Strange noises from a cat

[Vitnir]

My mothers cat, a healthy middle aged male cat isnt quite like other cats I think. He doesnt "speak" often and when he does it isnt "meow" like all other cats I heard. I cant describe it realy but its like there is no power behind it, and when he purrs its on a lower volume than other cats I have seen. You almost have to put your ear to his body to hear it. My mom says he has been like this all the time she had him. Is this common and what can it be?

[Kiless]

Cats always have strange voices. I'm currently sitting on a bed with four of them (it's early evening nap time and they've got his routine down pat where they all huddle up for about an hour and then they'll nag for food) and each one has their own particular tone, purr, meows, grunts, warbles, chirps and booops.

Their breed has an influence, I've noticed, since the orange Siamese-descendent is higher-toned and more talkative than the fat black moggy, who voices her objections in burps and snuffles. I'd say it's just individual voice boxes, adaptation to what they need to get attention (if a howl persistently gets what they want, they'll just keep using that howl!) and breed / temperament.

[Kiless]

Oh, always vaccinate for cat flu and keep their shots up to date if there's genuine snuffles, etc. :)

[Badly Shaved Monkey]

I've speculated, but have no proof, that old respiratory infection damage gives some cats that rather voiceless miaow.

[Vitnir]

I certainly haven't got enough expertise to say its outside the normal range of cat dialect, but when I hear it it makes me think that something is wrong with his vocal cords. Once when he got realy pissed of he at least hissed like a regular cat. His breed is what is known in Sweden as "Farmers cat", that is a non pure breed cat. In the two days he has been here now as my mom couldnt take care of him for a week he has only made that noise once, and it was in the middle of the night. It woke me right up thinking "Christ what was that". Other than that he has been quiet, he doesnt seem to use the noise to get attention rather than to call out to see if someone will answer or something.

[Kiless]

Other than that he has been quiet, he doesnt seem to use the noise to get attention rather than to call out to see if someone will answer or something.

Maybe he misses your mother. :(

[Vitnir]

Maybe he misses your mother. :(
He could be but he is pretty calm and sleeps all day.

BSM: Yes an old infection makes sense to me (me having zero medical knowledge to make that judgement).

[Mojo]

I've speculated, but have no proof, that old respiratory infection damage gives some cats that rather voiceless miaow.One of ours (in fact, the one whose name I've borrowed) has a pathetic sounding voiceless miaow that she uses to ask for food. She also has an incredibly loud "where is everybody" miaow.

[Lisa Simpson]

Perhaps it isn't a 'voiceless' meow, but a meow that humans are unable to hear.

BSM, my cat had a respiratory infection a few months back and it definitely changed his voice. He's fine now, but his meow seems to be forever changed.

[Badly Shaved Monkey]

Perhaps it isn't a 'voiceless' meow, but a meow that humans are unable to hear.

BSM, my cat had a respiratory infection a few months back and it definitely changed his voice. He's fine now, but his meow seems to be forever changed.

Both Herpesvirus and Calicivirus infections can be quite scarring to the affected tissues. They are tissue-pathogenically nasty in a way that human influenza viruses are not. Both can be chronic and create carrier states with recrudescent infection.

[Jeff Corey]

Our cats make a variety of sounds. From the beginning, Squeaky's most frequent vocalization has been, "Meep." Rocket was found on the side of a highway at about 7 weeks, with a broken jaw and front leg. The vet surmised that he had been thrown from a car. He meows all right but his purr sounds broken. Satan frequently says, "Helroww" and I try to reinforce that with echoing "Hello" and a body rub.

[Amapola]

I had a cat that did the "silent meow". He was a rescue and had had a pretty rough life, so it is difficult to say if he had any sort of infection or not. If he was really worked up he could make a great deal of noise but when he was "speaking" to me he always used the silent meow. I told a friend about him and she showed me a children's book about a cat with a silent meow. The story was that an adult cat was explaining to a kitten how to get a human to love you and care for you, and the real trick was mastering the silent meow. That was years ago and I can't remember the name of the children's book but perhaps the silent meow is fairly common.

[WildCat]

Cats make a tremendous variety of sounds, and no 2 cats are alike. Some purr loud (http://home.mindspring.com/~turniton/paytonpurr.wav), some soft. Could be the cat vocalizes a lot to its owner, but not around you.

One of our cats has a low meow, and is also a soft purrer. But it can really yowl when it wants to!

