My cat doesn't talk

Factual Questions
1

A little over a month ago, I “rescued” Cuervo. I mentioned it here. He’s doing magnificently now, thanks for asking. When I got him at about 3 weeks old, he weighed 1/2 pound. A week and a half ago at his last Vet visit, he was 2 1/2 lbs, his congestion is clearing, but still there a bit. No fleas anymore, no mites and no worms. A healthy little booger even if he does play in strange places.

But, he doesn’t talk. No meowing at all. When he purrs, which is a LOT, he makes kind of a vocalization, but I think that’s a remnant of the congestion more than anything. He has a voice, I know because I accidently twisted his foot one day trying to catch him to give him his medicine and he made a healthy yelp.

He opens his mouth and seems like he wants to meow, but makes no noise.

I’m guessing that vocalization is a learned thing, and we think he had little or no contact with his mother before being abandoned. But my other two talk all the time, and he’s around them enough to see and hear it. In fact, he and Marty are getting along some, and when they play, Marty talks to him. When he’s not pinning him down and licking Cuervo’s balls that is.

So, should I be concerned by this? I know, I know, ask the vet. I did. She’s even a bit baffled. We thought maybe he damaged something when he was sick, but since then I heard the very loud meow, so something is working. There isn’t any inflammation that might make meowing painful that she could see.

Is he gonna talk?

He’s got such an expressive face, we pretty much know what he’s thinking all the time. Basically it’s either “attack!”, “eat!”, “poop!” or “run from Scarlett, she’s mean to me!”

But I’d like to hear his voice, ya know?

2

My, he’s growing! He’s a handsome baby! ::makes cuddley cat noises::

On to business: some cats talk more than others. My Siamese (Valentino) is a chatterbox - he talks constantly, about nothing. I swear the damn cat talks to himself. Yogi (orange tabby polydactly - looked a lot like Quervo when he was a baby) will talk if I talk to him or call his name, but is not nearly as chatty as 'Tino. Cricket (black tail-impaired) doesn’t meow at all - she will very occasionally squeak if I adjust her position in my lap when she was already comfortable, thank you very much.

You know he can sound off, so there’s nothing physically wrong. Maybe he just doesn’t have anything he wants to say right now.

He sure is a cutie. Thanks for the pics! :slight_smile:

3

It may be perfectly normal. Of the dozens of cats we’ve had over the years, the vocalization degree varied widely.

We now have two male Bengals, one of which never stops talking, and he must have a hundred different words. The other guy almost never meows at all, even when hungry. Then he just looks at us with those imploring eyes. We know he has functioning vocal cords by the rare times we step on his tale. Nothing wrong with the old cords then. :slight_smile:

We’re just grateful both of them don’t talk constantly.

4

My cat, Hazel, was rescued by my sister. Hazel was so ill the vet wanted to put her down. However, my sister is a force of nature, and she was not about to give up on Hazel. The poor kitty was very sick for a long time, and had to live in the (heated) garage because she had so many parasites that she was a danger to my sister’s other (elderly) cat. Hazel did indeed survive, and was eventually given to me, because I’d been catless for too long and the condo association where my sister lived at the time did not approve of more than one small pet. Anyway, the point of this story is that Hazel, although she has a voice, does not meow or make a noise known to come from any other cat. Hazel quacks. Like a duck. Fortunately, she doesn’t walk like a duck, but she definately quacks. I do attribute this to damage to her vocal equipment during her tragic youth. I haven’t asked a vet though, because she’s healthy and happy in every way. She talks mostly when spoken to. We like to talk in the morning on the way to the food dish, or when I arrive home in the evening. She has to tell me what went on in my absence, she’s a very responsible cat.

5

My cat Schrodinger only miaows when trodden on or taken to the vets. His sister Amy is much more vocal, and I’ve had them both from little kittens. Instead, Schro communicates through the mediums of purring and biting, sometimes simultaneoulsy.

There is a theory that cat miaowing and dog barking is a special form of communication between them and us. Cats generally don’t miaow to each other - yowl, growl, hiss, purr yes, but miaow no - and wolves very rarely bark.

6

Our cat Maggie almost never vocalized. She seemed to think it was beneath her. She made her points by staring, both at us and at our other cat, Midnight. On a very few occasions we heard her Meow, but it always sounded weird, and she only did it under extreme stress (she was lost once. Another time, she couldnm’t find anybody).
After Maggie died, we replaced her with two cats. Lotta was almost like a miniature Maggie. She’s a little more vocal in that she whispers. She almost never makes a sound aloud. Usually she’ll whisper “meow” very softly.

YCMV

Your Cat May Vary

7

Be careful what you wish for! I had a cat like that - no vocalizations to a pathetic little squeek to… a foghorn! When he found his voice he used it! At all times of the day and night! One loud little cat. And I loved him dearly (he died last week at the ripe ol’ age of eighteen). It sure is quiet around the house now! :frowning:

8

Our first cat was separated from other cats as a baby. He’d never seen another cat between birth and five years ago when we moved to our house. All that time, I never heard him meow. After exposure to the cat who lived at our house before we did (previous tenants skipped out and left him), then he started to vocalize. Then we got a third cat, and now he knows he must be one of them, as he meows quite often. I guess that eariler, he had no cat behavior to emulate, so it didn’t occur to him to say anything.

9

A friend of mine has a big, bulky (15-lb) orange-and-white longhaired tom named Mac. When Mac is excited to see you, he tries his best to meow. Really he does. He opens his mouth & tosses his head back, but usually it’s like someone has hit the mute button on a normal cat. Every now & then, you’ll hear this higher-pitched-than-a-kitten “mew”, which is hilarious coming out of such a “macho” cat.

