break of an hour or two before it responds again. You can offer the plant fresh or dried, and dried leaves often pack a stronger punch.
So is catmint safe for cats? For most of them, yes. Keep an eye on your cat the first few times it meets the plant and watch for any stomach upset. If your cat throws up or has loose stool after a session, pull the plant from its reach and give it a rest. If you want fewer cats digging in your beds, plant ornamental catmints instead of true catnip. You get the same purple flowers and tough, drought-friendly growth with much less appeal to the neighborhood cats. That trade keeps your border lush while it spares you from cats trampling your young plants.
Read the full article: Nepeta Plant: Care, Varieties, and Growing
