It might be easier to train your cat if you can identify its meows.
Cats communicate using vocalizations, body language, and scent clues. Humans are scent-blind compared to cats, so we typically miss the tail wagging and ear signals that make up the majority of cat communication.
Particularly at five in the morning, we pay particular attention to cat yowls, growls, hisses, and purrs. Is there a way to decipher your cat’s communication, though?
Meowing Fashions
There are four primary types of cat meows:
- Murmurs include, for instance, purr and trill rhythms.
- Vowel patterns are meows in all their forms (cats can produce several diphthongs, too).
- Chirps and chattering are vocal expressions of irritation.
- Warning noises with strained intensity patterns include hisses and growls.
Some cat vocalizations are so quietly crafted or have such a high pitch that theoretically, only other cats can hear them.
Cats don’t always make noise. You don’t play toe-tag; other cat breeds never stop talking; Siamese and foreign varieties are particularly loud.
What Does a Meow Mean?
Cats use a range of vocalizations to communicate with one another, but they seem to save “meows” mostly for speaking to their humans. What specifically does your cat want? Are they applauding your choice in art, cursing you with cats, or just pestering you for fun?
Cries for attention such as “let me in,” “let me out,” “pet me,” “play with me,” and “feed me” are all examples of meows.
The ardent and demanding meows of the cat grow louder and lower in pitch. Early in the morning, when owners are still attempting to sleep, meow requests are frequently made.
Late-night meowing
Cats normally sleep 16 hours each day, and their most active hours are at night. They carry out mouse patrol responsibilities both inside and outside. It is typical even if it is annoying.
The cunning and determined cat enters the bedroom and may even curl up next to you for a bit before deciding that you two should retire to bed. Your head may be gently bonked, your toes or nose may be nibbled, or toys may be dropped on your head in the beginning. If it doesn’t wake you up, the meows become louder.
As you get out of bed, the cat scampers to its empty food bowl in front of you. Filling the dish may in fact temporarily silence the yowls. Meowing is tough when one has food in their mouth. However, there’s more going on: Your cat has been teaching you tricks.
How to Handle a Meowing Cat
Accepting the cat’s demands demonstrates to the cat that pestering you to get what it wants is an effective tactic.
Some medical disorders can lead to excessive meowing. A cat may yowl if it is deaf, old and suffering from feline Alzheimer’s, anxious and suffering from separation anxiety, unsettled, or having thyroid, heart, or renal issues.
However, in otherwise healthy cats, the only way to break this habit is to entirely ignore the cat. Because some breeds, like Persians and the blue Chartreux, are noted for being relatively quiet, you don’t get up to offer her food. You don’t scream at her, throw water on her, or even look at her. It’s challenging to concentrate when she’s yowling and paw-patting your nose or shaking the windows.
Apply some tough love to stop the meowing
Buy some earplugs, shut the bedroom door, or lock the cat in a room on the other side of the house. It could take weeks or even months to stop if the behavior has been going on for a while. Be aware that the conduct will first worse before improving. Be ready and don’t give in because this is what behaviorists refer to as an extinction burst.
In either case, your pet feline may constantly beckon you over the course of your relationship.
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