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Questions tagged [communication]

Topics involving how pets communicate, with focus on verbalization. Purring, growling, barking, as opposed to the generic *behavior* tag.

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Does my cat hate me now

Please help! My cat won't come back indoors. After I accidently kicked my cat she will no longer come back into the house at night. She was out all day most days but in on a night in my room sleeping ...
Georgina North's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
2k views

Cat hisses then immediately blinks at dog

So we have an adult tomcat who doesn't like dogs very much. And there's an older male puppy that tends to be slightly dominant. The puppy has by now learnt to mostly leave the cat alone. There is ...
dakini's user avatar
  • 504
3 votes
1 answer
5k views

Why is my cat bothered by my being in the bathroom?

One of my cats gets (apparently?) very upset whenever I am in the bathroom. Meaning, she meows loudly and frequently in a way that sounds, to my ear, sometimes like distress, and sometimes like she's ...
Matthew's user avatar
  • 148
2 votes
0 answers
43 views

Canine Physiology | Pomsky Vocalization - How Advanced For Speech?

There's been demonstration with some birds, such as with parrots like African Greys - e.g with Alex, with the work of comparative psychologist Dr. Irene Pepperberg, who also studied its intelligence ...
Gal Grünfeld's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
539 views

My female cat hisses and pins down my kitten before licking her and cuddling her?

I got a kitten a few weeks ago. At first my older female was unhappy with it of course, but no severe fighting, just a hiss or two. Now she’s recently started to hiss and pin her head down randomly. ...
Grace Fernandez's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
63 views

How to make sense of my cat's whining and resolve it?

My cat (Grammer) is a 1.5 year old male rescue who is the most friendly and gentle cat I've ever had. I adopted him because my other kitten (Marduk) who is two months older was not properly socialized ...
Dshiz's user avatar
  • 111
4 votes
1 answer
201 views

Do dogs and other intelligent animals (cows, etc.) blink to communicate?

Cats are known to blink as a form of smiling. I believe I have also noticed that the dogs and cows here often look and blink at me when they are upto something. E.g.1: when one of the dogs is play ...
dakini's user avatar
  • 504
4 votes
2 answers
245 views

My cat waves her tail when I make funny sounds. What does this mean?

My family has a cat and lives a more or less balanced life (from sleeping wherever she wants to being chased by young teenagers and actually waiting for them when they do not chase her fast enough). ...
WoJ's user avatar
  • 363
4 votes
2 answers
225 views

Do cats meow only for humans?

I have heard that cats don't actually meow in the wild. Kittens only meow to their parents, and the parents to their kittens, and both do it to humans, and that's all. Is that true? If so, is it for ...
HiddenWindshield's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
115 views

Can cats identifiy specific tones/frequencies?

I have a cat who lost her eyesight due to blood-pressure complications when she was about 6 years old (she is 8 now). She adapted very well to living without eyesight, to the point where it would ...
redeclipse's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
288 views

How to get cat to stop howling at my door during the night?

About 6 months ago I had to stop letting my cats into my room because one pees everywhere on everything when I leave my door open, and the other (understandably) can’t hold his bladder all night. So I ...
Racheal Brooker's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
133 views

Is it possible to teach my cat to express what he wants though visual cues?

My cat usually starts yelling whenever he wants something, though it is near impossible to tell if he wants to play "chase" or wants pettings or is hungry. What I want to ask is whether I ...
Maiko Chikyu's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
164 views

Is there a Professional Method of training a cat?

I have two small cats, one of which is a black/very dark navy furred cat that is about a year old. The other is a slightly younger and smaller white furred cat that is about 4/5ths of a year old. I ...
Mister SirCode's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
862 views

What does it mean when my cat makes this noise? (re-post)

Someone posted a question about the noise the cats in THIS video were making, between their regular meow-type noises. They wanted to know what that noise meant when the cat communicated with them ...
Gwendolyn's user avatar
  • 2,683
1 vote
2 answers
314 views

Can cat understand if we try to communicate in cat's language by mimicking sounds that cats make in different situations to communicate?

First of all my apology to those readers who have little or no experience with cats and don't know the meaning of a numerous numbers and types of cat vocalizations and gestures. This may sound absurd ...
Sonevol's user avatar
  • 4,203
4 votes
2 answers
5k views

What does this cat's tail mean?

