Kitten, 16 weeks, never meowed

[BritBratGrot]

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?

Silent cat

my big male cat squeaks

I had similar - absolutely gorgeous without a brain cell in his head. Was scared of everything, clumsy as all hell (would fall of the arm of the chair or the windowsill), attention span of a pissed gnat, clearly thick as shit. But absolutely adorable and cuddly as anything with me (terrified of any other human though).

He was also pretty much silent; only sound he would make would be little very quiet squeaks of distress when in his carrier going to & from the vet. Oh and suddenly after about 4 years developed a purr so rumbly it would make the sofa shake!

He is beautiful 😍

Hahaha you describe ours exactly @Allergictoironing! And funnily enough with the purr, he's got a very quiet almost wheezy purr but when he's really happy an occasional single second of loud purr breaks through. I did wonder if one day it would just carry on and not disappear after the first second. His sister and litter mate is a perfectly lovely normal cat. She's also nowhere near as friendly. Go thickos!