Cat Chat Feline Forum

I recently got an american shorthair kitten for my home. She is about 3 months old and I got her from the local humane society and they gave her a clean bill of health (She had some ringworms but they said she was cleared of them. She was spayed and sent home with me and it’s been about four weeks since I got her.

Ever since I got her she has been a very vocal kitten. At first I thought she might be in some pain from the operation but she hasn’t let off meowing at me. I did take her to a vet and they gave her a once over and said she was fine as far as they could tell, but her meows still worry me.

She eats very well (and wakes me up when it’s time for breakfast), she jumps and runs without pain or complaint, and even plays with her toys without so much as a whine and will even run up walls after her toys. She has no marks or patches of missing fur, and other than her meows seems completely healthy. When held, petted, or played with (or given food) she stops meowing.

The vet did state she was likely weaned early, hence her very pathetic meows. And this may be just my nerves as my previous cat died rather suddenly and I’m still having some heart aches from it, but I just wanted to know what you think of her meows? Is it just my nerves and her being bored or something else? Thank you all for listening

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Thanks for the reassurance, all the other cat's I have owned have been quiet. I'm okay with her being vocal, I just wanted to make sure she's okay. You take care

Purdy has always been very vocal when she wants something. When she gets her way - she shuts up!

OHWS wrote:If you start saying 'wow, wow, wow' to the first 3 notes of 3 blind mice at feeding time, she may start to copy you or modify her own meow. Our 4 year old vocal cat will sometimes try to copy. He even went to a cattery for a week recently and he came back with some different meows.

So while I hold out little hope of silencing a vocal cat, [nor do I think you should] you may be able to influence how that vocalism is expressed.

I find this fascinating, and believe it to be true.

Cats have mostly evolved their meows to communicate with us, they don't often meow to each other (though they do have a range of chirrups and other noises), so it would make sense that we can have an effect on them, though I'm sure a lot depends on the character of the cat. All of my cats have very different meows and they use them in different ways, from the heart-rending wailing that my Basil has always done, consistently and persistently, whatever and no matter how great or small his actual need, to the huge range of different notes and tones that Daz has developed since he came (as a stray tom cat) and uses for different occasions and that I can perfectly well understand.