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Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Original poster

Kitten, 16 weeks, never meowed

30 replies

BritBratGrot · 04/08/2025 08:29

I got a pair of rescue kittens about 5 weeks ago. One is healthy as can be, energetic and growing fast, loud purr and squeaky meow which she deploys regularly.

The other one is smaller and a bit of a dimwit and he can't meow.

He tries, it used to be silent snd had morphed into the smallest high pitched rasp, it sounds nothing like a meow at all! His purr is also as silent as his sister is like a jet plane, i can hear a tiny tiny high pitched rattly breath if i put my ear to his body when he's purring (happily resting and purr box vibrating)

Is this just a quirk? Does anyone else have a cat which can't meow?

I know silent meows are a thing, but he's never made a noise so I'm not sure he's able?

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tumblingdowntherabbithole · 04/08/2025 09:04

I’d be more worried about the rattly breath - has the vet checked him over properly?

TorturedParentsDepartment · 04/08/2025 09:11

I had a cat who didn't ever get beyond the kind of miaow you'd expect from a chain smoking 50 a day asthmatic - then one day suddenly after about 7 years - he found it, looked almost shocked at the noise that came out of his mouth - and you could never shut him up from that point on.

He wasn't the smartest.

Ohwhatfuckeryitistoride · 04/08/2025 09:59

We had a silent cat. We called him Titus Groan, because he didn't.

Original poster
BritBratGrot · 04/08/2025 15:42

tumblingdowntherabbithole · 04/08/2025 09:04

I’d be more worried about the rattly breath - has the vet checked him over properly?

His purr sounded like rattly breath, not his general breathing.

He's been seen by a vet 5 times since adopted him, two vax and three failure to thrive / temp type things. He's not brimming with health like his sister but is now growing and finally putting on weight reliably after a virus during a hot spell

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BellaTheDarkOverlord · 04/08/2025 15:49

Aww my old boy couldn’t meow. He’d rasp or make a weird breathy squeak. Was fine and he was a dim wit too 😂

CatAsstrophe · 04/08/2025 15:50

I've got a silent cat, which I found really unsettling at first being used to noisy/very talkative Siamese. She does the action of 'meowing' but no sound comes out. But, according to my vet, some cats aren't vocal.

As long as your kitten has been thoroughly vet checked (because at first, I was quite alarmed by the rattly breathing) then I think you'll just have to accept that you have one vocal kitten and one quiet kitten. You never know, he may find his voice in the future. I hope he picks up generally/health wise ❤

Toddlerteaplease · 04/08/2025 15:52

I had one that silently meowed. You could only see her mouth moving. It developed into quacking like a duck. And after her extremely bossy and vocal sister died, she found her voice. The new cat I adopted, had an opinion on everything so Magic had to compete. She was pretty loud by the end. 🤣🤣

Octavia64 · 04/08/2025 15:54

I have one that was silent at first.

he was the runt of the litter by quite some way.

he’s two now and you can just about hear him if your head is literally right next to his. Otherwise, nope, no noise.

his sister “talks” for the three of them.

ChipKing · 04/08/2025 15:56

We had a silent cat. Then she went to the cattery for a fortnight and my word the noises that came out of her afterwards! It was like she didn't know she could until she heard everyone else do it. She hasn't stopped since tbh.

DeLaRuiz · 04/08/2025 15:57

My cat is 14, didnt speak at all until he was about 10. Now he has tiny weeny voice he uses most days. Him being so quiet was unnerving, but now every time he squeaks I’m surprised!

StanfreyPock · 04/08/2025 16:00

My ginger tabby would/could only squeak, never miaowed. Astonished me once by growling loudly when someone came to the door 😾 but then returned to the squeak.

AnonSugar · 04/08/2025 17:03

I have a very quiet cat. She’s two and her meow is so quiet. She hardly ever uses it. Doesn’t meow for food.

slightlydistrac · 04/08/2025 17:14

ChipKing · 04/08/2025 15:56

We had a silent cat. Then she went to the cattery for a fortnight and my word the noises that came out of her afterwards! It was like she didn't know she could until she heard everyone else do it. She hasn't stopped since tbh.

