silent cat

I have 2 female cats aged 10 months. One of them only makes a chirp sound but nothing else, the other one is silent we can't even hear her purr although you can feel it. Has anyone else come across this. All my previous cats were quite vocal.

Hi and welcome to the site.  I have occasionally seen cats that don't purr, sometimes they "vibrate" slightly as an "almost purr".  Cats in the wild can make a large variety of noises, but meowing is almost exclusively from kittens towards the mom, so there is this sense that we humans are in a maternal relationship with our cats, which is why they will meow at us.  Some cats are not very vocal!

Stephen

Thanks for the welcome Stephen still working my way around the site, not joined a forum before
Gaynor

Hi Gaynor,

Welcome again!  There are a lot of great places to explore on TCS!  Have fun and participate!

Best

Stephen

glimmer said:

I have 2 female cats aged 10 months. One of them only makes a chirp sound but nothing else, the other one is silent we can't even hear her purr although you can feel it. Has anyone else come across this. All my previous cats were quite vocal.

Click to expand...

One of my cats is a 'chirper', she's never really meowed normally and I've had her 5 years.  She has gotten a little more vocal as she gets older.  It's still a cute little chirp, just more of them and louder than when she was  a kitten.  :-)

In my experience, animals are like people in a lot of ways and being vocal is one of them.  Just like how some people just never really have much to say and others can't shut up, animals can be the same way and can often surprise you with noises you never thought they could make.

Perfect example, my boss has a dog, Lola, who we think is part lab and part pointer, and she is like a gossip.  You come over and she'll start woofing, walk over tail wagging, then while you are petting her and saying hi she'll be woofing and barking and generally making happy noises like she's telling you a story about her day   Even when my boss and I are conversing she's stick around and "interject" here and there...

My Labrador, on the other hand, almost never barked.  She would greet you with a sound I could only describe as sounding like an overgrown pigeon!  Happy whining, I guess.  Like, imagine saying "oooooooo" but flutter your tongue when you do it, that's what she sounded like.  Weird.  The few times she did bark was kind of scary, all deep and full of authority, I remember one of the first times she did it was a Halloween night.  I guess she recognized my smell but not my appearance, or something, but as soon as she heard my voice she knew it was me.

If your cat is the silent type, it's nothing against the cat.  I wish my cat was quieter!  He has an incredible vocal range of meows, mows, mohs, wows, yowls, and chirps, and when he purrs he sounds like a fat trucker snoring!  Not even joking!  Well, maybe exaggerating a little.  You can't hear him purr across the room but when when he's within arms reach, or better yet in your face when you're sleeping, he's downright loud!  And he does it both breathing in and out so it doesn't stop!

At first when I got my girl she never made much noise and I thought maybe she was sick or something. Now she never shuts up especially at 2 am when I have to be at work for 6 am and she thinks it's playtime. "Oh you're asleep well let me sit on your head and meow continuously" silly kitty

When I adopted Zoey she never made a sound, I was somewhat afraid that something was wrong with her. The first time I heard her meow was on her second trip to the vet when I hit a bump in the car. Slowly after that I heard it more and more. Ever since we adopted Luna, Zoey has become more vocal.

I think judging by what you all seem to be saying I will accept both Liv (the silent one) and Maisie (the occasional chirper) for what they are, and that is two loving and affectionate cats :-)

I think that sounds like an excellent plan!!!