Most catnip toys hold under 5 grams of herb, and a fair share of that is already spent by the time you buy it. That is the single biggest reason toys "stop working" after a week or two. There was never much in there to begin with.
There is no official minimum, but the practical answer is: enough that the toy has real mass, and enough that it still has oil to give months later. In practice that means far more than a pinch.
Why under 5g fades so fast
A few grams of catnip, especially if it is crushed leaf padded out with synthetic wadding, holds a small reservoir of a volatile oil. Volatile means it evaporates on contact with air. A small reservoir empties quickly.
So the toy smells convincing in the packet, gets a good first session, and then goes quiet. The herb has not been "used up" by the cat so much as evaporated into the room.
Why quantity changes the behaviour
A toy holding 30g or more behaves like a different object. There is enough herb that everyday evaporation does not empty it, and enough that the cat opening a few glands per session still leaves plenty for next week.
Quantity also gives the toy physical mass, which matters for how cats actually play. A cat grabs a toy with the front paws, pulls it into the belly, and kicks with the back legs. That needs something to push against. A thin shell with a handful of wadding collapses and stops being interesting. A densely filled toy pushes back.
Quantity is not the only lever
More herb helps, but the form and the part of the plant matter alongside it.
- Whole buds stay sealed until the cat bites, so they keep their oil far longer than the same weight of powder.
- The right part of the plant matters: buds and flowering tops carry the oil, stems barely any.
- A second herb covers the cats catnip cannot reach. Around one in three do not respond to catnip at all.
30g of ground, stem-heavy, half-spent leaf would still disappoint. 30g of whole buds behaves.
How to judge fill before buying
You usually cannot weigh a toy through a screen, so use proxies.
- Does the listing state a weight? A brand that fills generously tends to say so. Silence usually means a pinch.
- Does it feel dense in the hand, in a shop? Squeeze it. A good kicker feels like it contains something. An airy one does not.
- Is the herb whole or dust? Visible whole buds beat fine powder for staying power.
- Is it padded with synthetic wadding? Wadding plus a token pinch is the cheap formula. It is the shape of the toy without the substance.
What we fill, and why that number
We put at least 30g of organic catnip buds and Silver Vine fruit into Le Croissant, kept whole, inside reinforced OEKO-TEX cotton. The number is deliberate. It is roughly six times the fill of a typical mass-market toy, which is the difference between a toy that fades in a fortnight and one that still works in six months.
The Silver Vine is there for a separate reason: it reaches the cats that do not respond to catnip, so the fill is not only large but covers more cats.