Does your cat meow?

[furrytoebean]

I have three cats, all are VERY vocal but none of them make a noise I would classify as a meow.

Cat 1 makes a honking noise like a goose and it's usually to tell you to stroke him or a general hello.

Cat 2 makes a high pitched eeeeeeeh noise that sounds a bit like a babies cry and it's to get you to follow her around the house and offer her things while she turns her nose up at them.

Cat 3 trills and purrps and makes a noise that sounds like kkaaaaakoooooow and it's usually because she wants to play or be brushed.

Do your cats meow?

All of them just chatter too, and you can have a full conversation with them.

My boy shouts when he's got his ball in his mouth which is all the flipping time and that's a sort of low, strange, meow. But the purrps are reserved for tripping me up trying to get a cuddle! IME my girl cats made more of a 'meow' than my boy does.

Silkycat squeaks all the time. She likes to make announcements of her presence in the room,updates on her actions and take part in conversations, especially if we are on the phone.

Old lady cat is almost entirely silent unless there is something massively important happening like Sheba Cat Soup. Then she does genuinely Miaow and we are honoured to here it.

She had Applaws Tuna Loin for Christmas and that was worthy of her best Miaow.

Not in a defined meow kind of way. She sort of whinges! She makes a sound like Merrrrrr or hmmmmnnnnn like Kevin the teenager. It’s very annoying.

My beautiful girl only miaows when she's on her way to the vet and then it's a more of a high-pitched squeak.

I think she tries to miaow when she's getting cuddles...she starts purring and her mouth opens and closes yet nothing comes out. Really sweet

One barely made a sound for years, then it transpired the sound was a kittenish “mew!”, and in the last week he’s had a breakthrough and it’s bossy “mew!” this and “mew!” that.

Other cat says “Murrr-ow”, almost always ending on a down note (he worries a lot). Changes it up by sometimes saying “Mrrraaaah”.

We used to have the best cat in the world and he quacked like a duck, sort of “raaahck”.

Our lovely boy, RIP, used to just squeak! (though he used to howl all through the night ) And the same with our new lovely girl, she just squeaks! No meows here, only squeaks.

I've also got 3 cats:

DC1: Seriously never had a cat so vocal. Meows when he wakes up and realises you're there. Meows all the way from next but one neighbours to the back door when you call him to come in. He seems very pleased to see a human at all times. Meows in the middle of night to be let out. He saves the deepest of meows when he gets in the bath (this meow is his "I need to loo meows but I don't want to use the perfectly good cat litter so let me out or I'm going to piss in the bath"). He's also had a few health problems and he this gut-wrenching meow when he's pain.

DC2: Chirrups - mainly when he waiting at the top of the road for me to get home from work. Chirrups to me all the way to the front door. I like to think he's asking how my day way was - but probably more akin to oh good your back now feed me. If he does actually meow it's really high and really pathetic and doesn't match his size.

DC3: He's only ever meowed twice in 12 years. I generally have no idea what he wants in life so I have to guess.

Never stops meowing. Also chirrups, howls and says "ma-ma" when he wants me.

Our girl cat tries to meow but it is so high pitched it comes out silent (adorable).
Our boy chat chirps at us, I don't think I have ever heard him do a real meow!

Our old cat (RIP) used to meow constantly. You could talk to her all day and she would talk back. She would meow when she entered a room, left a room, wanted food, wanted attention, when she was hiding under a blanket but wanted you to know she was there....

I heard on a TV show that cats don't meow to communicate with each other (except when they are kittens and meow to their mums for milk), so they are literally just making all these sounds to talk to us. Always makes my heart warm and fuzzy when I think of it like that :)

Yep

Mostly when she wants something

She also buhrups

Cat 1 yowls. Particularly when he comes in from outside in a "calm down human I have survived the outside and I have returned to you and my food." He really goes for it in the car too, and he's also a huge purrer. Not in the car though.

Cat 2 was silent until her first time in the cattery. She started mewing in the car on the way home and that was the first time she'd ever made a sound. Now she just squeaks at DH, one squeak only. And she growls like a cat 5 times her size when cat 1 tries to jump on her.

Our old cat would growl and chatter. Growl at the door if it was shut, growl at the food bowl if it was empty, chatter at birds through the window, growl at them when they didn't jump in his mouth, growl at the radiator when it wasn't on - that sort of thing.

