Why is my male cat yowling
Cat Vocalizations and What They Mean
0:00 / 0:00
Timecodes:
hey everybody this video is brought to
you by the good folks over at armor cat
makers of quality cat trees for over 20
years
thanks armor cat all right welcome gang
jackson galaxy your cat daddy here and
today we head into the world of the
now or the or the i can't do a purr
all of those sounds that make up cat
today we're going to dive into
uh some of them because we can't do all
of them but we're going to do some of
them
and this all begins with you and i
getting
cadified
so you know if you've been watching this
channel if you've been watching my show
if you've been reading my books i hope
you do all of those things if you've
been doing that you know that we
take a look at everything that makes up
the cat
day and try to understand how it applies
to us
how they could be asking us things
communicating things just a few weeks
ago we did a video
on body positions and those body
positions
also can communicate discomfort or
comfort or i'm hot or i'm cold
or i'm scared you know those kind of
things well the same can be said
about cat vocalizations outside of birds
cats have the most known vocalizations
at least among domestic animals i mean
think about it
dogs have about 10 vocalizations cats
have over a hundred
and of course i'm not saying that makes
cats smarter than dogs i'm not saying
that
okay i love dogs so we're gonna go
through these
from a general perspective but then i'll
circle back and remind you
that your cat is your cat and your cat
has a unique experience in life and
that's why they do what they do
and away we go let's talk
vocalizations oh get it let's talk
vocalizations
well the first one that we're going to
talk about is the most common
the one that you guys all think about
when you think about your cat vocalizing
and
probably and that is probably the meow
what's really interesting about that
sound meow teeny tiny little kittens
make that sound they make that mewing
sound the meowing sound
as young as just newborns as they're
trying to find
their mom's nipple they are basically
sending because their eyes are closed
they're sending out that vocalization
and then mom responds by helping them
find that nipple or
gathering them in because of course
their eyes don't open until they're
about 10 days old
so that sound is very is very prevalent
in
kittens however as they get to adult age
not so much
they stop making that sound to any other
cat once they're past
that small kitten stage what's even more
interesting is
that cats do not make that sound to
other cats they make it to us
they make it to serve a purpose for us
so
it's amazing when you think about the
fact that the meow is only propagated
through the rest of their life
because i don't know we give them treats
when they get it or we give them
attention of some sort they know it
works so they keep doing it
a lot of times that has to do with how
long they were with their mom
and how much we then sort of took over
that position
they are forever infantilized in our
world
and so that meow becomes a hey mom i
need something
type of sound that is a special delivery
from your cat to you the human
not to other cats pretty cool right what
is the second
most common and commonly asked about
vocalization probably the purr
it's a really interesting sound the per
and believe it or not
still shrouded in mystery i mean sure
there's a lot of different
theories about what causes a per but
we're talking about like
neural oscillators in a cat's brain
the ossification of the hyoid and the
vocal folds
i'm telling you there's a lot of studies
about why cats burn how they purr
but there's not consensus we do know one
thing the
house cat the small cat purrs large cats
do not with the exception of one and
what is that one
it is the snow leopard how do you like
them apples why do we purr
again it is something that is up for
debate
the first one the most obvious one to
all of us who have ever
been with a purring cat whether teeny
tiny purse or big loud purrs
is when they're happy when they're
content that's when the purr comes out
the most
there are other reasons why a cat would
purr so this is again why i want you
guys to understand this just because
your cat is purring
does not mean they're happy it depends
on the circumstance they're in
a mortally wounded cat will purr the
oscillator in a cat's brain
will adjust that purr to the right hurts
the the right sort of uh vibrational
range
to actually facilitate the knitting of
bones and the healing of wounds
whoa how cool is that right there's a
lot
of offshoots of why a cat will purr but
the most important one is when they're
cuddled up with you and feeling
fine and groovy and that's why they purr
so there's the purr
so uh next we're going to talk about a
term that honestly
i really don't know the difference i
think that they're all the same thing
and i
looked this up yes i google sometimes
and i think that they're sort of the
same
the chirp the trill and the cheer up
honestly look i'm a guy who
makes up words so it's cool if there's
three words that basically mean the same
thing but for our purposes
i'm just going to say they mean the same
