Domestic cats and other felines are attracted to the scent and essential oils of the mint plant Nepeta cataria. It is assumed that cats use active ingredients of the essential oils of Nepeta cataria to repel biting insects such as mosquitoes, while the plant uses these compounds to protect itself from herbivorous insects. The euphoric response of cats to catnip motivates the individuals to visit the plant regularly and repeatedly. Since the plant protects its immediate surroundings from pests, a response of cats is not nec-essary if the plant is present in its direct habitat. Therefore, for cats with permanent contact or access to the plants a response is suspected to be useless, and cats supposedly build up a tolerance to the active substances. However, the building of tolerance over time has never been addressed in studies. In addi-tion, various morphological, physiological, and psychical parameters are systematically analysed and compared regarding their influence on the response rate, as well as the development of the response time and response intensity. Here, we show that the permanent administration of catnip to domestic cats results in a significant decrease of the response rate, time and intensity over three days. Further, differ-ent parameters provide information on the response that can be expected, and we found that non-responders and very mild responders sometimes learn a response or increase its intensity. We carried out a citizen science project, with experiments performed by citizens with their cats, and we found more evidence that underscores the hypothesis that cats use the active ingredients and iridoids, such as nep-etalactones and nepetalactol, to protect themselves from biting insects. Our results demonstrate that the response subsides once the plant is permanently available, as the immediate environment of the plant has a deterrent effect on various pests. The purpose of the observable patterns such as rubbing the whole body (rolling over, grooming), and especially the contacting of hairless body parts to the plant ma-terial (smelling, rubbing the chin and face, licking, biting, scratching, licking of anal and genital area) lead a useless outcome. We present our results as an overview and starting point for more observational and behavioral studies focusing on different parameters. Further, the temporal dimension provides infor-mation that may allow conclusions to be made based on the cats’ response to catnip and vice versa. Final-ly, we conclude that citizen science is a reliable efficient method to generate a variety of scientific data. As well, questions arise whose investigations are necessary to better understand the relationship be-tween felines and responsive herb. It is about gaining insights into the evolutionary advantage that re-sponders could have over non-responders and, moreover, offers life enrichment strategies and support of the well-being of the cats.