I have 3 cats. 2 adore, 1 cat don't.

Catmint has purplish flowers. Catnip has white flowers. They are very close cousins, but apparently your kitties only want the nip! Some cats also like valerian, believe it or not!

I agree with Herbalbetty. A small percentage of cats are not affected by catnip. Your description does sound like catmint, though, and it usually has less of an affect on cats than catnip. Catnip will have a definite "skunky" odor when crushed, especially when grown in full sun.

True catnip (nepeta cataria if I remember correctly) has largeish leaves with roughly jagged edges. The link at the bottom is a typical looking catnip plant. It's also true that only a certain percentage of cats are really affected by it.

As an aside, I planted some catnip as a distraction to local cats and also to harvest some for my own indoor cat, and was surprised at their toughness. A day after I planted my 3 seedlings, one had every single leaf eaten off it once the cats discovered the patch. It was down to nothing more than a bit of stem. I wrote it off as a goner, but the cats layed off after the inital euphoria and now the plant is healthy again. Quite impressive.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:894110}}

Thanks for the info. On closer inspection of the plant tag, I see that I have catmint, not catnip.

As a treat I once did the catnip thing for my indoor cats. I have never seen such scorn on a feline face... These were the same cats who would climb your leg for dried catnip. (And yes, I did have really truly catnip, not catmint...) There's no explaining a feline. One of the beasts mowed down pots of thyme repeatedly, just as I was about to snip it to cook with. I probably would have killed her, but her breath smelled so sweet....!

Could you by any chance have lemon scented catmint/catnip? I purposely bought this one so that the neighbourhood cats wouldn't get to it.

Andy sa, it doesn't have a lemony scent at all, so I don't think it's that. My cats do seem to prefer dried catnip to fresh. Incidentally, I gave one of my cats a tiny sprig of lemon thyme today and she loved it!

My cats only like it after it's dried. They turn their nose up at the freshly-cut leaves.

I was actually surprised a while back to learn that something like 50% of all cats could care less about catnip. I forget where I read it, but I think it was that high.

Also, they said that kittens are rarely effected by it. Usually cats don't start enjoying it till they're over a year old.

Is there a 12 step program for cats who are addicted to Catnip? My Buddy and Paddy are pathetic "Nipaholics". I enjoy it in a night time tea myself.

I also read about kittens not liking catnip until they're older, but we recently acquired a feral kitten at 6 weeks old and he loves the stuff.
Several years ago we had 6 cats and only one wasn't interested, yet his sister was. And they say the trait is genetic. You just never know...
In any case Yukichan, you need to go back to the nursery and pick up some real catnip for your babies!

Over the years I have had several cats. I have found that most ignore catnip. But of the ones that liked it they were equally divided between dry and fresh lovers. Most of the fresh lovers prefered it still attached to the stem. You can put a wire basket over the central plant to protect the base. During late winter I have almost lost the plants.

Most of the cats loved pots of lemon grass during the winter. Since cats are supposed to dislike citrus mine must have mental problems.

Maifleur, one of my cats likes lemongrass, too. She also pulls up the 'catgrass' and eats the whole sprout, roots and all. I've dried some catmint, and the insiders are enjoying that, though they're not as berserk as they get when I give them the dried stuff from the store.

My kitty Salem is a year old now I believe (I need to check the calendar). A few months ago he didn't care for catnip at all, until about a month ago. I snipped a piece, put it in his face and he went nuts! Then he didn't want it anymore. But now, I've caught him laying all over it. He just loves it. Fortunately he doesn't bite it, he only smashes it. I'll be prunning it soon. So maybe I'll save the clippings and let them dry. I'm not sure what affect the dry catnip with have on him. He's insane! He just pulled a "spiderman." I have cages over my strawberry plants to protect them from him (he lays all over the plants), and he likes to jump on the cages. We'll he just found out I'm at the computer (he heard me through the window), so he jumped on one of the cages and took a flying leap and jumped onto the window screen and hung there like Spidy! Now I have 6 holes in my screen...nice! He's insane! I'm just glad he hasn't taken a liking to my Lemon Grass.

Tania ~_~