Domestic cats don’t chuff. Tigers chuff. It is a form of communication made at close range and part of the tiger’s greeting behaviour. The tiger chuff is sometimes described as a ‘prusten’. I believe that they are the same sound. It is a staccato puffing sound.

Domestic cat chattering not chuffing.

There may be some confusion because on the internet there is a video (see below) which Google picks up and presents on the first page of its search results of a domestic cat making a sound which is described as chuffing.

This is not chuffing in my opinion. Domestic cats do not chuff as mentioned. This is a cat chattering at the sight and sound of his or her owner making a clicking sound with an object which is out of the frame and which creates a response in the cat as if he is looking at a bird.

You may have seen domestic cats chattering (see a page on this). Domestic cats often look out of the window at a bird and they may start chattering their jaws. It is believed that this is domestic cats practising the killing bite into the nape of a bird’s neck to kill it. Because the cat is unable to get at the bird he simply chatters as an act of frustration and practice – a “tooth-rattling stutter”. In this instance the cat is making a sound at the same time. Perhaps it is a vestigial you form of purring because he is content which when combined with the chattering produces what the videomaker has described as a chuff.

To reiterate, domestic cats do not chuff. The word chuff relates exclusively to the close range conversation between much larger cats, in this instance the tiger.

SOME PAGES ON CAT SOUNDS:

People don’t want animals to be able to use language to communicate

The reason why people don't want animals to be able to communicate using language is because if it is decided ...
Read More

Cat says ‘hello, are you coming?’

A video went viral on Tik Tok a video-sharing social networking service. It purporedly shows a black domestic cat saying ...
Read More

Video of Canada lynx in verbal duel

The news media have described this as caterwauling but I would not call it that because strictly speaking caterwauling is ...
Read More

Fiercely wild and independent bobcat kitten makes special wild cat sound when released

It's the sound of this cute bobcat kitten which interests me. He or she looks a little bit like a ...
Read More

Cat ‘speaking in tongues’ is the guttural yowl of a cat not to be messed with

This is a really nice example of a 'cat speaking in tongues', as Lori Dorn describes it, on the Laughing ...
Read More

When your cat talks, what does she usually say?

When your cat talks, what does she usually say? When a domestic cat 'speaks' she is usually requesting something using ...
Read More

Long-range cat sounds (vocalizations)

The long-range cat sounds (vocalisations) that we know well are the roars of the roaring big cats: lion, tiger, jaguar ...
Read More