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Old 10-16-2020, 08:30 AM   #7
Bruno
 
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
Default Re: Would catnip affect catfolk?

The effect of catnip seems to last a maximum of 30 minutes (often less) and after which the cat is "immune" for a period of time. Susceptibility to catnip is age dependent - it usually kicks in around 6 months, but it can come in earlier - and a full 40% of cats just don't care. That said, a proportion of the cats who like catnip get a lesser effect from mint plants.

There's an alternative to catnip, silvervine, which is presented as dried twigs or ground into sawdust/cinnamon-bark like dust. It seems that more cats react to silvervine, but whether they do or not is unrelated to whether they react to catnip. IE you can have a cat who reacts to one, the other, both, or neither. The effect is pretty much like catnip, however.

A combination of the two would be a more popular product because it's more reliable to work. It has a short duration and no apparent lingering effects, so I'd expect it to be a very popular form of entertainment. It's also cheap, and I wouldn't be surprised to find lots of catfolk growing one or the other themselves.

Also, you'd end up with catfolk in your garden, rolling in your mint plants. Which if they've gone out of control, like my mint plants did, might be a mercy.

Cats on catnip
* grind their faces into it, rubbing their facial scent glands all over it. Catfolk have hands, and would probably grab handfuls to rub all over their faces.
* roll around on the ground in it, and in general. The rolling is very like a female cat in heat, although it affects both genders. Catfolk might roll around, or instead dance around and flirt?
* chew on it. Catfolk would be the same
* get excited but uncoordinated and impulsive. I mean, even more impulsive than usual for cats.
* Some seem to instead "bliss out", but it's usually a highly stimulating effect.

I'd compare it more to a very weak and short duration party drug like ecstasy, than alcohol and pot. There doesn't seem to be any hallucinogenic effects (... hard to tell since you can't ask them, but that's the guess right now) - instead it's very similar to a cat sexual pheromone, but really powerful. So it triggers the same kind of playful, goofy, flirty behavior regardless of the sex of the cat and whether they're neutered, then they get overstimulated and stop responding for a while. Compare two hormone crazed teenagers who aren't at the groping/kissing stage - they can be very playful and silly, or very cuddly and snugly. And silly.
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Last edited by Bruno; 10-16-2020 at 08:33 AM.
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