Our Story

     After adopting my first cat Niko, I fell deeply in love and wanted to spoil him as much as possible. I knew that cats usually go crazy for catnip so I tried giving him some but he just wasn’t impressed. He seemed bored with his toys and I felt like a disappointment. 

     That’s when I decided to figure out what I was doing wrong. I looked up the science behind catnip and learned that some cats lack the genes needed to respond to it’s scent. Now things started to make sense. No wonder Niko had been ignoring all the store bought catnip toys I had tried giving him!

     Despite knowing about the genetic obstacle I was determined to find a way for Niko to experience some herbal euphoria. I wanted to bring a spark to his eyes and see him play with a toy enthusiastically. So, I continued my research and came across a few less common cat attractant herbs and other natural ingredients that produce similar reactions as catnip. 

     The issue was that I couldn’t find the ingredients at any of the pet stores near me. I even had a difficult time finding them affordably online! Some of the alternative cat attractant ingredients I was interested in are only grown abroad which made them difficult to track down. However, with a little trial and error (and lots of patience!) I was able to connect with reliable producers and obtained some high quality alternative herbs for Niko to experiment with. 

     He loved them! He was drooling, nuzzling, rolling, rubbing and enthusiastically approving of the new herbs he tried. It was so fulfilling to see his excited reactions. My fuzzy boy was finally pleased! I knew I needed to spread the joy and started making toys for my friend's cats too.  

     That’s when I realized it was time to think even bigger! Space Kitty Express was born and we’ve been on a mission to introduce cats and their humans to the world of catnip alternatives ever since.