How to understand the language of cats and talk with your pet

The fluffy beauty, like all animals, has its own unique way of communicating. But deciphering this code can be difficult for a person. Do cats communicate with each other and what do they want to say to the owner?

If a cat is trying to get attention, she will often meow or use non-verbal communication. For example, silently and very intently looks at the parent, touches his leg with his paw, throws off a cup of coffee from the kitchen table or scratches the sofa. This is only a small part of the forms of feline communication.

Meow

How do cats communicate with humans? They meow to be fed or stroked and hiss to be left behind. Some breeds of cats, such as the Russian Blue and the Siamese, are very talkative and ready to chat with the owner all day and … nights.

How do cats communicate with each other? If several cats live in the same territory, they communicate using verbal and non-verbal feline language. As a non-verbal, they use marks, tail or paw movements, arching of the back and rolling. But the question of whether they understand each other in the same way as people, scientists have yet to answer.

Most research in the field of feline communication focuses on their communication with humans. In “talking” with their owners, these animals use several different cat language sounds, including purring, hissing, howling, purring and, of course, meowing. Adult cats use meowing as a special form of communication only when communicating with their humans.

In 2016, the Universities of Lund and Linköping in Sweden initiated a study called Meowsic. Their task is to study the forms of communication between cats and humans and the hypothesis that cats imitate the accents of their owners. Scientists have found that “adult cats only meow when talking to people, not to each other, most likely due to the fact that their mothers stopped responding to them immediately after weaning,” according to The Science Explorer. 

This is another confirmation that the fluffy baby is indeed a child in the family. Therefore, when a cat meows, she is trying to communicate with the owner, and not with another cat in the house.

ABC of cat language

Having turned from kittens into adult animals, cats stop meowing, interacting with each other. Most often, they rely on non-verbal body language to express their feelings for each other. But they still use sounds in inter-cat communication. This manifests itself during play, when little friends growl, hiss or howl at each other – sometimes from excitement, sometimes from fear or anger.

In many ways, cats’ behavior towards humans is not much different from their communication with each other – in both cases, they choose non-verbal ways. “Tailing, rubbing, sitting and licking is what cats do, both with us and with each other,” John Bradshaw, an expert on feline behavior, told National Geographic. Such non-verbal communication is effective both with people and with other cats.

According to Bradshaw, cats show their affection much less explicitly than dogs, but this does not mean that cats do not experience strong emotions. They just express them differently.

Yes, research on feline behavior is sparse compared to the mass of research on how dogs think, behave, and communicate, but cats are known to be highly intelligent. 

Although these graceful creatures have an independent character, do not forget that they still communicate with their owners. You may need to pay more attention to your cat’s non-verbal cues in order to really understand what she’s trying to say.