Does your cat make incessant, meowing demands for food or something else that you find irritating?
Bengal cats have a demanding sort of meow that is similar to the Siamese meow. It is general accepted that Bengal cats can be more demanding than the typical random bred cat. It is the wild cat blood in them.
However, I would have thought that 99.9% of cat owners don’t find a lot of meowing irritating because all you have to do, to stop it, is to listen to your cat. Responding to your cat’s demands will stop them. Also, not many cats meow loudly enough and long enough for it to become a problem unless you ignore your cat. This is one of the advantages of living with a cat over a dog.
However, sometimes, rarely, the demands can be unreasonable. For example, asking for food when he is already obese. That said, there are ways around the problem, such as distracting your cat and playing with him. On many occasions I have distracted my cat Charlie when he has asked for more food as he is on a permanent diet. This has to be the way because he only has three legs and carrying extra weight makes walking more difficult. He really should be lightweight.
If we conclude that there are rare instances of cats becoming demandingly noisy through loud meowing, the lady in the video below has successful trained it out.
I understand that few people want to get involved in cat training or even approve of it but there are occasions when it can be useful. If you view the video, you’ll see how simple and easy it is to do and how effective it is. There is an immediate response to the clicker training.
The clicker is a device that makes the giving of the reward (the food) more precise in respect of timing. Timing is important. The reward has to be closely connected to the desired action and behavior.
In this instance the lady’s noisy Bengal cat is given a reward with the accompanying click as soon as he is quite for a while. You can see that even over the time frame of the video the cat learns how to get the reward: be quiet rather than meow loudly.
It does beg the question, however, that the Bengal cat will be disappointed when he does not get his food when he is quiet. Might he not start meowing loudly again?
Also, this Bengal cat seems to like more food than he needs. I wonder if he has a slight psychological problem that is something to do with his days as a newborn sucking on his mother’s breast? Or is this typical Bengal cat behavior?
Maybe some breeds of cat have it in their breeding to meow more to get what they want? I know that my Oz who is a Maine Coon meows incessantly to get what he wants yet Alfie and Honey hardly ever they just rely on Ozzie to be the mouth piece! I love to listen to Ozzie and although sometimes if I’m trying to concentrate it does drive me potty generally we have some great conversations! I say this because of his different types of language, there are so many and they differ with what I say to him!
If I say ‘Ozzie love you!’ he will chirrup or say mmmm as if to say ‘love you too mom’ If he wants something from the fridge he will try to take us there then meow loudly.
I love his ramblings though and wouldn’t change him for the world!
I am the same with my cat Charlie. He is random bred but we have identical sorts of conversations with lots of different meow sounds from him and some weird sounds from me. Charlie cam also be very insistent and he meows loudly. He’ll call me from another room sometimes just like a person.
Marc I love you! lol
So do I!
Instead of sitting there with that stupid clicker that woman should be playing with the cat. Cats meow for attention as well as for food.
The more biscuits she gave the cat the quicker she looked for another, it looked to me as if she was starting to gulp them down only partly crunched.
It’s far easier to ‘train’ cats by the distraction of play, throw a toy, roll a ball, spend TIME with the cat.
Well I LOVE the sound of a cat meowing and would never ever want to break the spirit of one.
lol – I am the same and think the exact same as you. I also find clicker training to be creepy and wierd. Thats just me – there may be good reasons for it but I agree that a dose of play makes up for any and all of it.
AND just like you I love the sound of my cats asking and talking to me. Infact Gigi has started becoming demanding lately for her evening biscuits and I like it that she asks me and is insisting. I like chatty cats and always listen. I like the sound and I listen and respond so it never is a problem.
I detest that clicker rubbish, I saw it demonstrated on dogs, who love to please their humans anyway, and that was bad enough but to use this clicking on cats is beyond humiliation for them. In the video which I admit I only watched a part of because it annoyed me so much and woke our two boys up it looked to me like it was demand and supply,and it was actually encouraging the meowing as the cat knew the biscuits were coming every time he/she asked, as Ruth said why sit there feeding the biscuits and clicking the stupid thing instead of either getting up and giving the cat attention in some other way, by healthy play or grooming or just put the biscuits in the cupboard and walk away.
I know you hate clicker training 😉 I respect that. I tend to agree with you. The trouble with training cats is that it is an attempt to make them do things we want them to do even if it might be better for the cat. But why does the cat do some things in the first place?
Hi Michael. Perhaps that Bengal need feline company. My intact Bengal male lives happily togther with Balkar an intact Turkish Angora male and they are pretty quiet. Any meowing they make is rather melodious and pleasant. Bengie Bengal’s meowing is more like a cooing gurgling sound. The bengal in the video sounds very much like a Siamese. I was reminded what a super spotted coat those Cyprus sokak kedileri have. They would be excellent for breeding with Bengals that have lost their wild spots. They are also robust healthy cats.
Good thought. Clicker training can train out the meowing but does not deal with the underlying cause (if there is one) and you have a solution. Neat.
Are you telling American breeders how to do their job 😉