My Kitten doesn’t meow

[jessteroni]

I’m not worried in the slightest by this, more so curious. Nugget is 3 1/2 months and he’s never meowed.

I was wondering if it’s because I raised him as a baby and he never had that close cat interaction of his mother raising him? But I have another cat in my home who does meow, not often but when she wants treats or to drink out of the sink she does.

Nugget just makes chirping noises when he tries to find me, wants something or for anything else a cat would normally meow for.

Just curious if anyone else has a cat that doesn’t meow, or has any reasoning for this.

 

[BellaGooch]

My best friend's cat is about 6 or 7 months old and rarely ever meows, and when she does it is very silent and small. I didn't know why. I've heard that this is pretty normal, though, and no cause for concern

 

[DreamerRose]

Yes, some cats are more talkative than others. My Lily rarely meows. She's just a quiet kitty, and she has difficulty in vocalizing.

 

[Caspers Human]

Some cats don't meow.

Cats don't normally meow, naturally.
Young kittens will meow for attention from their mother but, once they grow up, they don't really meow very much. Most cats don't communicate with each other by vocalizing.

Meowing is, pretty much, a learned behavior for interacting with humans.
They learn that making sound gets attention from humans... Food... Attention... Help...
Every time you react to your cat's sounds... Meowing... Chirping... Purring... you reinforce the behavior, gradually teaching it to repeat the behavior.

Some cats can seem to "talk" to their humans, meowing, getting a response, meowing again as if holding a conversation. Even though it's not real words, it is a form of communication where each responds to the reactions from the other.

Our cat, Casper, doesn't meow very much. He does it more, now that we've had him for a few years but, when we first adopted him, he rarely made a sound. Now that we've had him for a while, he has learned to meow when he wants something like food, if he wants attention or if he feels sick or something. He has never been one to just walk around, meowing his head off.

 

[Jem]

Meowing is actually something cats do, or continue to do, for us humans. The meow is really only necessary for kittens/mom interactions but due to domestication, they have adopted this behavior to basically tell us what they want. If a cat doesn't meow, perhaps it's just because it doesn't feel it needs to. You just wait...your kitten will probably learn to meow with you by listening and watching your other cat get what it wants by meowing...
Some cats are also more vocal than others and it does not mean that a cat is not cared for if it meows a lot, and some kitties are just more quiet, but overall meowing was "supposed" to be between mom and kitten...and it evolved along the way.

 

[Katie M]

When Belle and Beau were kittens, Belle meowed up a storm, while we wondered whether Beau even had a voice box. He finally started meowing at about six months.

Of my current two, Selene prefers trilling to meowing-she only seems to meow when she's excited. I guess Charlie technically meows, but it's more of a squeak.

 

[Neko-chan's mama]

The cat I had in my 20s never really meowed. He would trill and squeak.