Same here. We sent our middle-aged cat off to the cattery with a sweet little 'waa' and 'mew' and she came back with a 'MEEEAAAAOOOOWWW' 😂

milkandhoney2 · 04/08/2025 17:29

I had a cat that didn’t have an unspoken thought in his head and now I have a silent one!

ThesophisticatedJY · 04/08/2025 17:37

I have 2 rescue cats that came as a pair . One is black the other white . Coco ( black one ) has never meowed and Belle ( white one ) seems to do the meowing for her . They are nearly always together and it’s almost as if Belle has realised that Coco ‘can’t talk ‘ . If Coco does want anything she pushes her head quite hard on my leg and then I know she needs something . It seems she has found her way of communication .

Original poster
BritBratGrot · 04/08/2025 17:44

This is all really reassuring, thanks! I don't mind if that's just his way, it's just really unexpected and odd

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CollaterlieSistersSister · 04/08/2025 17:47

Adopted one of my cats at 10 weeks old, pathetic meow at first (but a good strong purr).

When he hit about 6 months old, good lord did he find his voice. We have several conversations a day now about…I dunno…butterflies and cheese, probably?

megacat · 04/08/2025 17:50

We used to have a cat who couldn’t meow, just a raspy noise would come out. He was the most beautiful gentle soul. Where is the cat tax?

FurForksSake · 04/08/2025 17:53

Cats learnt to meow to manipulate humans. They meow at their parents as small kittens but then largely stop. Some are noisier than others, but in the wild they don’t massively meow at each other.

our current rescue has learnt to meow and talk to us as we talk to her. She was quiet for a long time.

our boy before was the loudest cat I have ever met, if anyone came in the house he’d run to greet them and shout at them. He terrified an estate agent once by sitting on his lap and talking at the poor man. Apparently the estate agent didn’t like cats and our boy was a very large specimen 🤣

Original poster
BritBratGrot · 04/08/2025 19:44

I'm not very good at remembering cat tax!

Kitten, 16 weeks, never meowed
Kitten, 16 weeks, never meowed
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CatAsstrophe · 05/08/2025 20:55

They're gorgeous! ❤

stormsandsunshine · 05/08/2025 22:44

I have 2 sisters. The more confident one is quite vocal - will miaow to say hello or if she wants something. The other one was the runt of the litter and is much quieter - she can miaow but she very rarely does - it is either because she is calling her sister or if she is really frightened.

She does have the world’s loudest purr though and she purrs at us to communicate instead of miaowing. Her louder sister has a very quiet purr!

autumn1610 · 12/08/2025 06:50

My rescue cat doesn’t meow he came to me in dec and he makes the strangest sounds but not a meow. He is the majority of the time silent. I also have 2 foster kittens not related one slightly older than the other one meows and one is silent and makes noises.

from my googling the noises the two of them make are closer to a cats natural sound unlike the meow which is learnt behaviour. However my 3year old now makes his noises to me because I assume I react to them like you would with a meow

whirlyhead · 12/08/2025 07:11

I usually find if you have more than one cat then one of them becomes the spokescat who does the chatting for all of them! I recently lost my spokescat and now the rest are trying to figure out who should take on the mantle…

one of my cats can only do a high pitched squeak which we call her “meep”. She uses it so seldom we all run when she does meep!!

Original poster
BritBratGrot · 12/04/2026 21:25

Just wanted to return to this one to say kitten is about to turn 1 and he's still never meowed! We do think he's a bit subnormal tbh - he's still not got the hang of toileting outside, isn't great at cleaning himself, and spends a lot of his time following his sister slightly gormlessly. But he's very beautiful and loves a cuddle so he's fine with his low cat IQ. He almost seems like he has some kind of cat ADHD sometimes, he hardly ever settles. I've had plenty of cats before and he's just different,hard to explain.

He has literally never meowed. He tries sometimes but it's almost silent, just a very quiet rasping sound, like a gentle fingernail on sandpaper.

Anyone else got one like this?

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