I ask my cat if he wants wet food and he answers

One of the difficulties for a cat caregiver is ensuring that your cat eats all or nearly all the wet food that you give him/her. You have to minimise waste both for financial reasons and because it is a pain in the bum getting rid of waste cat food. Giving it to the foxes is perhaps the best way if your neighbours don't know about it or accept it. Judging by the stories in the internet sometimes neighbours get angry about feeding wildlife by feeding feral cats. 

Anyway, this is how I minimise wet cat food waste. I ask him. Literally. Of course I also understand his body language and the signals he sends to me when he is interested in a meal but sometimes cats can fool their owners in this regard because they want a treat and not regular food. It is hard to tell the difference.

What I do is this:

• I ask in English if he wants wet food
• I place my cat on the kitchen counter - yes, I feed my cat on the kitchen counter. Some people do.
• I hold up a sachet of wet food - a small sachet to make sure he eats all of it - near his face.
• If he is interested and genuinely in the mood to eat because he is sufficiently hungry he head butts my hand. The one that is holding the cat food sachet. 
• He wants it. I remove the food carefully to avoid splashing some on the counter. Sachets can he hard to tear open. I always use a knife to ensure that all the food is extracted. Waste not want not.
• He eats all the food.

The key is his answer in the affirmative response by head butting my hand. This means he butts the top of his head against it. This is scent exchange - depositing scent on my hand but it also serves as a positive response to my question under these circumstances.

How did I get to this form of communication? It took several years of routine. As they say, patience is all when it comes to training a cat.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Bimodal communication with domestic cats

Try bimodal communication with a cat that doesn't know you to get a speedier response. The video - sorry it's dull - explains the title. It is about getting a speedier response from a cat by using two or more ways to communicate with. The conclusion is the result of a study by a group of French scientists. Perhaps any decent cat caregiver would tell you the same thing from personal experience.

The French scientists investigated communicating with rescue cats in a cat café in France. They measured how long it took for the cats to approach the human participants. 

They found that if the participants held out their hand silently or offered a hand with some vocal communication the cats were more likely and more speedily encouraged to come over and interact with the human. 

"Bimodal" means two different forms (2 modes) and in this case it refers to a vocal communication together with body language and actions.

It's a way of eliciting a speedier response and the scientist concluded in their words "this suggests that cats are more sensitive to visual and bimodal communication initiated by an unfamiliar human."

I would suggest, too, that it is also useful for humans with whom the cat is familiar. It is likely that this happens anyway.

For example, when I take a walk with my cat outside, I call his name and tap my jacket to encourage him to follow me. He associates the tapping with the request to come to me. I think this is the kind of thing they are referring to as this is bimodal communication.

Do domestic cats have names for animals they see?

Take this scenario: my cat is allowed outside and he sees a badger in my back garden. Last night he would have seen a fox walking down the right of way behind my house where I feed them. So, on numerous occasions he has seen and even encountered, in quite close contact probably, other animals who live close to my house. And, of course, he bumps into other domestic cats. In fact, he has a friend, a female black-and-white semi-long-haired cat. Humans have names for these animals but do domestic cats? Do they have a special list of names of the animals that they are likely to meet in their lives and which have been taught of by their mother?

Maine Coon photo by Armand Tamboly. I know I am in breach of his copyright but I hope he will forgive me as I am promoting his photography and encouraging a sale.

We don't know! It seems highly unlikely because domestic cats do not have a constructed language as humans have. They communicate in various ways and of course domestic cats create sounds which are highly variable and which have a meaning either in terms of a long-distance call or a close encounter form of communication but they don't have a language in the sense that we mean it.

Therefore, we have to conclude that domestic cats do not label the wild and domestic animals that they meet with names. They probably simply see them as other creatures and recognise them as either potentially friendly, friendly, potentially hostile and actually hostile. They probably innately understand whether an animal is hostile in the way that they understand that snakes are dangerous.

We know that they understand that snakes are dangerous because they adopt the appearance of a snake when they curl up. This applies to tabby cats which is the original coat. And of course, we all know that they hiss like snakes. This is an adaptation, part of their evolution, to deter predators. But domestic cats won't have a name for the snake. They just know that that particular creature makes a hissing sound and that it is a danger to them.

