Kitten Chat

Kittens have a huge repertoire of different sounds, far wider than most other animals. As many as 100 different types of vocalisations have now been identified and each, uttered with a different tone and intensity, is used solely to communicate with people. Your kitten has a lot to tell you.

The classic ‘miaow’

Everyone knows ‘miaow’. Generated in the larynx, the kitten’s ‘miaow’ is a cry for help. As he grows up, however, he will use it to articulate a whole range of moods and emotions, from friendliness and fear to complaint and moods. It can be a friendly hello or an expression of fear, a mild complaint or a forceful protest.

Did you say something?

Not every kitten uses the ‘chirrup’ but, if yours does, it can really sound as if he’s talking to you. Certainly, it’s often used as a friendly greeting to an owner.

Purr-fectly happy

Every one knows that a purring kitten is a happy kitten. The smallest kittens (even new-born ones when they are suckling or swallowing) purr to tell their mother that they are comfortable. Kittens purr when they feel secure around someone, when they’re in familiar surroundings or when they are half-asleep. It’s the sound of contentment and a clever kitten will use it to get more than his share of stroking. New research even suggests that cats can calm themselves down by purring and even use the vibrations to heal wounds. Just how remains a mystery.

Once a kitten, always a kitten

In the wild, kittens will cease to communicate by sound almost completely when they become adult. They only do it, in fact, when they are preparing to fight or to mate. Most cat language, it appears, is reserved for human beings. This may seem surprising but the reason is quite simple. A kitten who lives with humans never really grows up because he remains in a mother-kitten relationship for which a special language is required. The ‘mother’ in the relationship, of course, is you.