73
If she's not satisfied with food/drink it may be that she is actually seeking nothing more than attention. Adult cats don't meow to each other (in cat-world it's only used to communicate between mothers and kittens) so she's definitely trying to say something to you. As to what, well that's a bit harder to be sure on (sadly there's no cat-translator yet) as ...
49
In the Manual of Clinical Behavioral Medicine for Dogs and Cats, Karen Overall describes the slow blinking motion of a cats eyes as a sign of a fully relaxed cat. If a human is mimicking that action, the message they're potentially sending to the cat is that they're, themselves, relaxed and so trusting in the presence the cat. That consequence of that, in ...
30
The gist of the question is how to infer what a cat is asking for.
Generally, I make myself available to the cat. Acknowledge their meow, make eye contact, stand in front of them, and wait for the cat to explain what it wants.
That seems to generally work. From experience, cats understand your silent attention as not knowing what to do. Usually, I'll get ...
29
Roger Tabor described several behaviours that are considered to indicate friendly or neutral intentions:
Grooming
Looking away
Yawning
Slow blinking
In his very first book on cat behaviour, The Wildlife of the Domestic Cat Tabor includes anecdotes doing field work observing roaming domestic cats in the street where he would mimic this behaviour to put the ...
12
It depends on the species of parrot you plan to buy. E.g. African grey parrots are the most intelligent ones and quick learners. They have the most clear voice. Similarly the macaws, alexandrine can also mimic human voices well. Indian ringnecks, budgies etc will not mimic human voices but can only produce different kinds of whistles.
It would be best to ...
11
Feral cats don't meow at people, as a rule. I have cared for some ferals that eventually meowed at me after years of consistent feeding (I have a managed, TNR-ed colony).
Your visiting cat has had contact with people at some point. Its shyness indicates that some of that contact has been negative/abusive/scary, or else the cat has been on its own for so ...
10
From what my vet said when discussing my silent meower (who was perfectly healthy and lived to 21), there are several reasons a cat would meow but not make any noticeable sound.
The most common according to my vet is that the cat's vocal cords are deformed so it has no "voice". My old cat usually made no noise beyond something a bit like heavy breathing, ...
10
If you flinch and say "ow', that's a pretty universal mammalian signal...
If it isn't that bad, I've had pretty good success in persuading my cats by reaching around and lifting the tips of their toes whenever they do this. If they persist after that warning the get evicted from the lap. I don't know whether they actually understand, but they find this ...
10
While I don't often do this with cats, I do use this technique to calm down scared puppies when I am grooming them for the first time. Not only does blinking slowly communicate relaxation, but your own facial expression as a whole shows you are relaxed. That in turn causes the puppy, or cat, to relax more. I groom cats, but don't usually look them in the eye ...
9
There's a high probability that he doesn't really know his name. The problem is that we use our pet's names too often and in too many different contexts. As you describe in your question, we usually call our pets by their name with a lot of hidden meanings. We should try to avoid doing that. Especially in case where we want to stop them. If every time you ...
9
Hard to say. You're relaying what you noticed which could be a partial picture.
I wouldn't give it too much credence though, from the sound of it the behavior was just a spur of the moment thing. Kittens will often play in an exaggerated manner and try to test out boundaries / roles. She could have been saying "How dare you tell me what to do!?!" but the ...
8
There are roughly three kinds of moods you need to be able to tell apart in snakes:
Hungry / looking for food
Scared / pissed off
Relaxed / exploring around
How exactly these moods look differs immensely between species and even specimens. Even snakes can have wildly varying personalities.
'Essing up'
For example, the "essing up" which my boa ...
8
It might be a sign that your cat is somewhat insecure; that he is anxious. I think with his meow he is saying: "Where am I? Where is my place, my territory?"
A toy is a substitute for a captured prey, which a cat will typically take home. Carrying his prey, he might be saying: "This is mine!" and in this case even: "And where I take it, that is my home."
...
7
I often do the slow blink to my "grrrls" but they don't seem to register the gesture. They blink at me, but seem to feel that since I'm not a cat it doesn't mean anything coming from me.
Some other cat gestures I can mirror back at them and get a response, such as the trill, or the flop over onto one's side with a goofy playful look.
