Valerian is often used by people to help them to relax and reduce tension and anxiety and to sleep at night, but give a cat a hint of the dried root of this aromatic herb (NB NOT Valerian root oil which can be toxic to cats) and he is likely to go crazy for it. It’s said that around 70 – 80% of cats respond to catnip, valerian probably provides the same pleasure in an equal or larger percentage of cats.
Walter and Jozef love Valerian teabags, they’ve had a box of 10 every 3-4 months since 2003 when the behavioral specialist who was supposed to cure Walter of his anxiety issues recommended them to “calm him down”, far from calming them down though valerian makes cats happy and playful and even quite thuggish at times, anything goes when the teabags come out of the cupboard, and they know exactly which cupboard they are kept in.
Today we bought a fresh new pungent box of Dr Stuarts Valerian Plus teabags at the health shop while we were out shopping, when we came back both Walter and Jozef were waiting for us just as we’d left them, Walter in his new armchair and Jozef on his new settee, but we hadn’t even started to unpack our bags when first one then the other of them began to follow the scent of valerian to Ruth’s bag in the kitchen so we had to abandon everything else and open the box and get the camera out. They are supposed to have one each per playtime and so they did to start with, each one playing nicely with his own teabag and minding his own business, but then Jozef tackled the box and got them all out.
Things got a bit ugly quite quickly after that because Jozef didn’t want Walter to have any of them so he stared fixedly at him until he slunk away from them and then sat guard over them looking at Walter as though he was going to jump on him. It’s not often Jozef turns on Walter, and to be fair he does put up with a lot from him, but once he does turn Walter is terrified of him and backs down quickly.
In the end we had to distract them both and pick up the teabags, all bar the ones they’d been playing with at first which were by that time reduced to soggy bits of paper, because it looked like war was about to break out and all good manners forgotten. So the teabags are put away until another day and both boys are now happy again in their afternoon places, Jo in the cats chair and Walter in my computer chair, sleeping off the effects of their fix. Happy days are made of such as this.
(Note if anyone buys teabags for their cat please remove the string that is meant for dangling the teabag in a cup and the staple that closes the teabag before giving it to your cat as these could cause harm your cat if swallowed).
Yes you can Marc, our boyz tip the tea out on the floor usually anyway to roll in it.
I was thinking Marc, if Gigi is still a bit depressed a valerian teabag now and again might cheer her up. Sometimes our boyz don’t bother for months, then Jo goes up on the kitchen worktop and snouts out the box in the cupboard lol and if he has one Walt wants one too of course. Jo often covers things or sits on them, our cats are a pair of right characters!
Wow Jo is a very silly boy – I loved the video! He deserves a prize for silliness. My cats get prizes for silliness most every day.
Jo is a real hogger isn’t he – he was careful to lie down ontop of every single remaining teabag so he had them all 🙂
Can I just remove the contents of the bag and let them have at it as in with catnip?
Lovely article and pics and video Babz.
Valerian is as safe for cats as a nice glass of wine or a few chocolates are to us when we feel the need for a bit of a lift. We all need a bit of a treat at times to make us feel good.
Jozef looks like a pouter pigeon so round, he isn’t actually that plump, he was fluffed up with umbrage at Walt who has been a bit naughty bullying him lately because of the cold wet weather.
Jo went overboard grabbing the box and made us laugh, so he did it all the more, so funny when he dragged them under him to sit on and protect them.
People down South say we ‘sing’ our words up here lol Accents are fascinating, Scotland isn’t that much further up than us yet theirs is totally different, I worked with a Scottish vet at one time and had great difficulty understanding her at first.
You could give it a try and see if they enjoy them, I bet they do! You just have to make sure there’s no dangerous bits left on and stay nearby to make sure they don’t get the paper teabag stuck in their mouths, like with any cat toy really they need supervision x