Description

An all natural cat toy containing!

Silvervine is a great way to promote play and relieve stress and anxiety in your cat. Give them a fruit and watch them play! Many cats will play independently, batting the fruit around, however you can also encourage play by tossing and batting around with them!

The fruits are freeze dried fresh off the plant which gives them a stiff and dense foam type texture that claws or teeth can sink into. They are not rock hard like our other types of dried silvervine fruit but are still not overly delicate. They can be broken apart by relatively easily by cutting or with enough squishing force. You can also soak them in a little water to rehydrate and make them very soft again.

It is safe for cats to consume bits of the fruit during play but they are intended as a supervised play toy and not as a treat.

What’s in the bag?

Each bag contains approximately 15 whole dried fruits weighing ~1 oz in total. The diameters range from 1/2 to 1 inches.  When not being enjoyed, store in a sealed bag to maintain the freshness. Each fruit can be played with many times until it eventually disappears under the couch, bed, or other furniture!

If you soak in water, some fruits only need a couple seconds in a tiny puddle or just to be splashed while some may need a bit longer depending on their exterior shell. If you soak too long, they may turn a bit mushy. Even without soaking, if the fruits are left out in the air they will soften over time from the humidity.

What is Silvervine & How does it work?

These are the gall fruits of an ivy like plant called the Actinindia Polygama that is native to the mountains of Eastern Asia. Although relatively unknown in Northern America, the silver vine plant is more popularly used in Japan and China than traditional catnip among cat owners! It contains two naturally occurring oils that cats find irresistible similar how they naturally love catnip.

Many cats react to Silvervine (the vine of the Silvervine plant) even if they show little interest to catnip. A 2017 scientific study found 70% of cats had a reaction to catnip, however over 80% of cats had a reaction to silvervine, with many cats enjoying both!

Typical behaviors of cats on silvervine include rolling, chin and cheek rubbing, meowing, drooling and licking. Some cats will become kitten-like playing with toys and catching a case of the zoomies. Others will be more relaxed and will chill out in a dreamlike state.

Only the gall fruit contains sufficient amounts of the scent based attractants to trigger the euphoric reaction in cats. The other dried fruits from the plant (a more oblong shape) have shown to cause much less of a reaction.