Bigcat meows to be let out (before changing her mind and asking to be let in), or if she wants me to do something (sometimes I have no idea what though!). She also shouts ‘mummumumumum’ before she is sick which is handy so I can move her to a suitable place! It was quite alarming the first few times because she sounds exactly like a child

Little cat chirrups a lot to say hello but only meows in protest if someone picks her up because she HATES it. She also very rarely purrs, maybe because she was hand reared so no grooming from mum? She also growls if she thinks someone might steal one of her toys off her, bigcat just gives her this look

Love your descriptions .

My two talks a lot and they definitely meow, especially if they are about to get food. Otherwise the clear meows are in the night, if they are bored and call for attention. Or if one is outside and calls for company.

Yes, the new kitten does. Endlessly. Proper full-on 'MiiiiAAow, mrrow, meow, mrrow -- oh, hi, purrrpurrrpurrr.' She's astonishingly loud for such a little cat.

The big cat has never mastered it. She opens her mouth confidently and says '....eep'.

Yes. A lot. Usually to demand food/complain we are starving him. He is a very noisy boy!

...and thank goodness Gups does meow. Otherwise I wouldn't have found her trapped in the pan cupboard for quite some time today.

'Me-uuuueeeew. Mew. Mrrow? MRROWW? MEOW! WAAAAAAAAOOWWW!'

It still took us a while to work out where the sound was coming from - I thought she must be outside the back door!

at the thought of her trapped in the pan cupboard.

Our cat does this and then when you open it just sits there like 'oh hi, I see you've opened the door; well hello. This is exactly where I planned to be'

Ex feral isn't particularly vocal, but is my only one to have done any research into stereotypical cat noise. She does proper meows at the correct time. Eg greetings, food, ' come and admire my dead thing' etc.

Old boy just yowls. There's the pitiful 'help me' yowl, right up to the 'I'm moments from death' yowl. They all have the desired effect of people waiting on him and/ or complying with his wishes. Eg I have come from the other side of the house to carry his food 2' across the kitchen to where he has decided to sit & eat.

There's also his 'do you want a fight?' yowl. He's not had a real fight for over a year, and these days he'd no doubt come off worse. But his yowling has been finely tuned to cover his physical deficiencies.

Other girl makes every other noise except for proper meows. And only stays quiet when she's asleep. I assume she's quiet when she's hunting rodents but chats at birds when she's stalking them.

Ours are brothers and kittens. One meows for no discernible reason and REALLY loud - it's a definite meow. The other also meows but only when he sees food and you haven't put it in his bowl yet.

They both growl though like nothing I've ever heard before - it's like a dog - REALLY loud and REALLY deep and usually over some treasured possession such as a crumpled up receipt or a half eaten slug in the case of the most disgusting one.

They both chirrup too when they're playing.

Sounds like Furrytoecat has the art of catting down to a T.

Cat 1; says 'Maeaaaaeeeh' when he comes in to say Hi. Then nothing.
Cat 2; says 'rrrrrapppp' and 'ehhh'. Always short noises.
No miaows at all, ever. My 7 year old thinks it's hilarious.

Snorg quacks like a high pitched duck. She used to be mute. But can now be quite vocal. Cheddar has a lot to say for herself, and has a variety of sounds. I can have a conversation with her.

I have always had Siamese. My very first, 35 years ago was vocal. Loud meow.

My next two were pretty less vocal, fourth and fifth and sixth were vocal but not in a loud demanding way.

But the last one, I love her to pieces, but she's so very loud and piercing. She seems to have the most Siamese.

She calls for cuddles, calls for food, calls for her heated blanket, calls for fresh water several times a day. Goes about calling to announce she has used her cat flap, she has to tell everyone in the house.
She calls if someone gets up
In the night and disturbs her. She genuinely thinks she's a human baby and we can understand her every word.

She shouts (swears very loudly) at us when she's about to do something she knows she's not allowed to do. She sits at the thresh hold of my bedroom door and shouts to come in when the door is open. She knows she's not allowed in.

She has different types of meow so I'm guessing she's talking.

Her only kill has been to accidentally eat a spider. She wouldn't survive alone at all.

I had heard that cats only meow for their humans.

I think my next cat might be a pure moggie