Why does my deaf kitten meow and yowl?

CatsinCanada · New member Joined: 09 Apr 2004 Posts: 2

I recently adopted a deaf kitten from a friend who couldn't keep it. They had her diagnosed as deaf and it is confirmed by her lack of response to sound stimuli. However, she does have a voice, a very loud voice. Can she hear herself yowl? The noises she makes do not seem to be caused by distress although it sounds like it sometimes. I've checked on her when she is yowling and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it other than to keep me up all night. I think she is looking for playmates more than anything. I have 2 other cats but mostly they ignore her. One will play with her sometimes. After the initial introduction and their annoyance at the intruder, the older two cats usually just try to ignore the kitten, although one will occasionally play with her. It just seems strange that she would have such a loud voice or a voice at all. How did she learn to speak?

t_chelle16 · Moderator Joined: 22 Mar 2004 Posts: 3437

One of my cats (normal hearing, although it's selective at times Rolling Eyes

) will meow/squak for no apparent reason. She'll just be walking along meowing. Or she'll walk up to me, sit down, and meow. She doesn't want attention, food, or anything, she just wants to announce herself.

-Chelle

coppersmom · Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 10:08 pm Post subject:

One of my cats will chatter and squeak at night. I used to go running in there and she was just sitting on the scratching post. Don't know why. Sometimes it sounds like she's in distress too but she's not.

ACO · Member Joined: 09 Dec 2005 Posts: 41

Here's a link for you that may be helpful.

http://www.messybeast.com/disabled.htm#deaf

HOUSEOF10CATS · Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 6:23 am Post subject:

I had a deaf white male a few years back, and gosh do I miss that love bug, he's since passed. He too, meowed all the time. He would just "talk" to us and the other cats, or just cry for no apparent reason. I found it strange, too. I often wondered if he did it because he was calling us or the other cats. He always had to be close to someone. I wonder if his disability made him so clingy. The other thing that was weird to us was that when he would be upstairs sleeping, I would open a can of tuna, and that cat was downstairs and at my feet before I even finished draining the water from the can!!! I know he didn't hear the can opener, but often wondered if his sense of smell was stronger. He was the most affectionate cat I've ever owned. I miss him so much. Of all the cats I own, I have never got another all white one. I have every other color, but all white. Kirby could never be replaced. Kirby got his name from riding the canister vaccum. I think he liked the vibration. Since the vaccum was a Kenmore, Kenmore didn't sound so good, thus Kirby.

CatsinCanada · New member Joined: 09 Apr 2004 Posts: 2

My kitten, Papillon, is a white cat with 2 blue eyes. She was deaf from birth. I'm not sure what the connection between white cats with 2 blue eyes being deaf but they always are. I grew up with a white cat with one blue eye and one green eye. She wasn't deaf. It was before the time of automatic spaying and neutering so she had many litters of kittens, many with her brother and many that were all white with 2 blue eyes and deaf. Not many of those kittens made it. I like to think Papillon is a distant descendant of my childhood cat, Tinkerbell, and that's probably the biggest reason I adopted her. She is to remain an indoor cat but I will spay her in 2 months, when she is 6 months old. I guess I will just get used to the yowls and noise she makes. She likes to make noise, raking her claws on the furnace grill, batting beaded curtains, knocking things over. But she is a kitten and all this is par for the course. Funny and luckily enough, she hasn't touched the Christmas tree. Keeping my fingers crossed.