Catnip and, well, cats. An excerpt from “Drunk Flies and Stoned Dolphins”

Hello everyone!

Here is, for your reading pleasure, and excerpt from my 2021 book, “Drunk Flies and Stoned Dolphins: A Trip Through the World of Animal Intoxication”. Chapter 6, pages 222-227. The numbers in the text are the actual notes in the book, should you wish to get more information.

This short excerpt features my grandcats 😊. Enjoy!

Hugs,

Oné

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CHILLING (OR NOT) WITH SOME CATS

A relatively common psychoactive substance that affects animals—and one with which you are likely to be familiar—is catnip. Nepeta cataria is a plant found the world over, and it was used in traditional medicine as an antipyretic (anti-fever) remedy in Europe for millennia.³¹

The main active component of catnip is nepetalactone, which is currently being investigated as a mosquito repellent,³² as an antimicrobial,³³ and as an analgesic,³⁴ among other applications of interest to humans. However, the best-known targets of catnip in general and nepetalactone in particular are cats, big and small. Despite the aforementioned medicinal effects of nepetalactone, as far as we know, cats actively pursue and consume catnip for pure pleasure.

Nepetalactone. Drawn by the author.

I have two grandcats; their loving human is my daughter, Giselle Vanessa (who is very much loved herself). Her first cat was Eluney,* a lovely, affectionate white-and-black male who nonetheless looks permanently pissed-off thanks to a natural expression that gives the dearly departed Grumpy Cat a run for his money. A few months after Eluney, Vanessa adopted Elara,** a sweet-looking calico beauty; alas, she is much, and I mean much, grumpier than Eluney. Her vet (Elara’s, not Vanessa’s) told Vanessa that the demeanor of calico females tends to be on the grumpy side in general, but as a dog person myself, I wouldn’t know.

My grandcats, Eluney (at right) and Elara (at left), neither under the influence of catnip. Courtesy of she who will always be my baby girl, my daughter, Giselle V. Pagán.

The behavior of my grandcats when on catnip is a perfect illustration of one of the principles we mentioned in chapter two, namely that with any psychoactive drug, the effect on a subject’s behavior has a lot to do with things like the subject’s sex and/or their specific genetic makeup. Upon being exposed to a catnip-containing toy, Eluney displays typical “high as a kite” behaviors; he gazes intently at the ceiling, looks very peaceful, and softly “meows” from time to time as if immersed in deep philosophical thoughts. In contrast, when Elara gets ahold of the same toy, she goes absolutely ballistic. She runs around Vanessa’s apartment as if fleeing from an unseen—yet obviously terrifying—enemy.

The influence of the sex of a cat on their response to catnip is well known,³⁵ as is the influence of specific genetic variables. And the behaviors displayed by Eluney and Elara are by no means a complete catalog of the effects that catnip has on house cats. Some other behaviors observed in cats “under the influence” include drooling, raking (kicking movements against the catnip-infused toy), and undulating skin (a wavelike motion of the skin on the cat’s back).³⁶

In both females and males, it is not uncommon to observe spontaneous mating,³⁷ while another, less active, option is the display of “sphinxlike behaviors,” which refers to “time sitting still in a sphinxlike position.”***

These varied responses help illustrate the wonders of pharmacology. Interestingly, a molecule very similar to nepetalactone functions as a pheromone in aphids.³⁸

As you may imagine, house cats are not the only felines sensitive to catnip. Nepetalactone seems to induce psychoactive effects in roughly 60 to 70 percent of a cat population, regardless of species, from house cats to tigers. For obvious reasons, research on the effect of catnip on big cats is relatively scarce, although not inexistent.³⁹ As expected, along with individual variation, there is a wide range of responses dependent on species as well. In a study on tigers, roughly half of the tested subjects were either indifferent or “responded disapprovingly” to catnip.⁴⁰ How does one measure “disapproval” in a tiger, anyway? Does it scowl at you? Does it go “tsk, tsk, tsk” while moving its head from side to side? I will leave this to the scientific literature, thank you very much.

Then there is this account of a tiger behaving in what is characterized, deadpan, as an “atypical” manner: “A young tiger, however, took one sniff [of catnip] and leaped several feet into the air, urinating in the process, then fell flat on his back. He scrambled to his feet and dashed head-first into the wall of his cage.”⁴¹

The effects of catnip have also been tested on the smallest wild cat in the world, the black-footed cat (Felis nigripes), which showed similar (though perhaps less amusing) levels of variation in its responses.⁴²

A popular hallucination-inducing substance among humans is ayahuasca, a brewed tea made from two plants, the yage vine (Banisteriopsis caapi, a source of dimethyltryptamine [DMT], a potent hallucinogen; Figure 6.5), and another plant, usually Psychotria viridis, which contains substances that slow the metabolic degradation of DMT. (The combination of both plants enhances the hallucinogenic experience.)⁴³

One of the most curious cases of big cats on drugs involves accounts of jaguars who consume yage, the “active” plant used in producing this psychoactive brew, and afterward behave for all intents and purposes as if they were hallucinating.

Dimethyltryptamine (DMT). Drawn by the author.

There is video documentation of jaguars who nibble on yage vine, and well, they do look high. Of course, as discussed many times now, the subjective nature of the experience of hallucination makes it difficult to ascertain the effect of hallucinatory substances on an individual, and this difficulty is even more pronounced when the individual is an animal (please recall the sea slugs in chapter five). There does not seem to be any scientific study into the possible neurochemical effects of yage consumption on jaguars (who do not complement their yage consumption with Psychotria leaves), and not everyone agrees as to whether the observed effects are truly suggestive of hallucination or if the jaguars are simply behaving as if they were drunk.⁴⁴

For now, it is an interesting possibility that warrants more investigation—but not, please, by feeding ayahuasca to your cat.

Copyright © 2021 by Oné R. Pagán

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* His name means “Gift from Heaven” in the native language of Taino Indians from Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.

** Elara is a character in Greek mythology and the name of one of Jupiter’s moons.

*** An unrelated fact I am nevertheless compelled to share: the plural of “sphinx” is “sphinges.”

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For more information about the book, please go to BenBella Books or wherever you get fine books.  Alternatively, you might go here.

Notes

32 Please see Sparks and collaborators (2017).

33 Please see Nestorović and collaborators (2010).

34 Please see Aydin and collaborators (1998). If we think about it, this is not so surprising after all. In its unprocessed form, catnip has a smell strongly reminiscent of mint, and mint can act as a weak local analgesic.

35 Please see Espin-Iturbe and collaborators (2017).

36 Please see Bol and collaborators (2017).

37 Please see Siegel (2005), page 62.

38 Please see Birkett and Pickett (2003) and Eisner (1964).

39 Please see Bol and collaborators (2017).

40 Please see Bol and collaborators (2017).

41 From Siegel (2005), page 62.

42 Please see Wells and Egli (2004). Despite its small size (no bigger than house cats, actually slightly smaller on average), the black-footed cat is probably one of the most interesting wild felines. It is a highly efficient hunter, putting to shame its much bigger cousins (please see livescience.com/63992-deadliest-cat.html).

43 For thorough explorations of DMT/ayahuasca, please see McKenna (1992, 1996). We met Dr. McKenna when discussing his stoned ape hypothesis in chapter two.

44 Please see singingtotheplants.com/2009/02/jaguar-on-ayahuasca/.

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