I view the blink as "...
7
My cat did something similar. When he was kitten, he would not mew at all or would kind of squeak or move his mouth as if he was trying to. When he noticed the positive effect of this, it encouraged him to continue and eventually, at around the age 2, he developed a mighty voice that knows no bounds. I believe that by conversing with your cat (which you ...
7
That is not a normal tail position for a cat. In fact, I don't think cats normally can lay their tails on their back like that.
I suspect the cat you saw may just have a kink in its tail that is causing the strange position. This can happen from normal genetic variation, or from a break in the tail not healing correctly.
6
I know this is an old question, but I feel I needed to correct some things.
I'd add that you shouldn't look directly at the dog either, as that
can sometimes be interpreted as a challenge. – Cucamonga Aug 3 '14 at
17:39
Dogs are pack animals. In that sense, they're very much like humans. Just like you wouldn't stare at a stranger, you wouldn't want ...
6
Important point: like most animals, cats need immediate feedback to understand what you're responding to. Effectively, they don't remember what they did a few minutes ago, or at least don't consider it important or why you'd be objecting now. So you need to anticipate their actions and look for the "teachable moment", or create those moments.
(This is why ...
6
The way I was taught is:
Approach at a moderately slow pace, a bit slower than a walk
No loud sounds, no teeth, just approach 'naturally'
Place your hand out in a loose fist or fingers pointing down, so the back of the palm is facing the dog
Move the hand towards the dog's mouth/nose so he/she can sniff you out. Fingers down or curled will protect them from ...
6
Cats in the wild are solitary animals so vocal communication is not very useful, scent marking is more useful for cats when it comes to keeping other cats away and at the same time give information about the gender and age and when the cat was in the area.
Most of the vocal communication is mother and kittens and this do gradually stop when the kitten gets ...
6
Cats wave their tails for many reasons. Other aspects of what it does with its tail and its general body posture can help inform what is the exact reason it's waving it.
How intensely is it waving its tail? Is it rather slow and gentle? Or is it waving it hard enough to thump against things, and rather quickly? Is it mostly the tip of the tail that's ...
5
It is possible that your rabbit is mimicking you, but doubtful she is trying to communicate by talking.
Rabbits do learn by watching others, and mimic that behavior. In the photo below the black rabbit (Harmony) spent about 2 months learning to climb to the top of the rabbit condo, one success at time, starting with stretching from the arm of the couch to ...
4
Our ten year old female bi-colour tabby gives silent meows 99% of the time. She has many other peculiar traits that I have never witnessed in lots of other cats.
Why the silent meow? I think that she has learnt from our responses to her demands that she can get our attention to open a door, feed her, etc., simply by not going to the extra effort of having ...
4
It does not harm, but your dog has no clue what you're saying. They are, however, very adept at reading body language cues, so it can sometimes seem like they 'understand'. (They do, but they understand that you're sad, not your verbal explanation of why). Likewise, they can pick out your tone, and some words they will recognise and have formed an ...
4
Actually, cats are very sensitive to emotions, especially towards the human that the cat had decided to be his/her "leader" of the pack (known as owner, cat do not acknowledge us as their "owner", rather they see us as their "leader"). My cat took me as her "leader of the pack" and will follow me around the house when she's not sleeping. With the normal cats'...
4
Yes, cats can "spit" as well as hiss, though it isn't that common. If it looked like this video...then it is a spit.
Jitterbug Does It Again
My guess is that it is just a kind of defense for a little kitten to make surprising sounds to make a potential foe move back in surprise.
4
I realize I'm coming super late to this conversation but I wanted to add my own experience with my cat because I've yet to come across anything that explains or sounds like the situation with my cat.
I adopted her when she was already a year old and she actually can't meow. She makes a noise, but it sounds more like a puff of air that sounds like "key." It'...
4
Cats meow mostly for one reason, to communicate with humans. Feral cats usually don't meow. Also, meowing is akin to a baby crying to its mother. Domesticated cats retain this behavior with us, since we're their caregivers.
What I'm hinting at is that your cat is most likely asking for something from humans. If they look at you while meowing, or are near ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
