Is My White Maine Coon Kitten (partially)deaf?

mustiej

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Oct 17, 2018
Messages
2
Purraise
0
Hi guys,

Recently I had my first pet move in with me. It' a lovely white Maine coon kitten(male). Obviously he hasn't learned his name and the 'come' command yet but sometimes it feels like he is completely ignoring me or it might be that he's partially or complete deaf? It seems that white cats are all deaf on Google.. :/

A baer test is something that isn't around my hometown so I did some tricks such as:
- Clapping loudly nearby when he's sleeping
- playing cat noise on Youtube in the room
- Vacuum noise
- Walking up and from rooms

He all notices this, wakes up and is startled. Even when he's used to vacuum noises.
One thing I was wondering about this is that when I try to flick behind his ears(left and right), I'm not really sure if he hears them, through which side he hears them or that he should/should't be startled with it.

Any ideas?
 

mightyboosh

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jul 19, 2017
Messages
2,884
Purraise
9,582
Location
Burnley, UK
I just Googled this and it seems you must have done similar:

Thus deafness is strongly linked to the white coat colour and blue eye colour, but not all white cats or white cats with blue eyes are necessarily deaf. The variable penetrance of deafness and eye colour may be caused by interplay with other genes and/or environmental factors.

That aside, cats are very good at ignoring us if they're that way out. Mine are ignorant sometimes when I call their name and at other times they're all over me. They're not like dogs in that respect.
 

FeebysOwner

TCS Member
Staff Member
Forum Helper
Joined
Jun 13, 2018
Messages
22,442
Purraise
33,215
Location
Central FL (Born in OH)
Hi! Kind of in correlation with mightyboosh mightyboosh , I am giving you a couple of links with general information about deafness in white cats - maine coon or otherwise. I would have to think that him being responsive to your tests above would not indicate deafness. So, the flicking behind the ears test with no response is very confusing. I hope at least some of the information on these links is helpful to you.

Congenital sensorineural deafness in cats - Wikipedia

3 Symptoms of Deafness in Cats
 

Willowy

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 1, 2009
Messages
31,886
Purraise
28,287
Location
South Dakota
Does he have blue eyes? If not, he's no more likely to be deaf than any cat.

Since he responded to the noises, I think he's not deaf. Cats are very good at ignoring us when they want to :D.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #5

mustiej

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Oct 17, 2018
Messages
2
Purraise
0
Thanks for all the messages!

He has green eyes and with the flicks with my fingers; he does react sure, but he doesn't immediately aim his ears to where the sound comes from and sometimes he doesn't know where the source of some sounds are. I mean, he looks at it and still kinda searches for it. Maybe I'm overreacting..
 

mightyboosh

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jul 19, 2017
Messages
2,884
Purraise
9,582
Location
Burnley, UK
He sounds like a normal cat with selective hearing. Sometimes he will think naah, I can't be bothered reacting to that noise.
Cats are cool and that's just one way of displaying it.
 
Top