posted
I don't know anything about cats. All the cats I had as a child were outside cats and pretty much fended for themselves.
Now, I have a 4-month-old kitten and he constantly does weird stuff that amazes me.
Recently, he's developed an odd behavior towards flies. There's one fly that snuck in our house somehow and will never die, and it buzzes around the living room. Whenever my cat sees the fly, he makes this weird noise and clicks his jaws open and shut really fast.
What on earth is he doing? It's really beyond me.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
He's either talking to the fly -- telling it where to find the good sweet stuff in your kitchen -- or he's just psychotic and this is the way that he works out his innate aggression towards you and your family.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Perfectly normal totally excited cat noise!
Or else Bob is correct and kitty is pointing out the direction to food. Of course, we figured the cat was offering directions to the litter box.
Posts: 230 | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I wonder if I record and study out the noises if I can figure out how to talk to the cat. That should be fun Instead of saying "Kitty kitty kitty" as the all-purpose "come here" command, I can chat it up with him!
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
The cat has TMJ and should immediately consult a high priced veterinary orthopedic specialist. Say, you don't think the cat living indoors could be causing you hives?
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Oh, I love it when my cat makes those clicky noises when she's chasing moths. She is just so darn kyoot!
Posts: 527 | Registered: Aug 2004
| IP: Logged |
Trust me, this cat will try to murder you in your sleep someday. You'll think he's just rubbing up against you, but that's just cat talk for "I hope you die."
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Both my cat and my dogs do this when they are chasing bugs or anticipating getting fed. Dunno what it means really, but they only do it when they are in excited/predatory mode.
Posts: 1225 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
That wistful cat noise is sometimes transcribed "wacka wacka" and means "wow I soooooo want to catch that (usually flying) small creature and gnaw on it". My cats like to make it while watching the birds fly around the feeders. They are very avid birders.
They also make it while I am juggling. They sometimes come and stand in a semicircle around me and watch the juggling bags flying through the air and make that noise. It's funny. Cats are cool.
posted
I've always had outdoor cats until my most recent cats (had for 5 years now). These cats make that noise whenever they see birds outside the window and wish they could go out and hunt them.
I never noticed it when I had outdoor cats.
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
They make it outside too, when the birds are flying around somewhere they can't reach. It's a general purpose wistful cat noise.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Maybe outdoor cats learn quickly that making that noise when hunting makes the birdies fly away. Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
You sort of say it when the bird is unreachable anyway. Not while hunting. It would be an Ijustpouncedandmissedandnowthebirdsareallflyingaway sound.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I don't think that my cat gets enough stimulation. Back in July we moved from the country to the city, and she went from being an indoor/outdoor cat to being a strictly indoor cat. She's an only cat, and I've thought about getting another cat for her to interact with, or perhaps a ferret. That's going to have to wait, though, because my wife is out of the country for a few months, and I don't want to get a pet and have it bond to me and not her. I'm thinking about building something to keep my cat entertained. Any suggestions? Of the various cat toys I've gotten her, she's liked one (a little fuzzy octapus thing with a bell inside) and completely ignored the rest (balls with and without bells, little fluffy thing on the end of a spring standing vertically on a platform, etc. I'd really love to have a very lifelike robotic mouse for her to hunt, but barring that, any thoughts on something I could make for her? Something that she could occupy herself with when a person isn't around to manipulate it for her?
Her favorite toys are 2 liter bottle caps and Q Tips, if that helps. She seems fascinated with pretty much anything narrow and sticklike in general, but she seems to get really excited about Q Tips in particular (and it's not that she's attracted to the scent of earwax--she never goes for the used ones in the trash.
I remember a few years back there were little robot bugs that were for sale that had some kind of primitive AI in them, and would interact with each other. Different types had different personalities--one type was aggressive, another type fled, another type tended to cluster in herds. Anybody remember these things, and have any idea of their cost?
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
I think I'm thinking of B.I.O. Bugs. I must have just made up the herd one. Now to find out if they're still available, and if they're still so expensive.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
I got a car for a 1-year old with a clown driver. When you push the clown's head, the car revs up and takes off. If cat's could learn to operate it (should be easy), I could see them having fun chasing it.
Of course, I could also see them deciding it's a smaller version of the vacuum cleaner and spending the rest of the day on top of the refrigerator.
posted
I can testify that laser pointers are my 3 cats number ONE favorite toy. They will chase that dot of red light until they are positively panting. Unfortunately that isn't a toy they can operate alone. (My cats have learned to identify the sound of someone picking up the laser pointer. They'll come running from across the house to play. They can even tell the difference between someone picking up the laser pointer and someone picking up a set of keys.
One thing my cats love to play with alone is this toy mouse with chip in it that chirps when the mouse is pounced on or thrown or knocked around. The only drawback is that I have to put it in a drawer at night or they will wake me up at 3 AM playing with the danged thing.
When I was still with my ex, he would drink tea every morning and crumple the tea-bad paper and drop it on the floor for the cats. My male cat learned his routine and would go into the kitchen and actually wait for him to drop the paper. He'd bat it all over the house until it got somewhere he couldn't reach. Every couple of months we'd move the living room furniture to clean under it and we'd find about 60 of these papers in a pile under one of the chair that sat too low for the cat to crawl under.
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
I can also testify to the laser pointer. We got my dad one just so he could play with the cat with it. She loved it.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
there are books you can get at a pet store that talk about cat body languge. and the diffrent type of meows, mews, and other sounds cats make.
Posts: 513 | Registered: Oct 2001
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Angst]](graemlins/angst.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
