Why does my cat meow so much?

What it often means

• A learned request: food, a door, play, a cuddle. If you give in now and then, he insists even more, like a gambler at a slot machine.
• Boredom: an indoor cat who hunts very little has energy to burn, and his voice is the surest way to get you moving.
• Personality: the Siamese and other Oriental breeds are known as big talkers, and some cats simply talk more than others.
• Stress or change: a move, a new pet, someone missing from the home, a strange cat under the window.
• Less often, a physical cause: the mating call of an unneutered cat, hunger from a diet or an illness, pain, or hearing loss in a senior.

Signals to read at the same time

• Who and where: facing you, by the bowl, at a door, at the window, or alone in an empty room, as if lost.
• The sound: usually short to say hello, long and insistent to ask, hoarse or plaintive when something is wrong; yowling is a different register.
• The body: tail up and rubbing mean a hello or a request; a hunched body, dilated pupils and pacing mean discomfort.
• The timing: always before meals or when you get home is a routine; at any hour and with restlessness is something else.
• Since when: a cat who has always been chatty is not a cat who started meowing this month, especially if he is losing weight, drinking more or eating more.

What you can do

• Stop answering the demanding meow: wait for two or three seconds of quiet, then fill the bowl, open the door or pet him.
• Hold firm for a few days: when a request stops working, he first insists louder before giving up. Do not punish him (water, yelling): he would learn to distrust you, not to be quiet.
• Get ahead of his needs: meals at set times or a timed feeder, and two ten-minute wand-toy hunts a day, each ending with a catch.
• Fill his days: a window perch, a food puzzle, toys you rotate every week.
• Keep a log for a week (time, place, what came before, how you reacted) and film an episode: that is what helps your vet most.

When to see a vet

See a vet if the meowing is new or has clearly increased, especially in a cat over ten, or if it comes with weight loss, a bigger appetite or thirst, restlessness, vomiting or disorientation. Hyperthyroidism, high blood pressure, kidney disease, pain or deafness often hide behind it. If he cries in the litter box, strains without peeing or keeps going back, it is an emergency: a urinary blockage, especially in males, is life-threatening.