Yowling Problem (sister's cat)

[willow wind]

Who the heck is talking about cereal !!!! You can't seem to get past the dry food. We are not talking about dry food- can't you see that- why do you keep coming back to dry food ?

I am talking about how many times a day a cat eats. Please stop fixating on dry food. That is not the question. We all know that cats are obligate carnivores.

And yes, insects are part of a small cat's diet, not a lot but some. Tiny kittens just weaned do rely on a certain number of bugs in their diet. They are plentiful and easy to catch. Don't forget little kittens of wild species are weaned early and often on their own in the wild at a few months old. Adult cats like them too. The could kill them and leave them- they prefer to chow down on them. It's food.

And if you know anything about a nice fat moth or grasshopper, they are a protein packet- They are not a cereal or a grain or a vegetable- lol .

Now try to take dry food out of the conversation if you wish to continue and limit the conversation to how many times day a cat evolved to eat. Try to write a response that does not include the words dry, cereal, grains or obligate carnivore.

[catsmom21]

The key word here is EAT. How often a cat EATS. Cats are designed to eat, not nibble. They don't nibble on the prey, a whisker here, five minutes later a foot, ten minutes later the offal (and so on). They eat the whole thing. Then, when they are hungry again, they hunt and eat again.

Cats are not nibblers. They are hunters. They don't nibble at their prey, they eat it. The reason I continue to bring dry "food" into this discussion is because it was the advent of free feeding dry food that has perpetuated this myth, entirely false, that cats are "nibblers" (the term "grazers" is also often used).

[601halfdozen0theother]

Back to the actual yowling issue: I don't know that it's solvable.

I personally doubt that it has anything to do with food.

My Rooty cat is almost 16, and up until the last year or so he would periodically have the crazy yowlies for no descernable reason at all. It was usually at night or at dawn, and could occur down in the basement, or out in the cat porch. Never usually in the main rooms of the house.

I never figured out why he did it. Kind of thought of it as similar to dogs howling at the moon, or just venting some angst, or welcoming a new day. Or perhaps the eunuch's longing for lost romance.

OP, could your sister's family shut the cat up in a distant room or cat porch from which they can't hear the yowling? They could make it a pleasant place with box and food and such. If they want to build a cat porch (which prevents other animals coming in a cat door) there's pix of my ratty homemade cat porch if you click on my 601...name.

Good luck. He may just be a happy howler!

[intelfan11315]

Originally Posted by 20yrsinBranson

I'm thinking he is bored. I know this is probably the LAST thing that your sister wants to hear, but maybe getting another cat will be helpful to keep Simon entertained so he doesn't crave human attention.

We have one cat, Leo, who is the "hunter" and makes "announcements" as he is bringing stuff down the hall to show me what he has "killed". Sometimes it is a cat toy, sometimes it is a shoe, sometimes it is a cell phone case. He makes these crazy noises and drops the item at the door to the bedroom.

His announcements sound a lot like this:


My cat Tiggy talking / speaking saying hello - YouTube

20yrsinbranson

played this video and my cat came running across the house and attacked my computer