# Is catnip a pheromone? My cat goes crazy for it, kinda like Turn Up The Heat **URL:** \ **Category:** Pheromone Theory & Molecules\ **Created:** [October 2, 2008, 4:34pm UTC](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/is-catnip-a-pheromone-my-cat-goes-crazy-for-it-kinda-like-turn-up-the-heat/20719 "2008-10-02T16:34:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dj6230](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@dj6230](https://pheromonetalk.com/u/dj6230)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2008, 4:34pm UTC](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/is-catnip-a-pheromone-my-cat-goes-crazy-for-it-kinda-like-turn-up-the-heat/20719/1 "2008-10-02T16:34:32Z")
Is catnip a [pheromone](https://a314.com/shop/)(excuse my lack of knowledge…meow:3)? I got [catnip](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepeta) on a [bottle](http://www.kookykat.com/K21-budz%20in%20a%20bottle_2.jpg) which I spray, my cat goes crazy when she smells it, start biting where i sprayed and lick it…kinda like Turn Up The Heat…RAWR! ---
**Author:** ![ntk23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/65b543/32.png) [@ntk23](https://pheromonetalk.com/u/ntk23)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2008, 7:12pm UTC](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/is-catnip-a-pheromone-my-cat-goes-crazy-for-it-kinda-like-turn-up-the-heat/20719/2 "2008-10-02T19:12:14Z")
It might mimic a pheromone or something… be quite close molecularly to a cat phero. Oh, there you go, it says in the Wikipedia article that it does… Well, it is Wikipedia, anyone can edit it, so take it with a grain of salt, but it sounds plausible I guess. I noticed some cats don’t go for it much while others as you say go absolutely mental for the stuff. [Howstuffworks](http://www.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=question303.htm&url=http://chemistry.about.com/library/weekly/aa103001a.htm) says it is taken in via the feline VNO, a pheromone receptor in many mammals, debatable whether the human VNO plays a role in pheromone activity…