I am interested to know about anyone's experiences or opinions as to whether meowing is something adult cats do by themselves or mostly practiced by those kept as pets.
Here is a quote of one online comentary:
"The 'meow' (also spelled 'miau', 'miow' or 'miao') is a vocalization used by kittens to signal a request to their mother. Adult cats do not normally meow to each other, and so the meowing to humans that domesticated cats exhibit is likely partly an extension of the use of this plaintive signal, this time to an unrelated caretaker of a different species"
Our two cats, Taz and Morgan were both raised, here at home, from an early age, both meow, frequently for many reasons.
Kasey does not meow. She "eeps & squeeks", goes "maaa" and purrs. She also makes a noise that sounds like a (small) cougar when she wants down, sounds nasty but she doesn't try to harm you and rubs around your ankles when you set her down so it doesn't seem like a threat sound, even if it sounds like one.
Kasey was not "house raised", she was at an industrial setting, from an early age, where she never knew which person at any given time would treat her. Some were good, some were very bad.
I guess I will never figure it out but I wonder if that the sounds she makes is just her voice, or given her upbringing, she just never retained the meow sound as an adult.
Here is a quote of one online comentary:
"The 'meow' (also spelled 'miau', 'miow' or 'miao') is a vocalization used by kittens to signal a request to their mother. Adult cats do not normally meow to each other, and so the meowing to humans that domesticated cats exhibit is likely partly an extension of the use of this plaintive signal, this time to an unrelated caretaker of a different species"
Our two cats, Taz and Morgan were both raised, here at home, from an early age, both meow, frequently for many reasons.
Kasey does not meow. She "eeps & squeeks", goes "maaa" and purrs. She also makes a noise that sounds like a (small) cougar when she wants down, sounds nasty but she doesn't try to harm you and rubs around your ankles when you set her down so it doesn't seem like a threat sound, even if it sounds like one.
Kasey was not "house raised", she was at an industrial setting, from an early age, where she never knew which person at any given time would treat her. Some were good, some were very bad.
I guess I will never figure it out but I wonder if that the sounds she makes is just her voice, or given her upbringing, she just never retained the meow sound as an adult.
. Da Magpie, born in the barn to a loopy and noisy and very wild mother whose only other surviving offspring is silent, learned her manners from Da Lip and he shouts at me when he thinks he is starving so she learned the same behaviours. From my observations, it is a combination of both nature and nurture. Any of the mostly silent cats can and will meow at me through the window in summer, and hearing a meow from Tippy is mildly startling because he mostly just does silent meows and purrs a lot, but for the most part, these guys just sit on the tractor and stare at the windows every morning that is nice enough to be designated as tractor sitting weather.
as he is heard accross the house... My two raised by humans from a young age talk but only when I or the other one is in the room... My feral born raised in a open no cage shelter from 6 months to 4 yrs of age is a squeaker .. My other feral born but her kittens reared in the shelter hardly makes a peep outside of being right next to me
