How long does catnip last?

"How long does catnip last" is three questions wearing one coat. People mean the reaction, or the toy, or the pouch in the cupboard, and the answers are minutes, weeks and months. Here are all three.

The reaction: about ten minutes

If a cat is going to react, it starts at the first sniff. There's no warm-up. What follows, the rubbing, rolling and kicking, lasts around ten minutes, sometimes fifteen, and then stops. Not a fade: a switch. The cat washes, wanders off, and usually sleeps.

After that there's a gap before the cat will react again, however much catnip is still on the floor. That's normal. The catnip hasn't failed; the cat has reset. Putting more down during the gap does nothing except make a mess.

What shortens it: not much. A cat that's eaten the catnip rather than sniffed it tends to get a shorter, sleepier session, which is one reason to use it on toys rather than in a bowl.

A toy: a few weeks

Rub a crushed pinch into a kicker toy and it'll hold the cat's interest for a few weeks, less if the toy lives on the floor in the sun. You'll know when it's faded: the toy gets ignored.

The fix is a pinch of fresh leaf rubbed in, or two mists of spray. Either makes the toy new again, which is cheaper than new toys and better for the cat, who liked that one. Pre-filled catnip toys can't be refreshed this way, which is why they go quiet for good after a month.

Rotation helps too: two toys out, the rest in a drawer, swap weekly. A toy that's been away for a fortnight comes back interesting even before you re-scent it.

The pouch: months, if you keep it sealed

Dried catnip doesn't go off the way food does. It loses its scent, and the scent is the whole point. The oil that makes cats react fades with time, and faster with heat, light and air.

• Sealed, in a cupboard: strong for months.
• Open on a shelf, or in a warm kitchen: noticeably weaker within weeks.
• In a jar that's been in the cupboard since the cat was a kitten: that's why the cat "stopped liking catnip".

The test is your own nose. Open the pouch: if it smells strongly of catnip, it'll work. If it smells of not much, it won't, and it isn't the cat.

Ours is picked by hand on a family farm at Bushwillow Estate in South Africa, air-dried the same season, and packed leaf and flower only. That's where the oil is; stems carry almost none, so we leave them out. The pouch is resealable; reseal it after every pinch.

Why our subscription runs every eight weeks

A 30g pouch is around eight weeks of ordinary use. That's also about how long an opened pouch stays strong. So the subscription sends a fresh pouch every eight weeks: £4.99 for the first, then £7.49, free delivery, through the letterbox, or £9.99 as a one-off. The next pouch arrives as the last one fades, rather than a big jar going flat in the back of a drawer.

Photo by Kristin Brown on Unsplash

Three things that make it last longer

1. Crush, then use. A crushed pinch releases far more scent than leaf straight from the pouch, so you use less for the same reaction.
2. Reseal, every time. Air is what fades it.
3. Buy small, buy fresh. A 30g pouch used over two months beats a 100g jar used over a year.

And if there's no reaction at all

A lot of cats don't respond to catnip, and it's genetic rather than anything to do with freshness. If you've crushed it, it smells strong and the cat is over about eight months and still shrugs, that's your cat. Our money-back cat guarantee covers it: tell us within 14 days of delivery and we'll refund, nothing to send back. Silvervine is the next thing to try.

Related guides: How to use catnip · What does catnip do to cats? · Does catnip go off? · The Catnip Guide