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.
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
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.
Posted by DocCoyote (Member # 5612) on :
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.
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
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!
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
"chat it up!" Ha ha ha! Ha ha! I kill me!
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
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?
Posted by Steev (Member # 6805) on :
Oh, I love it when my cat makes those clicky noises when she's chasing moths. She is just so darn kyoot!
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
chat it up. LOL|||
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."
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Evil Kittens Posted by Avadaru (Member # 3026) on :
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.
Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
Angry kittens Posted by Stan the man (Member # 6249) on :
I read the title and got hungry..... I don't why....really. Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
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.
[ October 25, 2004, 01:33 PM: Message edited by: Tatiana ]
Posted by KarlEd (Member # 571) on :
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.
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
They make it outside too, when the birds are flying around somewhere they can't reach. It's a general purpose wistful cat noise.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Maybe outdoor cats learn quickly that making that noise when hunting makes the birdies fly away. Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
You sort of say it when the bird is unreachable anyway. Not while hunting. It would be an Ijustpouncedandmissedandnowthebirdsareallflyingaway sound.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
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?
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Exactly. It is the sound of 2 parts cat lust and 1 part cat frustration.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
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.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
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.
Dagonee
Posted by dabbler (Member # 6443) on :
Jake, I've heard that laser pointers are sometimes the most awesome thing for a cat/kitten.
They love it. Love it.
Posted by KarlEd (Member # 571) on :
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.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
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.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
What about mounting the laser pointer on some motorized arm, so that it would wave around while I was gone? I could probably do that.
[ October 25, 2004, 03:50 PM: Message edited by: Noemon ]
Posted by dabbler (Member # 6443) on :
You are bored
Where do you live? Sounds like you do cool projects in your spare time.
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
I too would like to learn to speak cat, so the cats could ignore me in their own language.
Posted by Chris Kidd (Member # 2646) on :
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.
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