Do cats get more vocal when they are getting old?

cattie

My cat is 16 this year, thankfully very healthy & has always been quite a quiet cat. Although he is quite large, he has always had what I've thought of as a rather feeble meow for such a macho lad, but was never very vocal.

However, over the past 6 months or so, he has become more & more vocal & some of his meows are incredibly loud & prolonged. Sometimes I think he is going to drive me crazy with the noise he makes! Usually he is meowing because he is complaining that he wants me to get up and get his breakfast or because I'm busy & he wants me to just stop whatever I'm doing & sit in the living room & keep him company, that sort of thing. So, he isn't just meowing for nothing, it's when he thinks the standard of service and attention I give him is not quite up to parr!

Also, when he goes up to bed he will now often give lots of really loud meows, which I assume is him telling me he is going to bed & for me not to be long in coming up, as he prefers company to being alone, (although he is definitely not a lap cat).

Anyway, I got to wondering if anybody else has found their cat has got more demanding & vocal in their older years, following a pretty quiet youth?

mazza111

In a word yes. Misty has always been vocal, but these days she's getting worse every day. Nags for her breakfast for whoever is up first, doesn't understand the concept of weekends and likes to jump on OH's head. Nags when we're at the pc so she can sit and watch us. 10pm she nags us to get to bed. Waits 5 minutes and sneaks in between us, nagging us to make room for her. Has her cuddle for half an hour, when we put lights out she heads to her own basket and starts snoring. TBH the snoring is worse than the voicing

bacardi66

From what Ive heard cats do get much more vocal when they get older. One of my friends has a 16 year old cat who yowls all night to get into her bedroom! And my mum's old cat was also very vocal in her latter years.

Bizarrely my cat is the exception to the rule - he has rarely ever miaowed (apart from in the car to the vets!) and at 17 is still very quiet. Although he does "chirrup" more than he has ever done - normally in the middle of the night when he jumps on the bed and expects a cuddle!

cattie

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Mazza, I'm laughing my socks of at reading about Misty. It's a relief to know there are other very vocal & demanding cats around. Talk about tell you who the boss is & to jump to it pronto!

Bacardi, your description of yowling is much more accurate than mine, where I say 'loud meows'. I was trying to think of a more descriptive word, but it eluded me.
Isn't it lovely when cats 'chirrup'? You can forgive them anything when they do this.

gettingready

I hope not. Macius is only 4 months old and NEVER shuts up - does my head in.....

bacardi66

cattie wrote: »

Bacardi, your description of yowling is much more accurate than mine, where I say 'loud meows'. I was trying to think of a more descriptive word, but it eluded me.
Isn't it lovely when cats 'chirrup'? You can forgive them anything when they do this.

The chirruping is lovely and he has only really done it in the last few years and he does it as a dialogue with me, it would be very endearing but less so because its normally the middle of the night! He chirrups and I reply and then he chirrups again etc etc this is typical scenario:

He will jump on the bed and chirrup
Ill say "now go to sleep its the middle of the night" (like he would understand :rotfl:)
he chirrups again
Ill say "please shut up its 3am"
he chirrups again
I ignore him
he combines a chirrup with jumping on my head
I hide under the duvet
He chirrups and then appears under the duvet and so on and so on

Wow I sound completely mad! But hopefully you cat people will get where Im coming from

1_step_closer

I am in stitches reading this! I have a 14 year old ginger female who never shuts up. I do get the odd chirrup but mainly its:

GET UP!

feed me.............feed me now

open the door

let me in

i want back outside

havent you fed me yet???

Oi human! bed!

sigh.................

and then just because she can.............she'll swipe at the dogs when they are fast asleep.

1 step

antw23uk

I hope not, Ollie is 3 and loves a very sorrowful chat (he is a lover not a fighter bless him) and charlie is just over a year old and he doesnt shut up and i love chatting to him :rotfl:

Ollie does a very sorrowful 'Ohww' and if you time it right in the evening you ask him if he wants to go out and he will 'meow' ... you then tell him no, its too late to go out and he practically howls ..'Oowwwww' :rotfl:The silly thing is my OH and me now do it when we get a no or cant get out own way and Ollie just looks at us in disgust ...

fluffnutter

Yep. My cat's got more vocal as he's aged (plus he doesn't chirrup much any more ). He makes up for this by miaowing. I swear to God he once did a single miaow that lasted about 10 minutes.

Lovelyjoolz

Oh dear, these stories are making my mascara run :rotfl:

Yes, we cat people are totally insane.

My Bert is only 4 and he's always been a chatty cat. He meows quite loud, does a very good yowl and chirrups all the time.

He also does this weird, but very cute, noise which sounds a bit like wooooow-wow-wow-wow-wooooooow-wow-wow in a very distressed sounding tone. It tugs at the heartstrings if you're not used to it, but once you know the rascal that is Bert you realise that he only does it when he's misbehaving!! Like when he steals a pair of socks (yes, socks, he steals them often, he has a sock fetish ) he'll run off with them and then sit there making this pathetic noise, almost like "I'm being naughty! I know I shouldn't but I just can't help myself!"

My other cat, Sal, was so quiet that we thought she was mute. Turns out she can meow, she just never manages to get a word in with Bert around :rotfl:

Mrs_Z

Yes, we have a sock thief too! In fact both cats do this weird, wooooow-wow-wow-wow-wooooooow-wow-wow noise, one more distressing than the other. From the noise we can tell that it's either B with a pair of sports socks or P carrying her roo-rat toy.