On that subject, by the way, there is one wild cat, a diminutive species in fact, the sand cat, which is very capable of attacking, killing and eating any snake even the poisonous varieties. So not all cats are fearful of snakes.

It seems that only the human has been able to classify animals and give them labels. Domestic cats simply recognise other animals but in one sense they do classify them: hostile or non-hostile. This allows them to avoid or approach respectively.

Touch and body language are more effective than vocalisations when communicating with your cat

I guess that this is common sense: humans have a common language with their cats which is touching i.e. physical contact in the form of petting et cetera, combined body language. Interactions between domestic cats often include physical contact such as rubbing against each other, licking each other and physically reaching out with their paw to touch the other. Domestic cats understand communication through touch and contact. And the meow is not for cat-to-cat communication. It was learned for cat-to-human demands.

Touch and body language are more effective than vocalisations when communicating with your cat. Cats understand the message when it is in the form of contact and touch far more so than in human vocalisations. Photo in public domain.

This is in contrast to the usual form of communication for humans, namely language and the sound of the voice. Cats don't understand human language although they do understand the tone of our voice and its volume and what it means in context. But they receive the intended message far more clearly when it is transmitted in the form of physical touch.

So, if you want to tell your cat that you love her, you gently stroke her and interact with her in a very loving way. Your cat will fully understand it. They will understand that you are friendly and affectionate and caring and loving. In short, for the feline, they will recognise you as friendly and protecting

Conversely, if you simply state to your cat that you love her, she won't get it. If you say it in a melodious way, she will get the message that you are being friendly, perhaps, but they might be a little bemused. The message is far less cleanly delivered using vocalisations compared to using physical contact provided it is carried out with tenderness and gentleness.

So, what does this mean? Well, the obvious: that in most of our communication with our domestic cat companions we should use body language and physical contact backed up with warm vocalisations. I use the word "vocalisations" because cats recognise sound, its frequency and volume but they don't obviously recognise the English language or any other language. And there is no point trying to make feline sounds because they won't understand those either.

It is also worth mentioning that physical contact with a domestic cat is often made within the context of a routine and the rhythms of life between cat and person, which also helps to clarify the message. In fact, routines are a very important part of communicating with a domestic cat.

Cat Barking

Some cats do make sounds that are like a dog barking. It is about individual cat characteristics. The Siamese cat, being very vocal, is predisposed to making loud sounds that we are not familiar with as cat sounds.

We tend to think of cat sounds as meowing, purring, growling, hissing etc. But there is a much wider range.

My three legged cat cat makes a sound that is neither a bark nor a meow. It is a sound that we would not normally associate with a cat.


Cat Sounds and Communication from Michael Broad on Vimeo.

The truth is that cat sounds and their meaning are work in progress. The video that "cat barking" refers to is of a black cat at an open window.

At first you might think that it is a fake but it seems real. It is possible that a cat can mimic a dog. Cats learn from observation. They usually learn from watching other cats. If they are raised by a dog they might learn from a dog; not only learning how to bark but what to bark at! That seems possible to me. I am not saying that that is what happened in this case.

What is interesting about this video is that when the cat sees the camera person, he or she reverts back to a very typical cat meow. When barking, the cat was behaving instinctively as if in the wild. When the person turned up he became a little kitten, the person being the mother cat. We keep our adult cats in permanent kitten-hood because we feed them and keep them warm and safe etc.




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Are Maine Coons Vocal?

The answer is, no. Maine Coons are said to be fairly quiet. They are known for a trill vocalization. The Maine Coon is not demanding in the way the Siamese might be. The Maine Coon has a "tiny voice" as well; certainly when compared to the loud Siamese. It is relative.

Zak - quiet cat in my experience. Photo by Michael.

However, it depends to a certain extent on the individual cat. Some Maine Coons might be quite talkative, others somewhat silent.

I think that it is wrong to bracket all cats of one breed together in terms of character traits. We don't do that for people.

The Maine likes to hang out rather than interact strongly with people although they are loyal and they form strong attachments.

