The Grass Doctor

At what age does cat grass take effect in cats?

I have a 5 week old cat and bought cat grass seeds, I want to know if it'll effect him before I plant them.

Public Comments

1. ??? Cats like to eat grass but not until they're on solid food. It'll take a couple of weeks at least before any grass is ready in any case. I'd go ahead and plant it.
2. He doesn't want or need the grass at all. Some cats will chew on it to aid in digestion when they are adults. Wait about a year as he won't really need it. If he is an indoor cat and after he graduates to adult food, feed a formula for indoor cats if you want. Also, then grow the grass. I've had very few cats that ever ate it.
3. I don't understand the question but if you are talking about what it will do to a kitten its isn't a good idea to let them eat grass until they would be completely weened by the mother in normal situations which is about 3 months time if she is left to do it on her own with her kits. If you want to know what effect it has on a cat, then cats eat grass to settle an upset tummy. Too much grass and they WILL throw up. That is why they eat it. I keep some in my house that I grow for my adult cats and it sets in their room. I grow mine in water rather than in soil so that the dirt isn't an issue. I also give them all natural hairball remover so that they keep from getting a mass of hairball in their stomach that they cannot pass. Then surgery is required to remove it.
4. Let's define things first - What is called cat grass is generally seeds for grass or oats, or another type of plant that cats can nibble on. Cats will often eat grass when they are nauseous to help them throw up. Some also eat a bit as a treat. Pet stores sell small plastic containers with grass or oats seeds in potting mixture. You open it up, pour in water and in a few days it sprouts and you offer it to the cats. You can also just grab a handful of grass off the lawn - but not if it has been treated with any chemicals - and give that to your cats. Catnip, however, is a plant that contains substances which, for some cats, produces a euphoria which would probably make it illegal if it effected humans the same way :-) Cats do not get "high" on catnip, as humans do on pot, but it will definitely make some of them act very silly. Most cats will also eat it. There are, however, some cats that become "mean drunks" on catnip. Our Rusty was like that - I would rub catnip on the scratching post and then put some on the floor by it and Rusty would roll around in it for a while and then get on top of the scratching post and swat at everyone else who came to the catnip. After a few minutes he would jump down and wander away - a bit unsteadily. Some cats are affected by catnip all the time and some cats are only affected by it part of the time and there are some who aren't affected at all - perhaps except for eating some of it. As to the age at which it will affect them - we usually don't see any reaction to catnip until a kitten is around 4 to 6 months old. Your 5 week old kitten will ignore it. If the seeds you have are catnip seeds, go ahead and plant them in a pot or in a part of the yard. It is better to wait for warm weather since, even though they might sprout in cold weather, they will probably die back. If you plant them properly and they grow well, let them self seed and you will have plants every year. If you take the time to pot up the seedlings after they are a few inches tall, you can wind up with a lot of plants that you can give to your friends who have cats and plants you can move inside easily in the fall. If you plant catnip in the right spot outside and let it self seed, you can have catnip forever. One year we had so much that when I harvested the last of it - I generaly just pull up the plants after they have stopped producing new leaves, or at least have pretty much stopped. That one year I brought enough inside to cover the seat of a large chair with perhaps a 2 inch layer. Rusty found it and rolled around on it forever. I found him dead to the world on a cushion of catnip a couple of hours later. We had a lot of catnip that year :-) If you can keep the plants watered every day during high temperatures, you can grow them in full sun. If you cannot keep them watered - every day - don't plant them in full sun, and they will still do remarkably well. If they dry out badly, as they would in full sun and were not watered every day, they will get very leggy (stringy and tall) and produce few leaves and bolt to seed. In the proper location with the proper amount of water, you can get some very big plants. When you go to harvest catnip, just nip off the tops of stems with your fingernails. If you nip off the new leaves budding out at the top of stems, the plant will get broader instead of higher. If allowed to grow without nipping off new top buds or if you let them dry out, catnip plants can quickly get very leggy and will stop producing new leaves. The more you harvest, the more the plants will produce so harvest all season. I also nip off the first few weeks of flower heads to keep the plant growing but towards the end of the season I just let them go to seed and drop seeds to the ground. Those seeds general sprout well the next season - sometimes, if you have mild winter, they will actually sprout before spring. Harvest the seed pods (except for the last of them so the plants will self seed) and the stems. Cats react to them just like they do the leaves. If it is too cold to plant the catnip seeds outside right now, try them in a pot inside where they will get a lot of sun. Whether cats will destroy plants by getting on them or into the pot varies cat to cat. We have had cats who take any opportunity to lay on top of a plant outside or in a big pot and others who will nibble at plants but not harm them. No need to wait until your kittens are old enough to be affected by catnip, grow it and dry it and it will remain potent for a very long time. If you have a gas oven with a pilot light that is always on, put the leaves (and stems) on newspaper on the oven rack and they will dry out nicely in a few days - don't forget the newspaper is in there before you go to use the oven :-) When it is dry, put it all in an air tight container and store it out of the light - in a cabinet or such. When you go to give the cats some, take some and crumble it up between your palms, rub some on the scratching post and put the rest on the floor and let them have at it. They may play with it for quite a while or they may nibble at it and walk away - you can never be sure from time to time. We make little toys for our cats by taking a bit of fabric - denim works well - about 4" square, folded it in half, stitched up two sides, stuffed with some catnip, and then stitched up on the final side. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. Good catnip can remain potent for a very long time -- for years sometimes. Dorian found one of the fabric toys when we moved the sofa a couple of weeks ago that must have been under there for a couple of years. He and the others went wild over it. I saw one of them with it just a day or two a go. As I said, your 5 week old kitten will ignore it now, but when he gets older, he will likely react to it. So, go ahead and plant it now and have some when your cat is old enough. You can build up quite a supply that will remain potent for a long time. As I said, I re-pot seedlings each year to give to our friends who have cats. Our letter carrier has cats and I told her to help herself when she needs some. The key is to keep catnip watered - if it drys out it will likely pretty much stop growing. It may not die completely, but the growth will will be drastically reduced.