"How to talk to your cat"

[daoldguy]

Hi all, I need help with a totally, non-scientific survey. My cat and I talk quite a bit and I found this paragraph in a book I am reading very interesting" Here is the quote from How To Talk To Your Cat by Patricia Moyes, 1978

One of the most significant of those steps happened when cats started talking to people. Nobody knows when this occurred, but it is a self-evident (and often overlooked) fact that cats do not communicate vocally with each other. Only in the exchanges that accompany courtship or fighting and the gentle crooning of a mother-to-kitten talk do cats make noise to each other. Interfeline conversation is carried on by visual and tactile means. Tails, ears, whiskers, and paws all carry messages that, with a little practice, you can learn to interpret. We will talk more about this body language in Chapter Five. Meanwhile, it is worth considering that the welcoming chirrups, demanding miaows, and affectionate mews are directed exclusively towards human beings and can only have been developed as a deliberate method of communication.

(page 5 - How To Talk To Your Cat by Patricia Moyes, 1978)

OK, so what do you think?

Rik

 

[snp81]

I've heard that before, that they only meow for us.


OK, that's nice. I sometimes meow back at them.

 

[rad65]

I'm not sure I understand this "survey." Are you surveying our opinions on this behavioral fact? My cats dont meow to each other, the only sounds they make near each other are grunts while they're sparring. They both meow to me though, so I guess I think it's true, at least in my house.

 

[strange_wings]

I'm sick of seeing the BS about cats only meowing to humans - it's a study from '78 and likely from someone who didn't have more than half a dozen cats living in their home for years. (who knows how many of the cats the person was around were also spay or neutered since less people did it back then) Lots of 30+ year old studies get dismissed, human psychology would be quite frightening if everything was still set at what it was in the 70s. Imagine if medicine, human and animal, was still set that far back..

Maybe ferals don't meow at each other, but house cats sure as heck do. Mine meow to each other, I have a couple "talkers" that will go back and forth. I have one that will chirp at the others to try to get them to play with him. And I have siblings that will meow (call) for each other if one of them can't be found - one of them likes to meow for the sake of it, she'll "yell" at everyone to get attention. All the male cats and her sister respond and baby her when she does this, so I know it's not me shes that interested in. (she's also feral born - more cat friendly than human friendly)
I have recorded them meowing between each other when we are gone.

If you don't hear it, than maybe your cats aren't as bonded.

But in close cats it does happen - how much meaning it has compared to their other forms of communication to each other, I don't know, but I suspect it's just a basic call and signifier of mood.

 

[my4llma]

I didn't know cats didn't meow to each other. Luna always meows to Midnight when she wants his attention. She's done that since we first got him. Midnight isn't really much of a talker. He does meow every now and then.

 

[sk_pacer]

I disagree with the cited paragraph. Some of my barn cats DO communicate to the others with meows and yowls. Three of them, upon spotting me, start meowing very loudly (kind of an ow ow sound) and if I appear bearing food, the sound changes to a much louder and more rapid WOW WOW type of sound and that brings the rest on the run. Two do not exhibit this behaviour......oddly, the two fattest!!!LOL They just look up at me and one says ee ee and the other just opens and closes his mouth

 

[yayi]

I have not seen my cats meow at each other for communication. It's eye contact, tail switching, some swatting, purring, licking, hissing, growling, chirping, wailing (pre-play/fight stuff). I believe that meowing is their way of "copying" our words. They are trying to sound like us.
Btw, they don't meow at the dogs either. They mostly growl or purr depending how much they want to piss the dogs.

 

[strange_wings]

Originally Posted by sk_pacer

if I appear bearing food, the sound changes to a much louder and more rapid WOW WOW type of sound and that brings the rest on the run. Two do not exhibit this behaviour......oddly, the two fattest!!!LOL

I've noticed the food notification cry, too. It's loud and, IMO, annoying - more so because I know it's not for me at all, they just want food.

I've never been able to figure out why most cats will cry to let others know there's food, especially if it's something they don't want to share.

I'm also not sure why I only have one quiet cat. Even my two outside cats are loud. Growing up we have more cats that were quiet... maybe I've inevitably made them all loud by communicating loudly to them? Thus they're all loud noisy cats with each other because its normal to them?

 

[ducman69]

I know for a fact that Wesley and Buttercup meow to each other.

I have a networked home surveillance system I monitor occasionally from work, and if Wesley goes into another room after a nap and Buttercup doesn't follow, he will meow loudly until she does, the same as he does to me, and she responds to it right away. Its not by the food, and they have food available 24x7.

They also chirup to each other quite regularly.

It may be a learned behavior from human interaction since we vocalize so much at them that ferals don't do, but I am sure my domesticated cats are not unique.

 

[daoldguy]

Originally Posted by rad65

I'm not sure I understand this "survey." Are you surveying our opinions on this behavioral fact?

Yes

I was just curious if you experienced the same thing as the author wrote about?

Rik

 

[daoldguy]

Originally Posted by strange_wings

I'm sick of seeing the BS about cats only meowing to humans - it's a study from '78 and likely from someone who didn't have more than half a dozen cats living in their home for years.

I am sorry if I made you unhappy. I only have one cat and did not know who else to ask.

My apologizes to anyone else I offended.

Captain Hook's master.

 

[strange_wings]

You didn't offend. The person who wrote that and that it's upheld by everyone is what bothers me. Just because someone wrote something and managed to get it published does not mean its the absolute truth - it only means it's that person's theory.

It's just annoying when multi-cat owners think it's the absolute truth, too. I'm honestly not convinced that ferals are as silent as people think they are - they're called ferals because they're wild and don't let people that close to them. Who knows what noises they make to each other back in their hide outs?

And you only have one cat? I think you need more!

 

[rad65]

Originally Posted by strange_wings

And you only have one cat? I think you need more!

I somewhat blame TCS for me getting my second cat, Tails. All you people with your multiple cats doing cool stuff, it's pure peer pressure, plain and simple

 

[cheylink]

Originally Posted by rad65

I somewhat blame TCS for me getting my second cat, Tails. All you people with your multiple cats doing cool stuff, it's pure peer pressure, plain and simple

Oh come on, we all know Memphis talked you into it!