Mac is happy and healthy, so I wouldn’t worry about it. Just enjoy the amusement factor.

10

I have six cats, brothers and sisters all raised together. I have one that loves to wander the house singing at all hours. Three others are regular “meowers”, usually when the foodbowl is below half full. Two of them really don’t make a sound other than the occasional open mouthed whisper. They also seem to be the needy ones of the bunch; they always try to slowly creep up into my lap and are easily offended if I have the audacity to refuse their affection.
Whereas the others give an eyeroll and bound away, these poor babies pout.

11

Gee. No I don’t see any reason why your cat would hate you.

12

:hug: but don’t worry - your little foghorn is in very good company on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge

13

He’d biding his time. Waiting for the opportune moment to strike, and put his evil plans for world domination into effect. You want to hear him talk? Oh, he’ll talk then, all right. While you’re being led away to the gulag!

Damn, cats are scary.

14

When Smokey was a kitten, she didn’t meow much, not even for meals.
Then all of a sudden one day, i think she was 3, she became the world’s noisiest cat. She meowed at the sunrays on the carpet. A few months later, she “normalled” it down to asking for food and/or attention, and sporadic exclamations as she chases greeblings around the house

15

One of my Mom’s 7 cats cannot “meow” He’s a big ol’ polydactyl Maine Coon and as a kitten would just open his mouth and nothing at all would come out. As he got older he did learn the art of “squeeking.” So, when he wants something or is annoyed, he “squeeks.” So damn cute, it is.

16

I’m so sorry to hear that.
mr bus guy, give him time. It might just be that Cuervo’s not a talker. Some cats never shut up, some rarely utter a peep.

(CUTE little guy, btw-orange cats are the best! He looks a lot like my Buffy when she was a kitten).

17

Our two kitties just recently started talking, at 5 months of age. Pixel still doesn’t say much, except when her bigger sister gets too rough. Havoc, on the other paw, is a regular chatterbox. If there is something she doesn’t like, she lets you know about it! Especially if she feels she is not getting enough attention.

18

We have two cats, both adopted in adulthood, with unknown kitten backgrounds.

We adopted Paka as a stray. He is a VERY friendly cat, who adores people, and the reason he lives with us is because he tried to adopt some friends of ours who are allergic to cats. They called us, since we had just lost another 20yo cat to kidney failure.

From what we can tell of Paka, he LOVES other cats, too. He is strictly indoor now (as well as spayed), but he loves to watch the neighborhood cats wandering around, and actually has a couple of friends who bounce over from the other side of the road on a regular basis to say hi.

He did not talk much at all when he first came to live with us, though. He PURRRRSSS quite loudly when he is happy, but he prefers to get our attention by nibbling an ankle or batting a knee or rubbing a shin.

We got Minou about a week after we got Paka. She was about a year old, and we adopted her from the Humane Society to be a companion to Paka. The only reason the previous owners gave for not wanting her anymore was that they didn’t know how expensive cats could be. She has no health problems or personality problems, though.

However, she is VERY vocal. She yelled at us from inside the box all the way home, and she yells at us whenever she is upset or unhappy or just wants our attention. When we got her home, Paka acted like she was the noisiest and most obnoxious creature he had ever seen every time she starting yelling. (She also has an annoying habit of wandering around the house at 2am yelling for someone to come play with her, but even Paka wants to sleep then.)

From what we can tell, though, she had never seen another cat in her memory until she met Paka, and she didn’t have a CLUE what to do with him. She had also never sat in an open window, and was absolutely terrified the first time we brought her outside for a supervised romp in our fenced-in backyard.

They have learned to like each other, although I doubt that they will ever be the “buddies” that Paka wants to be. (He keeps trying to curl up with her when he’s cold, but she won’t have anything to do with it!) They have also taught each other tricks.

Paka now YELLS at us when he wants attention. Minou now taps whatever is closest to her when she wants attention, while she’s yelling. Our 14yo daughter is trying to teach them to yell in unison to be fed, but hasn’t had much luck.

Maybe you should look for another cat… :smiley:

19

I had an applehead Siamese named Pythagoras. He too, was sick when he was young. He had to be intubated (a breathing tube) to breathe for a couple days. It damaged his voice, but the vet said it would heal. It did but he never got used to having a voice. When he’d get especially excited he let out this 2db mew, look surprised, then hang his head in embarrassment.

20

My youngest cat, Kero, was adopted from a shelter, and she was a ragged, sick little kitten. She was always conjested, leaky, drippy, sneezy, nasty allergies… all that yucky stuff. She was hairless for a time, as well.
She used to open her little mouth, as if to meow, but no sound would come out. We thought she was going to be the quietest cat ever. She could purr, though, and did it often.
Eventually, we nursed her back to health, and she began making tiny noises. Even when she didn’t seem otherwise conjested, she just made tiny, tiny sounds.

I don’t remember exactly when the transitioned occurred, but it was slowly… and today? She has quite an impressive set of lungs for such a tiny cat! (However, she will only use her loudest pitch when she’s getting her monthly bath - which she needs to help prevent the fleas she’s so allergic to.) She can meow, now, though it still has a fragile sound to it. She mostly makes little “rrrrr?” noises. She will talk back to you if you meow at her, too. She’ll match you, mew for mew.

Cuervo is such a doll, by the way. He may meow eventually, he may never meow. Count your blessings; our oldest one doesn’t meow - she whines. Like a spoiled brat child. It’s awful. If you dare not throw her mouse for her after she’s dropped it on your foot (you know, to make sure you notice), she’ll throw herself on the floor in a fit of histrionics, and wail like her heart is breaking. Drama queen. Manipulative wench.