My cats are indoor only cats. When they’re looking out the window and they see a bird, they get weird. They crouch like they’re going to pounce, and they make this noise… it’s hard to describe, but if my cats were trying to imitate the rat-a-tat-tat of a machine gun, that’s what I’d expect it to sound like.
Do they make this noise out of a) Anger b) Frustration c) Fear or d) Something Else? It’s so sad to see my weird little babies sitting at the window making that noise at the birds outside! When Muffin was only 2 or 3 months old and an only cat, I once saw her make that sound at a cat she saw outside. I haven’t seen her react like that to another cat since we added PC to the household.
According to Desmond Morris, it’s a reflexive action of her jaw. She’s mimicking the biting motion she’d be making if the mouse or bird were in her jaws and she was trying to snap its spinal cord.
I am not sure how credible that explanation is, but that’s what I’ve read.
Hahaha. That’s such a relief - I’m sitting there thinking “Oh, my baby is scared”, and my kitty is sitting there going “If I had you in my mouth now, birdie, SNAP!”.
Funny thing is, she’s a neurotic cat. She HATES to be outside. Will not go out, and if put out, howls to be let back in.
But see a sparrow outside the window, she’ll jump up on the pedestal, swish her tail and make that noise.
She’ll also make that noise when she hears somebody outside the house. She’s better than the border collie in that respect, and we’ve come to respect her judgment. If it’s late at night and she sits up on the bed and make that noise, we take her VERY seriously.
My little cat (ocicat) does that. Strangest noise I’ve ever heard. This is also a weird cat–she occasionally takes baths in the sink, and her favorite lounging position is on her back with all 4 paws straight up in the air.
My other cat (maine coon cat) will actually howl like a dog between hisses when she sees another cat outside.
BTW, they are both pound cats (not purebreds), but they are predominantly their respective breeds.
My cat makes a very squeaky sound. We joke that he’s doing a bird call to entice the birds over to the window. Its a very faint little cooing or peeping sound, and higher pitched than his normal voice.
We always call this “The Frustration Noise”. It’s clearly a case of "I could get that squirrel/bird if only the air wasn’t so hard between me and them. It’s not true, but there’s no way we can convince our cats of that.
Both cats in my house do that. The jaw starts twitching, you hear that little “mmmmip…mmph…meeep…umphhhhh”,
the tail flicks around like it’s in the throes of death.
They will sit out in the enclosed porch, and watch the bird feeder that hangs outside the window. They shudder and twitch at all birds except Mourning Doves. For some reason, they just do not like the doves, and will attempt to pounce on them. Of course, they slam into the window. You’d think they’d learn by now. Stupid cats.
Is simple. You cat is trying to speak Bird. All our cats do it, PolarCat tries the hardest. The problem is that PC’s mouth is not shaped to make the sounds of “Hey C’mere! Great worms over this way!” in Bird.
He’s also working on Squirrel, a close linguistic relative. I don’t know if the squirrels are buying it, but at least one rabbit made a crucial error recently.
I always think of it as “eck eck eck” (close to the aforementioned ik ik ik). I noticed he never makes it when he does catch something (we occasionally have mice). Instead he has a very particular meow that indicates there’s something alive (insect, mouse, whatever) that he’s encroaching on. I always think of the “eck eck” as frustration, too, since he doesn’t do it when he actually catches something.
I have a cat that does this too, whenever she sees a fly. It’s the chattering sound combined with little half-meows. It reminds me of the chattering noise that ferrets sometimes makes, and is one of the many reasons I named her “Kiki”, after the ferret from Sluggy.
The bizzare thing is this: I’ve lived with cats all my life, up to 4 at a time and never heard them do this before.
My cat and I were both taking a nap on the couch yesterday afternoon. I woke up to some weird clicking noise. I looked down to where my cat was sleeping by my feet, and his head was turned upside down and he was making that noise in his sleep. His feet were kicking a little too. Funny stuff.
The little black cat (who is not the sharpest knife in the drawer) does the noise in little mews, so she’s ikiking or ackacking or rat-a-tating (pick your favourite), but she’s doing it with her voice to make a series of squeaks (she has a really high pitched voice).
The little chocolate Burmese cat (who is smarter than I) used to do it without using her voice at all, and sometimes it kind of sounded like she was spitting at the birdies, but under the influence of her friend the little black cat, she’s now swapping around, sometimes making the noise alone, sometimes using her voice, and that makes her sound like she’s whimpering.
I’ve never really had a cat before, and I’ve certainly never had a kitten before. I’ll tell you all, it’s been quite an experience! From the dizzying highs to the dreadful lows, we’ve all had fun learning to live together. Muffin learned to manipulate me early on, and had me in tears the day after PC arrived, but we’ve all settled in together now, and my kitties are best friends. We all cuddle up and sleep together, and that’s lovely! I miss having a dog, but I love my kitties!! (We don’t call them cats, you see, because I don’t like cats. Love kitties, hate cats :))
