![]() Cat meowing Meowing is among the most common cat noises. Let’s start with the basic cat noises: 1. Of course, because most humans aren’t nearly as good at observing body language and understanding cat communication like subtle cat ear movements and cat tail twitches, they often “use their words” to help us understand these cat noises.Ī cats’ vocabulary is just as rich and subtle as cat body language (including the ways cat express affection), but here are some of my favorite cat noises and what they mean. If they talked as much as they gestured (case in point: when cats rub against you), the odds are good that you’d wish they’d just shut up. If you want to read the research about meow sounds that appeared in the Current Biology journal, you can find it here.You’ve probably noticed that cats spend a lot of time and energy communicating with other cats in their lives, but that very little of that communication is in the form of cats meowing. Those were two cats that were GREAT at training their humans!Īnd that is only two examples among hundreds I could give you of how cats with their meow sounds and other enticing mannerisms get us to do what they want us to do. She said that was the only way he would drink. Another client came to visit her sick cat while he was in the hospital and brought a bottle of Perrier and sat by his cage, giving him sips from the lid. It came out of real reactions by us mere humans to the demands of the true owners of our homes, our cats.įor example, I have one client who brought her cat in to board and brought a fine crystal goblet, telling us that her cat will only drink water from that particular glass. You know the old saying "Dogs have masters, cats have servants"? That didn't just come out of thin air. We are well aware that cats manipulate us in many different ways. (And yes, I DID mean "train their humans".) It's no surprise to us cat lovers that our kitties manipulate us with their cat sounds. Cats that have the most one to one relationship with a person tend to emit sounds that are more manipulative than cats that live with many different people who are all pretty much equal in relationship to the cat. It also appears that cats know when they can train their humans and who they can't train. So you don't have to be well-trained to understand cat language. The interesting thing about the research that was reported in the "Current Biology" journal was that even people who had never been around cats before could easily distinguish between the urgency embedded within different sounds from cats. every time he sees me with my camera, he's suddenly amazingly silent. I desperately want to get a recording of it to share with you, but cats being cats. It's fascinating to listen to - he seems to carry on quite a conversation with himself, often late at night. You do too, right? In fact, I have one cat that has so many different sounds that it really seems like he has a complete language all his own. I know which cry means "I'm hungry" and which meow sounds mean "I want attention" and which one means "I'm annoyed". But you know (I say "you" because if you're reading this, you must be a cat lover), that it's true. Non-cat lovers who have never lived with a cat before have great difficulty believing those of us who insist we know the difference between the cries/purrs of our different cats and that we know the difference between each individual cat's various cat sounds. All of us who are parents or have cared for a human baby know all too well the automatic response we have to a baby crying. It was postulated that we possibly react more to solicitation purring because it is in some ways similar to the cries of an infant. While that is often true, cats also purr in a variety of other situations, such as when they're frightened, want to be fed, or even when they are ill. In fact, the researchers named this type of purring with a cry embedded in it "solicitation purring".Īlmost every cat owner I meet thinks that their cat is happy when he purrs. I can certainly attest to the fact that when my cat makes this type of noise, it's impossible to ignore him. Research reported a year or so ago in the journal "Current Biology" deciphered this type of meow as one that controls the human beings who live with cats. I currently have a cat that has a sort of high-pitched trill mixed in with his loud roaring type of purr. ![]() ![]() Researchers have looked into these different cat sounds made by cats, trying to make sense of their language. They all have their own unique inflection, their own unique voice. ![]() I have lived with up to 14 cats at one time and could tell you from upstairs which cat was "talking" downstairs. The standard "Meow" that is frequently the only sound reported in articles, books, novels, and other stories about cats is far from standardized. Cat Sounds - we have long been interested in and fascinated by the sounds that cats make. ![]()
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