My experiences with Zak and Quin, Maine Coons living with the Flicks in Dallas confirms the above assessment. Zak was not vocal. He asked through his presence. He trilled a bit. The Flick's British Shorthairs were quieter though, so it is all relative.

See Ken and Helmi Flick's cats.



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Cats Are Not Truthful

There is an animal whisperer in America (Bill Northern) who says he can talk animals, all animals. He says that cats are not truthful and he prefers to talk to dogs who are, if anything too polite and try and say things we want to hear. There may just be a tiny bit of truth in this but I have never heard my cat lie and believe me I know how to talk to a cat. How do we talk to a cat?

Simple: by being very close, emotionally, to our cats we can sense when our cat asks or needs something and we should know what by previous routines etc. Even the tone of voice will say a lot. That and the direction she is moving in etc. It is more about habits, routines and history that give us the information that our cat is trying to give us. Above all an emotional closeness is essential.

But what about a cat lying? Do cats have the guile to lie? I doubt it. They are too straight forward and innocent. Dogs are pack animals and might be too willing to do as we please, which might give the impression of being too polite. Cats being more independent with their passive expression might give the impression of being untrustworthy. But cats are as trustworthy as dogs. Some people who hate cats think that cats sneer but that face she pulls is her breathing in odors onto a special gland inside her mouth - Jacobson's Organ. (see cat anatomy).

After living closely with a cat for the life of a cat one can communicate effortlessly with her. It is as efficient and as complete a communication as speaking with a fellow human. You don't even think about it, it just happens. And as I said I disagree that cats are not truthful. In any case we cannot generalize. If it could be argued that cats are fibbers it could not apply to all cats, that would be rascist!

Photo published under creative commons license:

Talking To Your Cat

You don't need to research talking to your cat. If you have lived harmoniously with a cat or cats for a long time and you think about how you have communicated with them the answers are there.

It seems to me that the communication from my cat to me is different from me to my cat. There is a difference too between human/cat communication and cat/cat communication.

Human to Cat

The obvious way is through one's voice. When I call my cat by her informal name, "Binnie" she recognizes it. She looks up. She looks at me intently. She doesn't always look up and pay attention though, but neither does my partner .

Sometimes her response will be her ear twisting towards me (quite a subtle movement). Sometimes the tip of her tail will twitch but nothing else moves. She recognises her name though.

One reason and perhaps the main (maybe the only reason) that she responds to the call of her name is that it is usual to call her when I feed her. Also she recognises the sound of her name as spoken by me rather than the name itself. This is really a sound thing rather than a language thing (I guess that is obvious).

She also recognizes the phrase, "come on", said briskly and in the same way each time. I use this "sound" to call her to the kitchen to feed her. She understands this. These are just a couple of examples.



Cat to human

She will meow when asking for food. If I don't respond she will wait and eventually get irritated and this irritation shows in the tone of her voice when she next asks. There is a clear sign of irritation in just the same way a human voice changes. In addition to meowing to ask for food she'll come round to where I am sitting and look up at me with a clear message but no words said. When Timmy (new boy cat, a stray) demands food that he wants (meaning he wants more of the food he likes) he'll head butt me hard. This is a form of insistence in a nice way.

When she wants to check that I am around she'll meow but in another tone of voice. I respond with a reassuring sound.

She communicates too by her actions. She will sit by the cat flap when she want me to open the door (lazy devil). She will lie on the floor having looked at me first if she wants me to stroke her and whisper in her ear (she likes that). She'll sometimes look up and the plonk dwoon on the carpet and wait for the loving attention.

Other background forms of communication are her tail twitching (when receiving what I say) and a purr when she is contented.

We are able to communicate very well as above and through learned routine. We both know at a certain time certain things should happen and I deliver on those requirements (note: this is one way traffic :) These are examples. The bottom line is that taking to your cat is very possible and visa versa because there are a bundle of communication tools, which includes the voice, these include as referred to above:

• the sound of our voice - its tone
• our body language
• out actions that accompany our voice
• the cat's tails movements
• the cat's meow has many different tones
• our cat's actions
• routines provide signals
• our cat's facial expression - this is subtle but distinct and says a lot about what she expects and her feelings

Photo is copyright and by Sappymoosetree

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