What Do Meows From Cats Mean?
Body gestures, scent cues, and vocalizations all play a part in cat communication. Compared to cats, humans are scent-blind, and we frequently fail to notice tail chatter and ear signals, which make up the majority of cats' communication.
We pay close attention to cat yowls, growls, hisses, and purrs, especially around five in the morning. However, is there a method to understand what your cat is saying?
Meowing Styles
Cats' meows fall into four main categories:
- Purr and trill patterns are examples of murmurs.
- Vowel patterns in all their varieties are meows (cats can produce several diphthongs, too).
- Chirps and chattering are articulated patterns that convey annoyance.
- Hisses and growls are warning sounds with strained intensity patterns.
Cats are not always vocal. For example, the blue Chartreux and Persian breeds are known for their friendly personalities. Siamese cats are very vocal, while other cat breeds never stop talking.
Meowing: What Does It Mean?
Cats interact with one another using a variety of vocalizations, although they tend to save "meows" primarily for speaking to their humans. What does your cat want exactly? Are they cursing you with cats, complimenting your taste in art, or just bugging you for fun?
Meows are cries for attention, such as "let me in," "let me out," "touch me," "play with me," and "feed me." As a cat becomes more fervent and insistent, its meows become louder and lower-pitched. Meow requests are typically made in the early morning hours while owners are trying to sleep.
Nighttime Meowing
Cats typically sleep 16 hours a day, with nighttime being their most active time. Whether indoors or outside, they perform mouse patrol duties. Although irritating, it is common.
The clever and determined cat comes into the bedroom, and it might even cuddle and sleep next to you for a while until it decides that you both need to go to bed. It begins by giving you tender head bonks, nibbling at your toes or nose, or dropping toys on your head. The meows get louder if that doesn't wake you up.
The cat scampers to its empty food bowl before you as you get out of bed. The yowls may in fact be momentarily silenced by filling the dish. With a mouthful of food, meowing is difficult. But there's more going on: You've been trained by your cat.
How to Deal with Cat Meowing
Giving in to a cat's meow demands teaches the cat that bugging your work, but keep in mind that your cat can also be warning you about a problem.
Some health conditions may cause excessive meowing. Meowing or howling is a sign of discomfort in cats. Deaf cats, elderly cats with feline dementia, anxious cats with separation anxiety, disturbed cats, and cats with thyroid, heart, or kidney problems may yowl.
Has your cat been examined by a veterinarian to rule out underlying health issues if frequent meowing is a new tendency?
However, the only method to stop this habit in otherwise healthy cats is to completely ignore the cat. That implies that you don't get up to offer her food, play toe-tag with her, yell at her, shower her with water, or otherwise pay her any attention. When she's shaking the windows with yowls or paw-patting your nose, it's difficult to focus.
Exercise Tough Love to Put an End to the Meowing
Invest in earplugs, close the door to the bedroom, or lock the cat in a room on the opposite side of the home. If this practice has persisted for a while, it may take weeks or even months to stop. Be mindful that the behavior will worsen just before it improves. This is what behaviorists refer to as an extinction burst, so be ready and resist giving in.
Either that or you can spend the entire duration of your relationship being beckoned by your favorite feline.