thing
so it's actually very cool so what a
chirp or trill or a cherub we're just
going to call it a trill
because the other ones just don't form
in my mouth well so we're going to call
it a trill right now
and a trill would be that kind of a it's
like a
think about the rolling r in spanish
which i'm really bad at doing
let me see if i can do it i did it
that is the sound like that and but it's
pushed through the vocal cords and out
of usually a closed mouth
here's interesting mostly the prime
chirpers chirpers trillers are female
because
they use that sound uh with their young
now when my mom would get fed up with me
and my brother lagging behind or
something
and don't forget we're new yorkers so we
just yell about everything
hey come on that kind of thing cats are
much more
um refined i guess is the word because
that little trill
would be to the kids hey follow me or
come here
it could be just saying it's feeding
time or i'm trying to
lead you to a place so you know
by and large if your cat is trilling or
chirping
that means that it's a positive thing
it's usually a very positive thing it's
kind of
a little more excitable version of a
purr let's just put it that way
so on to one that i get asked about
just all the time and that would be the
chatter
[Music]
that's the chatter that happens pretty
exclusively
when a cat is looking at a bird through
the window when they're looking at
something that could be
prey to me the answer is your cat does
it out of just sort of predatory
excitement
that inner raw cat the raw cat is
speaking to them
going hey you like that you like that
you like what you see do you really like
it how much do you like it and your
cat's like i really like it i think it's
so much
you know that kind of a chattering sound
there are some who theorize
that they are making the sound of the
birds
in order to entice the birds now that's
an
interesting thing but the only way that
it would be propagated through time
through tens of thousands of years of
cats hunting is if it worked
what bird do you think is dumb enough
that they're going to hear
a cat trying to imitate their sound
and go oh you're a friend and just walk
into their mouth
cats are stealthy they're quiet they are
absolutely if you've ever seen a cat
hunting they will step
like this so it's not to even crunch the
grass and you think they're gonna be
like
it's not gonna work man so i i do
buy into the theory that it is just sort
of a predatory excitement it is
something
that is just built into them that they
are just so
just so built up about it and that may
explain why most of the time
you see a cat uh chattering at the
window because they know they can't get
to their prey
now there are certain sounds that you
probably will only hear
with a cat that is not yet fixed
and if you are hearing that sound from
your female cat
i would say why haven't you spayed your
cat yet please go and spay your cat
but that sound is the caterwall now
again it is such a specific sound
before they go into heat this sound is
meant to attract
mates so it is a let's see if i can do a
caterwaul here
mean like the loudest sound if you could
cross
a cat with a rooster that's kind of what
it would sound like but it is meant to
carry
it is meant to carry far and wide and
for those of you who live in an area
with a lot of intact toms
and and your intact females making that
sound they come from
far and wide they suddenly you hear the
males outside
fighting like crazy because they're
trying to get the attention of the
caterwalling female like i said before
very specific sound please spay and
neuter your cats
and now we come to the one that nobody
really likes to hear
and that is the hiss
if you don't know what your cat hissing
means i would step away from the cat a
hiss is clearly
a sound that a cat makes when they're
trying to push
somebody away they're scared so they're
trying to make
their prey scared as well that hissing
sound
is abrasive it's loud and it's meant to
just be
scary most humans will take it as such i
don't count
and clearly i'm sure you're in your mind
flashing on times over the years on my
show where
you know i bled and that's because i
wasn't listening to the hiss but i was
doing it on purpose it's a method
there's a method to the madness anyhow
uh
that's basically what hissing is now the
hiss is usually
the frontline behavior right so that's
something that a cat will
do to whether it's another cat or
another being anything that they
consider threatening
to say back off back off so before a
hiss
usually is a growl
they're basically trying to graduate up
what do i have to do
to tell you that i don't like this
situation i don't like you i don't like
something around me
here's the thing whether it's a hiss
whether it's that shortened form of a
hiss which is a spit
whether it's a growl whether it's a
scream and i don't know if you've ever
heard a cat scream but
i sure have but when it comes to saying
get away from me
i mean it basically i'm trying to let
you know
if i gotta tell you one more time you
know i don't do that
but if i did i would hope it would be a
little scary that's what cats are doing
by trying to
