Loud Cat! Need Help!

[mspreen]

I recently took in a stray. He had been coming around the house for several months and was tearing through garbage bags. The weather got cold and I do not have the heart to leave an animal freezing. I brought him to the vet, had him neutered and now am trying to keep him. I am having an issue. He doesn't shut up. He is so used to being an outside cat all he does is cry. He got out 2 weeks ago and came back a bloody mess from fighting. He is like the neighborhood bully. Does anyone have any suggestions to keep him quiet. All night long all he does is cry. The only time he is quiet is when he is eating or when I am petting him. HELP!

 

[sicycat]

Can you maybe play with him a lot and try to give him lots of attention? Maybe get him a large cat tree and toys like mice and things they like to hunt outside?

 

[clarabelle]

How long has it been since he was neutered? I have three feral cats that came to my house, 2 neutered and 1 spayed. All three of them came to my house and would not stop with the meow. After they were fixed it still took a few more months and they calmed down. The latest one Smokey was neutered the first week of Dec, he still meows alot, but not like he did and they all three were the same. The other two spayed and neuter June and July are quiet now, unless it is feeding time

Just be patient, give him time and love

Clara

 

[mspreen]

I play with him all night long. He has a ton of toys and a beautiful cat tree right by the window. As soon as I stop petting him he crys. I have 2 other cats which I am slowly introducing and I feel I am neglecting them. This is going to be a long journey. Your kids our beautiful. I am thinking of asking the vet if there is anything he can give him to mellow him out. I don't want to really do that, but I can't sleep at night. Making him an indoor cat is for his benefit. At the rate he was going he would have ended up as road kill.

 

[hissy]

Instead of using sedatives to calm him down perhaps you would consider the natural way of Bach's Flower Remedies? Vervain or Vine would be two that I would explore. I find they work really well on ferals and are not like putting cats on kitty prozac. You can find them at Organix.com or sometimes Cat Faeries carries them as well.

One thing, if you pet him while he is crying, he will come to understand that this is the way to get your attention. As hard as it is going to be, you cannot pet him when he is noisy. You can't look at him, acknowledge him, go "What?" nothing IGNORE him. The very minute he is quiet, slip him a pet, and then reward him with Kitty Kaviar or something equally as delectable! Invest in earplugs or crank up your music, but don't pay him any heed when he is crying.

 

[mspreen]

Thanks Hissy. I am trying not to pet him when he crys. I will have to look into the natural remedies. I bought something from my local pet store called good cat. It is all natural and supposed to calm aggressive cats. It didn't work. I will look into what you suggested.

 

[purrfectcatlove]

Also try to play classical music in the night (quiet) may help to calm him down . You also can try Feliway ( plug-in) you can get at petsmart or over the internet . It helps also to calm cats down .

 

[lotsocats]

First, I want to thank you for rescuing this poor cat! Bravo!

Here is something I wrote for someone else who had the same problem. I hope it helps.

The reason he meows is that he has learned that when he talks you pay attention to him. The attention may be yelling or squirting....he doesn't care because even though it is negative attention, it is still attention.

The ONLY way you will be able to stop his constant meowing is to NOT give him what he wants when he meows! In other words, the only way to stop this is to COMPLETELY ignore him when he is making any noise.
And --- this is VERY important --- you must pay attention to him every time you catch him being quiet! So, when he is talking, you must act like he doesn't exist. But the moment he is quiet you turn around and tell him how cool he is and scritch his head. If he starts meowing again, simply turn around and ignore him.

Because he has 8 years of knowing that you will pay attention when he meows, this behavior is not going to change over night! You will need to have a lot of patience and everyone in the house will have to follow the new rule: Ignore meows, praise silence.

If you or anyone pays attention to the meowing at any time, you will simply teach him that he has to meow even more and louder to get what he wants. So, don't start training him to be quiet until you and everyone in the house all aggree to follow the new rule 100%.

I guarantee you that if you all ignore the meows and praise the silence and do this consistently, the meowing will reduce to the level of meowing that we see with most cats!