It’s 3:00 AM, you’ve just woken up to it again. She’s walking around through the entire house meowing over and over for no apparent reason. You’re wondering why you adopted this cat, you’re wondering if she is just doing this to drive you nuts, but most of all you are wondering why does my cat keep meowing?
This is an incredibly frustrating behavior for you to encounter as a cat owner, I should know, both of my cats Lexi and Beast do it from time to time. The good news is that there are a couple of common reasons your cat might be doing this. Even better, there are a couple of simple methods to help decrease the frequency of this behavior.
A Few Things Worth Noting
Two things worth pointing out before we get into the why of this article:
- Cats in general aren’t known to meow at one another. Meowing is a behavior that was picked up by cats to communicate with humans, they don’t use it among themselves. This means if your cat is meowing they are trying to tell you something.
- Cats are crepuscular creatures, but you can work with them to adjust their sleeping schedule to be in line with your own. While excessive meowing is annoying during the day, it is 10 times more annoying if it impacts your sleeping schedule.
Now that that’s out of the way let’s get to why you came here…
So Why Does my Cat Keep Meowing
So let’s get into the meat of it, let’s look at the most common reasons your cat is meowing up a storm and some of the easiest fixes in the book:
1. Your cat is bored our of her gourd: Just like a human a cat can get bored, really bored, especially if you are gone for long periods of time and your cat is left on her own.
- Make sure you organize time to play with your cat and make sure she gets exercise. Without a good workout your cat is likely to strut around meowing to let you know she isn’t too happy. Check out my article on playing with your cat for a few ideas. Or go straight to checking out some of the top 20 toys StuffCatsWant recommends for your cat!
2. Your cat is stressed out: Stressed out cats tend to meow a heck of a lot more than their otherwise calm counterparts. My cat Beast meows 2-3 times as often when I have a foster cat in the house, even if they are separated into another room. Changes you might not think matter to a cat like a move or the loss of a family member can result in a lot more vocal cat.
- Do your best to identify the recent change and if possible remedy it. If there’s not much you can do to remedy the specific cause then give your cat extra attention and be sure she has a quiet and safe location that can help soothe her.
- If you do have a new cat in the home you can also check out Feliway Multicat, read my review of it here.
3. Your cat wants her breakfast or dinner: You know how your stomach growls when you’re hungry? My cats meow when they are hungry. Well, let me rephrase, Lexi meows like a nut when she is hungry and she knows she gets fed at 8 AM and 9 PM daily. Check out this video of her when she knows it is dinner time.
- Do your best to set a schedule when it comes to feeding and talk to your vet about the appropriate amount of food for your cat. If you can’t be home to provide food on a consistent schedule consider an auto feeder. Free feeding your cat with dry food is not the answer.
4. Your cat is in heat: If your cat isn’t already spayed or neutered then they are likely to be a heck of a lot more noisy (some of the time). When they are in heat female cats are going to yowl and as soon as a male smells a female in heat he’ll start doing the same thing.
5. Your cat wants to be where you are: Despite popular belief that cats like to be alone, most cats do actually enjoy companionship of their human friends. If you sleep in a room with the door closed at night and your cat is meowing outside this is a great example.
- The simplest solution might be to simply open the door and let them come into whatever room you are in. If that isn’t an option you can try things like a treat puzzle to keep them busy while you are in the other room.
6. Your cat is getting older: While the average lifespan of cats is expanding with better medical care, there are many of the same problems that humans run into regarding staying sharp as they age. Cats can become disoriented and will meow for no reason other than to let their human know they are confused. This is especially common at night.
- Veterinarians can prescribe medications that help these symptoms and they might have other recommendations depending on when and how the behavior is triggered.
7. Your cat is sick: If none of the other items here seem to be the culprit then a thorough checkup by your veterinarian is in order. Numerous diseases can cause a cat to feel hungry even when they aren’t. There’s also the potential problem that your cat might be in constant pain which can lead to constant meowing.
- WebMD also indicates that elderly cats can develop an overactive thyroid or kidney disease and that both of these can result in excessive meowing.
8. Your cat is welcoming you home: Many cats meow when their people come home, mine both meet me at the door and then promptly run off if I try to pet them for some reason or another.
- If this is the worst you have then I’d say you’re doing pretty well!.
Note that nowhere above did you see me indicate the solution is to yell at your cat. Yelling at your cat, spraying your cat with a squirt bottle, shaking coins in a can, these methods will not solve the root cause of the behavior. More than likely they’ll just make your cat afraid of you instead! Do your best to identify the root cause and then work with your cat in a positive way to solve it. Always keep in mind that a tired out cat with a full tummy is likely to get some sleep!
Time for a Quick Recap
So now you’ve got several answers to the age old question why does my cat keep meowing! The general idea is that your cat is trying to communicate something to you. It is your job to figure out specifically what and do something about it.
I hope that the solutions under each of the major causes come in handy and help you make progress with getting your kitty to quiet down! If you have any other thoughts on why your cat might be meowing incessantly or how you’ve managed to put a stop to it then please leave a comment below or send me an email at Craig@StuffCatsWant.com so I can update this article.
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