The mystery of the non-meowing cat: solved


Meowing is the normal activities cat performs when they are around their owner or regularly feeding them. With meowing sound, they are trying to communicate with you by expressing their affection towards you. Many cat owners enjoy the meowing sound. The meowing is depending on the cat breed. 

Not all cat meow frequently. If you find your Cat doesn’t Meow, so do not worry. Maybe they do not like to Meow often. 

However, you should check their health condition to ensure that they are not going through serious health problems. 

In some cases, cats stop meowing when they are having pain in the body or digestion problems. Check if they are eating normally.

Here are the top seven reasons why you do not hear your cat meow in the house.

Why Cat Doesn’t Meow: 7 Reasons You Never Knew

1) Quite Breed: Some cat breeds are naturally quiet. They meow, but they do not produce a sound that you can hear. 

Humans are not capable of listening to low-frequency sound waves. Therefore, even the cat is meowing, and you will not be able to hear them. 

So first check what breed you have and ensure that you do not own the cat breed that doesn’t produce sound while meowing.

2) Cat is full: The cat meow in certain conditions. When the cat is hungry, they try to express their need for the food with a meow sound. 

If you have the proper diet plant that you provide them on time, they will not have reason to be expressive for food. 

They know when they will get the food. When cats are full, they do not bother to talk to their owners or produce any sound. 

Your cat will eat the food and go their bed to rest.

3) Respiratory Infection: Similar to the Human, cats develop and respiratory infections. Check the symptoms such as running nose, watery eyes, lethargy feeling in the cat. 

This is a sign that your cat is going through a medical condition. The lack of meowing is happening due to the medical condition in your cat. 

Consult with the veteran to treat the problem with medication. Antibiotics or other medication would help the cat to recover faster.

4) Hurt: Cat tends to climb, jump or move in the area where they get hurt. If the cat stops meowing suddenly, they might feel some physical pain, which makes them a little afraid. 

Why Cat Doesn’t Meow: 7 Reasons You Never Knew

They try to stay calm and quiet for a while until they recover from the pain. 

Check for any blood tissues on the hair. Or observe the movement of the cat. If the cat feeling pain, they will behave differently. 

They prevent you from touching them to avoid pain. It would be best if you reached to your veteran for a checkup. 

The veteran will run the diagnosis to find the problem and treat the cat with medicine.

5) New place: If you recently bought the adult cat to your home, they may take some time to jell into the environment. 

You should give them the free time to adjust to the place, give them a living area to move around. They will verify each corner to assure there is no predator around. 

Within a week, the cat would have an understanding of the whole hours and the surrounding place. 

Once they know where they are, they become comfortable and start talking to their owners.

6) Stressed: Like human-cat stressed when they see unusual, abnormal activity around them. They will look afraid of something. 

It can be sound or some sort of vibration produce by the home equipment. 

In such circumstances, the cat may put all its energy to find the reason behind the sound in the home. They will be alert look for the cause. 

Moreover, the cat gets stressed when they have seen any other animal that looks like a predator to them. 

If they notice animal around the home, which was not there before, they will become stressed. They will stop meowing. 

7) Cat getting older: It is normal to see the old cat stay calm all the time. Cat becomes lethargic as they are old. They only look for the food and nothing else. 

Why Cat Doesn’t Meow: 7 Reasons You Never Knew

You will see them staying in one place all the time. The old cat does not talk much with its owner. 

They only reach the owner when it is time to eat. An old cat generally stops meowing. If you find your cat doesn’t meow, the can might have reached the age where they become more silent. 

Additionally, as the cat gets old, its cognitive function decreases. The eye side weakens in old age. 

As a result, they would not identify the owner or the person with a clean visual. They respond to the activity with less energy.

Additionally

According to the types of throat and vocal cords

Your cat may quit vocalizing due to several types of growths in its throat and vocal chords. Take your cat to the vet for an evaluation and treatment if it displays hoarseness, a changing vocal tone, sneezing, coughing, or noisy or difficult breathing. To check for malignancy, the veterinarian could obtain a biopsy sample.

Is It Unnatural for a Cat to Be Quiet?

If your cat suddenly stops meowing, there must be some reason behind it. Female cat stops the Meowing when they are going through their pregnancy. The male cat stops naturally stop meowing when they are in pain or have a medical condition. 

You should check the behaviour of your cat closely to understand what is happening in their body. The common sign is depression. 

Your cat will stop eating or eat less than what they usually eat. It is time to take your cat to the veteran for the diagnosis. 

If your cat was always quiet and never used to meow before, it is normal for them. You should always check the health criteria to see if the cat has some problem.

A healthy cat who eats on time and spend time with their owner are perfectly fine. 

Even if they are not meowing, they are enjoying their life in silence. Let’s now bother them for the sake of your interest.

Cats are individual animals similar to humans. Some cat breeds are talking, and some do not like to talk much. 

The Siamese cats are extremely loud. You can hear the sound from a distance. They meow continuously and produces loud sound while talking to their owner. 

In contrast, the Birman is quiet by nature. They do not like to produce loud sounds. 

You cannot Birman cat breed to produce Meow sound frequently. They will roam around the home quietly waiting for the owner to feed them.

What can I do if my cat never meows?

Why Cat Doesn’t Meow: 7 Reasons You Never Knew

Meowing is one of the cat’s communication parts that they use to talk to their caregiver. There are others sign that is used to communicate the message such as purr, trill, beep, chatter, and chirp. You should observe this behaviour and learn what your cat is trying to say to you. 

A cat develops silent behaviours from the kitten age. Generally, kittens talk to their mother with the meow sound. 

As soon as they become adults, they pass the process to their caregivers. In this case, caregivers will be you. 

Once you come to existence, they will try to chat with you in a different cat language when they are hungry. 

It doesn’t mean they do not communicate; they have developed the other way to communicate that may not be suitable for human hearing. 

Some cats use their body posture to indicate they are hungry. The cat will rub the body to your legs, move tail around, whiskers to signal her mood, and try to communicate. 

The cat will move around you until you give them food. Some cats roll onto the back to express that they are happy.

Cat is a great learner. They will learn how to impress you to get the food. You will observe them repeat the same behaviour every time they reach you expecting you to provide food to them. 

Cats are masters in manipulation. Some cats are naturally talkative, so they frequently produce meowing sounds while you around. 

However, some cat breed loves to stay quiet and respond with another way of communication or act. 

If you try to mimic the meowing sound and teach them to respond, the cat may develop the vocalization process, and you will see they start meowing. 

While teaching feeds them their favourite food, they will attempt to produce an acute meowing sound next time they come for the food.

If you think the cat is having trouble producing the voice, you should consult with the doctors. 

Let the doctor diagnose the cat for vocalizing problem. Maybe the cat has developed some sort of infection in the throat which causing them pain. Formal mediation would solve this problem.

Why Cat Doesn’t Meow: 7 Reasons You Never Knew

Conclusion:

Cat doesn’t like meow because of two reasons, and one is they are naturally silent and use other senses to talk to their caregivers. 

Another reason is they are going through some serious health problems. Observe their behaviour and understand what they are going through. 

Cat generally produces the moaning sound when the pain huts to them. Check their regular activities.  If they are behaving abnormally then immediately talk to the veteran to find the reason behind it.

Amelia Kteylor

Amelia Kteylor, DVM, attended the University of Georgia. She is a cat expert with 20 years of experiences in field. She has a passion as a writer and editor for pet publishing industry too. Amelia contributes to numerous pet magazines in the areas of pet health and groom. Further, she volunteered in cat rescue centers in her leisure time.

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