I was walking near a park around the neighborhood and encountered a cat. It approached me, meowed, laid on the ground and stretched in front of me and I continued walking without petting it. However ...
aaa's user avatar
  • 163
4 votes
1 answer
174 views

Cat missing part of tail, is that a problem with communication?

The other day I came across a cat that was missing about 20% of her tail, just the last part of if. It does not seem to be a problem with balance, but how (much) does a cat communicate with their ...
Flummox - don't be evil SE's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
129 views

Why do the baby crows I raised not approach me as adults?

About a week ago, I found four baby crows which fell down from a broken tree. I raised them until they started to fly on their own. I expected them to come near me when they became adults, but they ...
Sabrina Tariq's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
3k views

Cat meow is inaudible [duplicate]

I've adopted, or is it been adopted by, a stray cat which frequents multiple houses in the immediete area, but sleeps on the sofa in my lounge. It struggles to communicate even though I know it is ...
speciesUnknown's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
50 views

How can I mark my own territory and communicate this to my pet rabbit? [duplicate]

So we got a holland lop rabbit a few weeks ago second hand from another couple. He's been great so far, but I've been reading online about communicating with my rabbit by mimicking his own behavior, ...
user1759942's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
2k views

My 3 year old cat's meow changed from a squeak to a meow

When I adopted my cat, he only made squeaking sounds. He sounded like a kitten but I was told he is 3 years old. Just recently (today) when we came home, instead of just squeaking at us, he started to ...
fireball8931's user avatar
57 votes
6 answers
28k views

What is this street cat asking for, with continuous meowing?

There's this cat in the neighborhood which doesn't have an owner, and I suspect she has never had one since she's very cautious and doesn't get very close. I left her food sometimes: lately for about ...
azerafati's user avatar
  • 693
2 votes
1 answer
264 views

Fact or fiction - have I ruined the chance to teach my cockatiel to talk?

I have a young male cockatiel. He's about 7-8 months old. He mimics all sorts of whistles already like the wolf whistle, pop goes the weasel, charge!, and part of Darth Vader's entrance song, he even ...
Christy B.'s user avatar
  • 3,027
4 votes
1 answer
979 views

How can I make my cat trust my lap?

I have a short fur Siamese cat. When I arrive home or when I finish my bath, she walks around me rubbing my legs. She likes to be petted, but when I catch her, she starts pushing me. How can I teach ...
Tiago Pimenta's user avatar
6 votes
5 answers
24k views

Why does my cat meow a lot more since moving?

I've moved from a two bedroom apartment into a two storey house. My cats have a lot more room to roam around in. My older cat meows a lot more now. He almost never did before. When he does it, he does ...
Octopus's user avatar
  • 215
3 votes
3 answers
279 views

How can I ask my cat to bring me something?

Last night my cat brought in a mouse right before I was going to sleep, and I tried to save it but failed. She killed the creature, and then gave it to me. It was really cute. I thought it was really ...
Featherball's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
133 views

Seemingly crying cat sound, yet she continues friendly rubbing on me

I live with someone else and their cat will cry at me sometimes and request a "pet" or "rub down". I read up a little bit about certain cat behaviors and found I may have just been ...
ŽaMan's user avatar
  • 123
5 votes
2 answers
1k views

Our cat is still scared and suspicious of us

We adopted Carsi when he was eight months old. As far as we know, he was left behind by his owner as she moved and he was taken care of by nice people, but lived on the streets. When we adopted him, ...
Ayse Aricioglu's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
221 views

Stray Cats Intimidating my Pet Cat

I asked a question a few months ago about my cat's behavior. I have a 9 month old male Persian Cat, and I wanted to know what I can do prevent stray cats entering my house premises and intimidating my ...
The Man's user avatar
  • 21
1 vote
2 answers
29k views

Why does my cat meow in front of the door?

I have recently returned from a trip and I've found that sometimes my cat goes to the main door of the house and starts meowing. The cat didn't use to do this before my trip. During this trip I left ...
S -'s user avatar
  • 173
3 votes
3 answers
302 views

Stray Cats Showing Dominance Outside My House

I got a 3 month male kitten and recently stray cats have started to come to the house and started making weird noises that make my kitten terrified. What does this mean and what can i do about it
The Man's user avatar
  • 31
2 votes
1 answer
281 views

What does my cockatiel's 'toot' sound mean?

