Cat Vocalizations and What They Mean

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

Channel: Jackson Galaxy

Views: 1,324,317

Rating: 4.9498372 out of 5

Keywords: jackson galaxy, cats, my cat from hell, animal planet, cat whisperer, cat guy, cat guy animal planet, cat expert, cat advice, cat health, cat behavior, pet care, pet, cat breeds, types of cats, cat care, cat training, cat supplies, cat toyskitten care, sick cat, cats and kittens, cat illnesses, cat symptoms, cat psychology, taking care of a cat, cat behavior problems, kittens, kitten videos, cat videos, kitten health, adult cat, adult cat videos, jackson galaxy videos

Id: LxhT_q9oUf8

Length: 16min 50sec (1010 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 22 2020