Fred’s Catnip Farm

Why Catnip ?

Catnip is all about fun. Fun for both you and your cat. A cat can be loving, it can be sensitive, it can be aloof but how often does it have fun ? Most cats when you give them catnip, either loose or in a toy, will play with it as if they are a kitten. You can see the joy in their face as they tumble around with the nip and that, as a pet owner, is one of the best feelings in the world.

Why Fred’s Catnip ?

80% of cats react to catnip – they have no choice, they are genetically programmed but some cats react only to stronger nip and for most cats the stronger the nip the stronger the reaction.

We used to give our two boys, Fred and Barney, the standard “sawdust like” catnip that you find in the shops. They showed an interest in it and played for a while but soon lost interest. When we took in our little girl, Minx, she showed no interest at all. We would put the catnip down in her basket and she would totally ignore it. We could see that the quality of the catnip that we were using was not great but we couldn’t find anything better on the market. So determined that we wanted only the best for our cats we decided to grow our own. Six months later we gave it to the gang and the reaction was incredible – everyone, including Minx, was hunting and throwing their catnip toys around as if they had never played before. It was, and still is, brilliant for them and for us.

We have grown our catnip for 5 years now but we cannot grow enough to keep up with the demand throughout Europe. We do not want any cats to miss out on the joy of playing with high quality catnip so we searched the world to find the best quality we could. We finally settled on organically grown catnip from the west of the United States.

The catnip that we have produced for us is a very potent mixture of the leaves and flowers with a very small amount of young stems. It has a very high bell content which is very important for your cat. The bells or pistils are parts of the flowers that form a natural envelope where most of the essential oils are stored. When a cat toy is filled with leaf and flower, each bell stays intact, until the cat plays with the toy to release it! This is why a cat will come back to toys with our catnip time and again because not all bells have been opened! In short, the more bells in the mix, the more potent and long lasting the catnip! This is why cats lose interest in inferior “saw dust” like catnip as all of the bells have been crushed in production and the essential oil has been lost.

We hope you and your cat have lots of fun with our catnip. It’s what it is all about!