Does your cat talk to you?

[Tootsey11]

Just that really, do you get much 'chat' from your cat. Our 8 month old ginger male named Chitten talks back to me all the time. It really is like dealing with a moody teenager. When I tell him off for complaining he walks off with a grunt!

It should be enough though. Your telepathy must be broken.

Yes. He waits til I’ve finished talking and will reply “meow”.

@bravotango

Another one with a very vocal ginger boy! Aged 13. Got him as a timid rescue in 2019...not so timid now

Yes mine is ginger too. He's always talking to me in fact more than DH sometimes!

Mine were both silent after I got them for maybe a year and a half. Then one day I managed to feel rather than hear purring from Girlcat. Took about another 9 months to a year before she found her voice, and at roughly the same time Boycat started purring when being fussed (took that long for him to let me fuss him).

Finally after 4.5 years that do both talk, though still very quietly. They have slightly different "summoning the slave" vocalisations, Girlcat does squeaks and Boycat does a sort of prrp rumble. They also prrp & squeak to each other when playing after lights out at night, though that's normally drowned by the thunder of elephants patter of little paws up & down the stairs. Very rarely Girlcat will give a meow, though still quite quiet & usually to Boycat rather than me - she prefers scrabbling at noisy things like plastic bags to get my attention!

Mine is very vocal. She reserves most of it for me. The rest of the family swear that she is completely silent until I arrive home, then there is frantic conversation from her. She can definitely say 'no' and has different noises depending on whether she wants food or cuddles or out.

I keep meaning to record her so that I have a cat dictionary.

Yep. Ours meows at the following:

Announce her arrival back home from outside
To wake us up
If annoyed with us
Hungry
Tired
Hurt
General Hello
If you leave her for too long (15 minutes)
any closed doors, including bathroom door so will sit outside meowing and pushing paw under door
If we’re upstairs when she comes in, now that is a very long almost like bloody murder meow.
Meows continuously from the end of the garden to when she comes into the house. Neighbours hear this too
If she doesn’t get her own way

Basically all the time.

Our cat likes to 'talk' very loudly to tell DS1 to let her in his bedroom window! She is very vocal when she arrives in the house as well - usually announcing her arrival then asking where DS1 is.

Yep. Cheddar never shuts up!

Yes Col is the loudest cat we have had

If Dad goes out he will come upstairs and tell me he's been abandoned

Yes, both our cats are quite vocal and have different types of meows for different things.

GirlCat makes incredibly human noises (and even whines when she's annoyed - I've never heard a cat whine before!). There's never any mistaking how she's feeling!

BoyCat will do a loud "announcement" every time he comes in from outside (even if he's only been out for 2 mins). The announcement translates as "It is I, BoyCat! Where are you, Mum? You must shower me with attention immediately, and then accompany me to my food bowl to make sure it contains fresh food!"

@Em3978

Both of ours are very communicative. Girlcat is the loudest though. She has a shout/chat/answer for everything, and 'swears' at us when we catch her stealing her brother's food. Boycat is less vocal (he can't get a word in edgeways with his sister!) but does happy little 'thank yous' when you let him in from outside and 'quacks' when he's grumpy! He's also good at non verbal communication; will show us what he wants when we ask him. He's quitely quite clever in his own little way.

My BoyCat will do this too! E.g. he will walk to his toy box when he wants playtime.

Once I couldn't feed him in the morning because he had to go to the vet first thing for a CT scan. He actually got his cat treats toy out of the toy basket and brought it to me, and started batting it around in front of me making as much of a racket as he could even though it was empty of treats. Pretty clear message - "Hey mum, you forgot to feed me!"

Our rescue cat is almost completely silent, he never meows.
The only sound he makes is to growl at me just before he lashes out.
I expect it is because of his former life on the streets, but he can be very unpleasant.
It has really affected any bond I have with him😕

Yes! We have 2 ragdoll cats and their breed is supposed to be chatty.. and they are! One of ours mainly talks when he's hungry. But he has lots of other vocalisations other than meows. He does -I think its called yowling- a lot. The other one doesn't tend to meow when he's hungry, but more when he wants attention (as I'm typing this I can hear him talking to my husband!)

Snorg started off silent, then started quacking like a duck. Now she's finally found her voice. She's very loud.

@TodgerStrunk 🤣 I love it!

@Clarich007 Do you think he’s been abused and is getting in first so you don’t hit him?.

Ahh, my old ginger girl used to talk a lot too. I wonder if gingers are more chatty generally? My old tabby and black cats were much quieter, thinking about it.

Ours is very chatty, particularly around wanting food/just come in. Since March and us both being home all the time she now gives a “quack” when one of us comes into the room she’s in.

My favourite is her robot noise she makes when she sees birds.

Hi Fluffy.
I guess it could be that.It was an emergency rescue really, as he was living on a really dangerous dual carriageway.Consequently I didn't have the usual time to get to know him first.
I've had cats for 40 years so an experienced cat owner.I have never come acrosss a cat like him.He's even aggressive at the vets and becomes 5kg of pure spitting, growling muscle.
Sounds terrible I know, but i would have thought twice had I known what we were in for over the last 4 years.
It's a rough area that he was found in with quite a few known abandoned cats.I did wonder if he had been thrown out because of his behaviour.At least he's safe now and warm away from traffic and well fed..Thanks for asking.

He sounds scared more than aggressive. Jackson galaxy does a YouTube video on very scared cats I’ll look for it for you because he got the cat to enjoy life again.

Our previous cat was a great conversationalist (male oriental) our current 3 have different levels of vocalisations. One tries but has an almost silent meow. The other 2 (more orientals) have a bit more to say, but are much quieter than the one we had before. One is the gruntiest cat I have ever met though. Doesn't meow much (except when hungry) but does sigh, grumble and huff and puff a lot!

Thank you.That's very kind of you

Mine does - but it's more like she TRIES to speak, not much comes out, mostly silence, sometimes a little squeak. But she does her best to hold conversations with me

My old boy Chalie would have complete conversations with you, well with me. I'm the lunatic saying, "really? And then what happened?"

Madam, she just shouts at you, "Whaaaaa" which could mean she is hungry, wants water (in a glass not a bowl) wants to go out, wants to be picked up.

She does have a different sound that means "I've caught something" which she used to make as she came through the window with a bird / mouse/ frog.

She has now learned that if she wants to keep her new toy/food then she can't bring it in the house.

He could be scared as he doesn't react to stroking , he doesn't interact at all.
It's a nightmare giving him flea and wormer spot ons.
He's about 6yrs old I think, and hadn't been neutered until he was 2.We had him neutered 4 days after rescue, thinking it might calm him down a bit.He roams and goes missing, sometimes for weeks.I dread to think how many kittens he has produced over those 2 years !
We've got Feliway all over the house, a microchip cat flap and only 2 adults living here, no other animals.I do feel sorry for him though he looks so miserable a lot of the time.