meow this is the noise that most of us associate most strongly with cats and it's also happily enough the easiest cat noise for humans to imitate but did you know that there are actually a few reasons why you should as weird as it sounds meow back at your cat also there are a few other noises that we can make to communicate with our kitties in a language they will understand in this video we're going to be looking at the magical world of meowing giving the answers to all these questions and more but before we dive
in why not subscribe and join our feline loving Community for more insight into the mind of your cat why does your cat meow when they see you it might surprise you to learn that adult cats don't meow at each other very often most catto cat communication is achieved via body language or through quieter sounds some of which are outside the range of human hearing so in that case why do we associate meowing so strongly with cats well there is one context when one cat will meow at another when a kitten is trying to communicate with
their mama cat or with one of their litter mates kittens aren't that great at the subtleties of adult cat communication so they stick to meowing when they need to ask for attention or Express distress it's the same as crying is for human babies as they grow older however cats learn that humans can't understand or even pick up on a lot of the ways that they try and communicate meowing is one of the only things that seems to work so they start doing it more often essentially your cat communicates with you exclusively in baby talk yes
Studies have shown that cats respond to Baby Talk significantly more often than they respond to somebody talking in their normal voice this is unlikely to be because they understand and appreciate that they're being talked to like a precious baby and more because they find it easier to hear high-pitch sounds and most people tend to pitch their voices up when doing baby talk what other noises can I make to get my cat's attention anything high pitched and quick is likely to attract a cat the puss puss noise for examples is so effective that multiple languages have
a word for cat that includes some combination of P and S sounds or similar for example Pisa in Romanian Pusa in Tagalog and bisa in Arabic unfortunately however not all cats are fans for some kitties the repeated s sound can sound a bit like hissing which is the sound of feline aggression you can also get a cat's attention by sucking your bottom lip against your teeth and then quickly pulling it away with practice this will make a short high pitched squeak that to a cat sounds a bit like the distress call of a small rodent
or bird this is exactly the kind of noise that a cat's ears are calibrated to hear and nothing is more certain to get their attention does my cat understand me when I meow unfortunately no like most animals cats don't really have anything that could be properly described as a human style language they don't have specific words they just make a variety of noises that have vague generalized meanings and the specific thing that each cat means is then determined by context for example a cat hissing means I'm angry a cat hissing in the context of guarding
their territory against an intruding other cat means I'm angry because I want you to leave my territory your cat has no idea what the context of a human meowing at them actually means and in general humans aren't actually good enough at mimicking a cat's meow to fool an actual cat no matter how realistic you might sound to human ears to your kitty it likely just sounds like more meaningless human babbling so why do they meow back sometimes you might find yourself getting drawn into a conversation with your kitty they meow you meow they meow you
meow you might think that this is a sign that you actually are communicating with your cat in some way but in reality cats will also do this kind of call and response with humans who are just speaking normally this is less about your cat trying to actually talk to you and more about them engaging with you and taking joy in your presence think of it as essentially like a game the two of you are playing you may not be having a conversation with your cat but you are sharing an experience together do all cats meow
all domestic cats meow but some are more talkative than others among the most talkative breeds are the Siamese Burmese and Japanese bobtail the former two fall into the category of Oriental breeds and are characterized by their fairly deep meows in some cases they can sound kind of like a human voice our kitties meow because they are part of a group called lesser cats although in our opinion there's nothing lesser about them who can meow and purr big cats like lions and tigers don't meow or purr although they may manage a kind of growling imitation of
purring they can't do the lesser cat trick of purring on an inhale and an exhale but they make up for it with their ability to Roar why is it so hard to sleep through a cat meowing this is one of the few times when your Kitty's adorable little voice is unlikely to give you Joy when your cat wakes up earlier than you do and decides that it's time for breakfast cuddles or playtime they can easily wake up the whole house with their constant meow meow meow the high-pitch noise can cut through you like a knife
and make it impossible to just roll over and go back to sleep why because your cat is actually praying on your deepest instincts your little fluff balls cries are roughly the same pitch as a human baby's cry which our brains are designed to pick up on and refuse to ignore time to get up and serve up some kibble why is my cat meowing weird one of the few situations where an adult cat will meow at another cat is when they're trying to get attention for example if the cat in question is majorly injured or scared
and is crying for help or in warning or if they are a female cat in heat or a male cat who is sented a female and are calling out to let all nearby cats know that they are single and more than ready to mingle these meows will generally sound different than the meows that our cats directed us a yow the noise noise that cats make when distressed is generally lower and longer than a normal meow a cater wall the noise that female cats in heat make to alert the males and that male cats make in
response is even lower and louder some cat owners panic when they first hear it because it can sound like your kitty is in some kind of pain what does my cat think is going on when they hear other cats meowing on the TV in general if you have the TV on a lot then your cat will be used to it and is unlikely to notice a stray meow especially as most shows that feature a cat meowing will have the sound mixed in with a bunch of background noise so your kitty might not even be able
to distinguish it if you deliberately play a recording of a cat meowing however with nothing else in the background and the volume up then your cat may show more of an interest some cats will ignore it but others may become distressed and start looking around anxiously for these mysterious ghost cats that have apparently invaded their territory as funny as it might be to prank your cat like this it's not something you should do very often your cat probably doesn't enjoy it can cats learn to talk like humans you might have seen some viral videos of
cats talking usually saying simply words or phrases like hello or I love you you might find yourself wondering whether this is a sign that our kitties are evolving and whether in a few years you might be able to buy yourself your very own talking cat unfortunately the answer is no The Talking Cats you see on YouTube and Tik Tok aren't necessarily fake but they definitely don't know what they're saying sometimes cats just make weird noises and humans have a habit of seeing or in this case hearing patterns even when they aren't there if the cat
is making the noise deliberately then it's probably less like a baby learning to talk and more like a parrot learning to mimic their owner when they use common phrases some very clever cats can learn to imitate the sounds that they hear humans make but they don't know what they're actually saying did you know that there are a few common things many people do that their cats secretly adore check out this video to find out how to make your cat extremely happy