[TruthSeeker]

My cat has asthma and I've definitely noticed a difference in his voice based on how well he is breathing and how much medication he's on (none for the last several weeks with perfect breathing! Yippee!). And to just concur with BSM, his voice sounded horrible during and right after his herpes flare.

[Lisa Simpson]

Banzai grunts when he's annoyed. Like right now, since I won't let him lay across my laptop's keyboard.

[Schneibster]

We moved our cats from Monterey to Seattle, and rather than put them through the trauma of the airport and the carriers (and the certainty that someone would have an "accident" and the ensuing unpleasantness, most likely at the worst possible time) we drove them up in the back of my SUV (along with the most valuable/most delicate stuff that we didn't trust the movers with). They howled for the first hour or so, but then settled down- except that every time we stopped, they would start up again for a few minutes. When we got them to Seattle, my wife and I both noticed that their voices were altered, and sounded like they had "strained" their vocal cords; it took about a week to go away.

Make of it what you will. I'm certain that they were "hoarse" as I have occasionally been after a particularly good concert or game.

[bruto]

Ii don't have at hand any references, etc. but I was under the impression that different breeds of cats often have different vocal characters, and that longhaired cats such as Persians are often very soft voiced.

[Lisa Simpson]

Ii don't have at hand any references, etc. but I was under the impression that different breeds of cats often have different vocal characters, and that longhaired cats such as Persians are often very soft voiced.

According to the CFA profile, Japanese Bobtails are very talkative, and that's very true of Banzai.

They are active, intelligent, talkative cats. Their soft voices are capable of nearly a whole scale of tones; some people say they sing. Since they adore human companionship they almost always speak when spoken to.

I don't know that he sings, but he sure does talk a lot.

[Mephisto]

I certainly haven't got enough expertise to say its outside the normal range of cat dialect, but when I hear it it makes me think that something is wrong with his vocal cords.

My youngest cat did something similar several times until a trip to the vet proved he had seasonal allergies that affect his respiratory tract as well as his sinuses. His voice changes accordingly, and sounds like . . . well, a cat with allergies.

I also have a cat who snores and who "barks" at birds in his sleep.

You may reconsider your diagnosis that your cat's noises are "outside the normal range of cat dialect" because their dialects are as varied as their breeds and as different as their situations and environments.

[joobie]

i once had a cat who would voice his displeasure sounding exactly like the cowardly lion from the wizard of oz. mmmmmmmpfh. mmmmmmmpfh. it was enough to send me into fits of hysterics any time he did it.

[Mojo]

Our cats make a variety of sounds. From the beginning, Squeaky's most frequent vocalization has been, "Meep." Rocket was found on the side of a highway at about 7 weeks, with a broken jaw and front leg. The vet surmised that he had been thrown from a car. ... [rule 8] ...He meows all right but his purr sounds broken. Satan frequently says, "Helroww" and I try to reinforce that with echoing "Hello" and a body rub.I used to know a cat who frequently said "meringue," but I don't think she knew what it meant.

[Bronze Dog]

... [rule 8] ...I used to know a cat who frequently said "meringue," but I don't think she knew what it meant.
My family used to have a parakeet with a rather colorful vocabulary. (http://skepdic.com/pareidol.html)

[joobie]

and now as i sit typing this ben franklin (http://michael.tangent.org/ben1.jpg) is sitting in the window making chirping noises at a blue jay in hope it will be fooled into coming closer.

[Kiless]

I like the way they sing at birds. It doesn't work though, stupid cats.

[bruto]

and now as i sit typing this ben franklin (http://michael.tangent.org/ben1.jpg) is sitting in the window making chirping noises at a blue jay in hope it will be fooled into coming closer.

On the other side of the coin, I once knew a person who had a caged bluejay (saved from a disabling injury) which learned to imitate the ringing of the phone. It was quite amusing. You really could never tell whether it was the phone or the jay. Unfortunately, she put the bluejay's cage right next to that of her son's cockatiel, and found a little too late that bluejays are not only clever but murderous.

[Mojo]

The previous owner of my local pub had a parrot that had learned to imitate a variety of mobile phone ringtones (this was a few years ago when there weren't so many different ones). On sunny days its cage would be put on a flat roof at the front of the building. It would have people reaching into pockets and handbags for about 50 yards in either direction along the High Street.

[Katachresis]

My cat Spot and I used to play fetch. I'd take a piece of paper, crunch it into a ball (Spot would hear this and come running), and throw it as far as I could. She would find it, no matter how long it took, and run it back to me. If I let her, we would do this for hours. I'm not sure this post belongs here, but I feel better having said it.