push you away now there's the yowl
[Music]
and the yowl could be a couple of
different things you know you might have
heard a cat yell
when they're in distress when
territorially they are feeling
just absolutely cornered a yowl
is more of a oh man this is bad
oh this is bad oh man this is a bad
thing now what am i going to do am i
just going to be a yowler
then i start to scream right here sorry
i spit the yowl
is a definite precursor when it's in
that situation of being threatened
you might have heard a cat yowell before
when they're just in pain
to me that's what a yowl is it's a
plaintive kind of
i'm in trouble here sound this can work
for the hiss
and the spit and the growl and the owl
it could be about i'm wounded i'm
wounded and i'm scared
so i'm going through all the tools that
i may have picked up over time
that will help me drive you away because
if i am wounded as a cat that means that
i'm much more likely to be eaten
in the wild so i'm gonna do everything i
can to scare off everybody that's coming
i'm either gonna hide
or i'm going to posture up you know
and that's what you may be hearing then
now don't forget
a lot of these sounds are situational so
for instance
the yowl could be somebody's closing in
on me and i want to drive them away
but there's also other circumstances
where those things might uh come into
play
if you've ever made the mistake of
trapping your cat in the closet you know
what a hollow yowl sounds like right
that plaintive kind of
can anybody hear me lassie i'm in the
well
[Music]
go get help help help that's
also a yowl is something that you might
hear
in your older cat at night when the
lights go out all of a sudden you hear
the yowl
and that is that plaintiff sound of i'm
lost and that is something we see
very much in cat dementia uh check out
the link above my head that should be
dropping down right now and that'll take
you to the
video about cat dementia uh which is
real
very real we have not yet established
alzheimer's
in cats although we have done so in dogs
and i'm telling you it's coming man
anybody with an older cat who gets lost
when the lights go out at night
knows what i'm talking about right that
even when it comes down to the growl the
yowl
these are situations here's one thing i
really really want to impress upon you
guys
everything i just said here that is just
sort of the palette
of sounds the palette of sounds that in
science and observation
whether it's data-driven or anecdotal
how they use it and why they use it is
an individual thing
there are some kittens who grow up
without their mom or their siblings
they're bottle babies right so
they are completely dependent on us for
their development
so when it comes to that palette of
sounds they may wind up using them
completely inappropriately because how
are they supposed to learn how to be a
cat from a human
there is what we call the sensitive
phase of social development in cats
and depending on who you ask it's about
two weeks old to nine weeks old
in that seven week period cats
learn and use just about
all of that palette that's gonna come to
them over time of course there's
exceptions for sure but when you put two
cats together
who may have been rescues they may have
been bottle babies they may have been
with their moms
but you put them together and you have
them meet for the first time
it's like two humans on a desert island
together
that speak a completely different
language now they may have similarities
like if i start yelling at you in a
foreign language i still know that i'm
being
that you're yelling right or when i get
very nice and quiet it means i like
what's going on
but that's all we got now we have to
learn each other's language
the point i'm trying to make is that
just because your cat is
hissing doesn't necessarily mean they're
truly upset
it means they're just using a sound that
worked for them before in a certain
situation and so they're doing it again
your cat is an individual they may be a
cat who's neutered late in life and so
they learn the screaming and the owling
more so
different cats will say different things
like we said before about the purr
it could be because i'm having the
happiest moment of my life or the most
horribly painful one see that's how it
all works you guys
this is half about knowing the palate of
sounds
and half about knowing your cat sounds
so i encourage you
to go and learn your cat sound pretend
you're on a desert island with your cat
and learn everything about how they use
their sounds and where does that lead to
a much more fulfilling and a much more
wonderful relationship
and that's what we're all here for to
make a better relationship with our cats
so get to it you guys all right that's
it for me
leave comments down below about what
what kind of videos you want to see
because like i've said before
cat daddy will talk about anything if
given the chance about cats or otherwise
really
and don't forget to like subscribe that
way you get notifications every time
something like this comes out and share
it with your friends
what else do i have to say oh i don't
know
okay until next time you guys light and
love and mojo
to you light and love
mojo to you right
[Music]
meow