My cockatiel likes to make this short, kind sound: 'Toot'. It sounds a bit like a very short train flute. She seems to make this sound whenever I appear from another room or come around a corner. ...
Berit Larsen's user avatar
8 votes
8 answers
141k views

Why does my cat's meow have no sound?

I've looked all over for an explanation. Surprisingly, there's not much information about this (most being theories). Are there any cat experts that can explain this? I've heard "the sound is too ...
Dioxin's user avatar
  • 1,204
2 votes
2 answers
171 views

Is it okay to talk to a dog?

I'm a divorced guy and I always talk to my dog. I praise him when he does something good and he likes it. When he does something bad, I talk to him in a strict voice. Also I tell him some stories time ...
Igor Soloydenko's user avatar
11 votes
4 answers
22k views

How can I show a cat that I am unhappy with one of their actions?

Sometimes, my cat paws me while playing, with his nails out, and it hurts. Sometimes, he's a jerk and doesn't let me brush off litter dust from his paws. If I say ow, and make a sad face, he ...
bzm3r's user avatar
  • 521
3 votes
1 answer
66 views

Any serious studies of pets and music?

It's always hard to tell whether a pet actually notices music as something different from less-organized noises, outside of the occasional dog which demonstrates that it can howl in harmony or the ...
keshlam's user avatar
  • 10.2k
2 votes
1 answer
65 views

How can I correct my dog's reaction to the speak command?

I have a 6 month old Black Lab. I taught him to speak, and somewhere along the line he picked up this strange behavior. It's like the speak command is a heated seat button in a car, where you press it ...
Matt Young's user avatar
9 votes
4 answers
5k views

Are fish able to understand when one will be dying soon?

I had a really old tetra fish, around 7 years old, who was getting weak. The other fish were helping him get food and were supporting him whenever he was swimming around. A few days later, the fish ...
IHeartBunnies's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
319 views

Is she trying to talk?

My rabbit loves being around people, and her favorite thing to do is surprisingly be held. Whenever I hold her though, I notice that she opens and closes her mouth frequently. I sometimes feel like ...
IHeartBunnies's user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
31k views

How to approach a dog for the first time?

We have all heard that first impressions are important. Presumably they are just as important the first time you meet a dog, as the first time you meet a person. How should I approach a dog for the ...
James Jenkins's user avatar
12 votes
5 answers
55k views

Did my cat just spit at/on me?

I have a kitten about 10-11 wks old. She's very human-friendly, as sweet as can be and very active. This morning as I was sitting at my desk she was doing the usual routine of running around and ...
Jason C's user avatar
  • 1,538
26 votes
3 answers
18k views

What forms of "body language" can be identified in snake behaviour?

Clearly, the snake's brain is far more primitive than our own so will not include "emotion" as we understand it, but there will still be identifiable reactions to different situations, which can be ...
ClickRick's user avatar
  • 1,255
15 votes
4 answers
6k views

How can I tell if my cat knows his name?

I call my cat by his name, "Sterling", often, either to tell him nice things ("I love you too, Sterling") or when I need to blame him for something ("Sterling, NO. NO pushing things off of tables!"), ...
eje211's user avatar
  • 351
46 votes
4 answers
18k views

Is blinking slowly at cats a way to tell them that you love them?

When I was talking to my wife last night, it came up that blinking slowly at a cat is supposed to be a way to tell them that you love them. She said that when she tried it with her parent's cats, one ...
Spidercat's user avatar
  • 15.6k
58 votes
1 answer
86k views

How much purring is too much purring?

I have an adolescent cat that I adopted as a kitten. For some time now I have noticed that he is purring a lot. I know that when giving affection this behavior is normal but my cat seems to start ...
Lix's user avatar
  • 1,439
17 votes
2 answers
2k views

How hard will it be to train my parrot to talk?

I'm thinking of buying a young parrot, but I don't have much experience with parrots. So I want to know if anybody has one and how hard it would be to train the parrot to talk. I'll love any useful ...
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