[wollery]

We used to have a cat that hardly made any noise. He would open his mouth wide for two or three second, but all that came out was this pathetic little squeak. This was all the more comical because he was a really big bruiser of a cat. His finest hour came one day when he strutted into the living room, looked around to make sure he had everyone's attention, opened his mouth really wide for a good five seconds, closed his mouth, and then squeaked. :D

Mind you, his purr was remeniscent of a small motorbike and could be heard from the next room.

[Badly Shaved Monkey]

... [rule 8] ...I used to know a cat who frequently said "meringue," but I don't think she knew what it meant.

In our household, milk is called "Ralph" because that is definitely what our late cat, Sam, used to call it. Mind you, he seemed to call a lot of things "Ralph", so it is just possible that he couldn't really talk. Nonetheless the name for milk has become fixed by use.

[Moose]

Each of my cats have had distinctive dialects.

My current cat has this really creepy howl/hoot if she's feeling lonely and doesn't know where everybody is, and "miaaaps" (incessantly) if she's wanting food. She "miaaas" in a distinctly embarrassed and apologetic way (reinforced by body language) when she's fetching someone to the scene of a hairball accident. She also has this odd little squeak she emits sometimes, but I haven't really figured out what she means by it yet.

My previous one used to chirp/speak in "mrrrrrs" as often as not, but would elaborate ("mmmrrrrrOOOW?") if something was particularly urgent. I've heard her growl like a dog from time to time when she was especially displeased by something. This cat wasn't especially chatty, though.

[Badly Shaved Monkey]

Our new kitten spent a fair amount of time shut up in his carrier box so he didn't escape from the house unsupervised. His morning noise very clearly sounds like a stroppy "Me Out!"

[Psi Baba]

One of my cats, Mr. Guts, never uttered a word until after he was neutered. Not that it was the neutering itself that had anything to do with it--we figure he learned how to meow while spending the night with all the other yowling cats (including his brother) in the vet hospital. But even still, he doesn't so much meow as quack. It's sort of a very short, cut-off "mwa-". Like that. Often he will open his mouth to start saying something and a huge yawn will take over, fading out what little meow he is able to produce. Though he doesn't do a silent meow, he does do a "silent hiss." When my mother-in-law would bring her dog to the house, Mr. Guts would back up, puff all up, open his mouth wide to hiss, but nothing would come out, sending everyone into fits of laughter.

[Fat Bottom Gurl]

Our new kitten spent a fair amount of time shut up in his carrier box so he didn't escape from the house unsupervised. His morning noise very clearly sounds like a stroppy "Me Out!"

That's hilarious! I swear one of my cats is from Scotland...she says "Mee - You". She's very vocal - and we call her the Puddy-Pest. She will vocalize in the middle of night - bawling for someone to hear her - we throw pillows at her. She also gets very vocal when I'm talking on the phone and she can get downright destructive if she thinks you're not paying enough attention to her.

Deb

[Rolfe]

.... a children's book about a cat with a silent meow. The story was that an adult cat was explaining to a kitten how to get a human to love you and care for you, and the real trick was mastering the silent meow. That was years ago and I can't remember the name of the children's book but perhaps the silent meow is fairly common.The Silent Miaow, by Paul Gallico. It's not so much a children's book as a whimsical soppy-cat-lovers' book. The cat in question (Cica) is devious in the extreme, and the chapter about how to get served pate de foie gras (damn I want html back!) if that's your preference is particularly telling. It's a nice book though, and I've got a copy with some spectacularly cute photos of a ginger adolescent doing the most endearing things. The original edition had black and white photos featuring a tabby-and-white, if I remember correctly.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0330301500/qid=1129624363/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_10_6/202-6443006-2217414

I've heard speculation that the silent miaow is actually a supersonic sound, but I've never seen anyone prove it with a microphone, which would be pretty easy I'd think. I think it's just an attempt at extreme cuteness. "Survival of the cutest is nature's iron law." (Line from a song written by a friend of mine, comparing the human reaction to the alien in Alien, to the way Sigourney Weaver is prepared to risk her life to save the cat.)

Rolfe.

[Mojo]

The cat in question (Cica) is devious in the extremeSo, a typical cat then...

[Rolfe]

So, a typical cat then...Manipulative. That was the word I was searching for....

Rolfe.

[Mojo]

Yup, a typical cat!