How Do Cats Communicate With Each Other? Cat Talk Explained
Have you ever wondered what exactly your cats are saying to each other when they “talk”?
There’s no denying that cats have their own unique way of communicating, but we humans don’t always understand it very well.
In this article, we’ll unravel all the mysteries of cat language.
By the end, you’ll be able to read and understand all those curious sounds, signals, gestures, body postures, and facial expressions your feline friend makes so you’ll know whether she is scared, irritated, angry – or simply making polite conversation.
Cat Body Language
Cats experience a wide range of emotions and rely heavily on their body language to tell other cats how they feel and what their intentions are.
The signals they give can be both visual and vocal.
Often, you get a mixture of both.
So let’s break it down, body part by body part.
Ears
Cats’ ears are usually a good indicator of how she is feeling.
When kitty is relaxed, her ears are upright and facing forward.
If she is fearful or uncomfortable, her ears will be flattened against her head.
And when she feels threatened or angry, the ears will be pointed back.
Just to confuse things, however, cats also rotate their ears when they are listening to something, so it’s important to look at her overall body language to get a full picture of how your cat is feeling.
Tail
A cat’s tail position is another great indicator of her mood.
A relaxed cat will have her tail in a neutral position, while a happy cat will have her tail held high – sometimes curved at the tip like a question mark.
This can be interpreted as a sign of friendliness.
On the other hand, a fearful cat will have his tail puffed up as a way to make himself look bigger and more intimidating (see also Body Posture).
It can also be a sign of excitement or agitation.
And many a cat owner has seen that rapidly swishing tail to signal annoyance or irritation.
Eyes
A cat’s eyes are also quite expressive when it comes to feline communication.
For example, when a cat “slow blinks” at another cat, it is often a sign of appeasement.
As in, ‘I’m no threat to you. I’m just sitting here quietly minding my own business.’
It can also be a sign of trust between cats and their owners.
Wide-open eyes can indicate fear, while direct eye contact, or staring, can be seen as a challenge or aggression.
Dilated pupils are a sign of emotional arousal, although this can be both positive and negative – excitement if the cat is stalking and chasing prey or a toy (positive) or due to stress, anxiety, or fear (negative).
Mouth
According to Certified Cat Behavior Consultant Trudi Atkinson, a flick of the tongue upward to touch the nose can be “a sign of uncertainty or trepidation.”
Body Posture
A cat’s body language and posture can tell you a lot about her confidence level and her emotional state.
A confident cat will stand tall with their head held high, while a nervous cat will crouch down and lower her head.
When a cat feels threatened, she has different options to try to protect herself.
One is by trying to appear bigger to scare off the threat.
She does this by standing tall, sideways on, and raising her back, which causes the hair along her back and tail to stand on end (known as “piloerection”).
Think Halloween cat.
Standing like this makes her look larger and more intimidating.
But if she can’t escape or hide, she may try to make herself look smaller.
She does this by crouching low to the ground, sometimes with her head positioned lower than her body.
Paws
When cats knead their paws against something, like their bedding or their owner’s lap, it’s a way of indicating that they are feeling happy and content.
It is thought that kneading is a leftover behavior from kittenhood.
Kittens knead their paws against their mother’s belly when they are nursing to encourage milk production.
Adult cats sometimes retain a positive association with the same kneading behavior they found so rewarding and comforting as kittens.
A cat’s paws are, of course, also used for scratching.
I’ll talk about this a bit later.
If you’d prefer to see a visual of the different types of cat body language, this video from Fear Free Happy Homes is a great place to start:
Facial Expressions
In addition to their body language, cats also communicate their emotions through their facial expressions.
Although cats can be hard to read (possibly because they haven’t been domesticated as long as dogs), a general rule is that a relaxed cat will have a “softer” face, while a fearful or aggressive cat will have a more tense and rigid expression.
The Flehmen Response
The Flehmen response is that funny thing cats do when they sniff something intently and then make a kind of grimace with their mouth open, almost like an expression of disgust.
The Flehmen response helps cats analyze pheromones (i.e. chemical signals left by other cats) and other scents in greater detail.
By channeling the pheromones into the vomeronasal organ, our feline friends can pick up on even the most subtle scents.
This process is different from breathing in normally through the nose and smelling a particular scent.
It’s actually a voluntary action, much like swallowing.
Cats use the flehmen response as a way “to absorb more information about a particular scent than they would otherwise,” says animal behavior writer Jason Bittel.
What Are Pheromones?
Pheromones are chemical signals produced and released by cats that serve as a form of communication between individuals of the same species.
These chemical substances are emitted through various glands in a cat’s body, such as the facial glands, paw pads, and anal glands.
Pheromones play a crucial role in conveying information about territory marking, social bonding, sexual attraction, and emotional states.
They can influence a cat’s behavior, including their sense of security, stress levels, and interactions with other cats and their environment.
Interestingly, pheromones can also be found in synthetic sprays and diffusers (such as Feliway) that can be used to help calm cats in stressful situations.
Note: They may or may not be effective, depending on the cat and the situation.
What Is The Vomeronasal Organ?
The vomeronasal organ is a specialized organ found in the cat’s main nasal chamber.
It is made up of a group of sensory cells that can sense and identify strong odor particles, often when they are transported through the air by high levels of humidity.
But I’ve also seen my cats do it when they sniff an item of clothing I’ve been wearing.
So there you go.
Vocal Communications
I’m sure I’m not the only one who has been woken up in the middle of the night by screaming cats.
Cats are famous for their vocalization skills, and they use a variety of sounds to communicate with each other.
Let’s explore the different types of vocalizations cats use.
Meowing
Meowing is probably the most well-known sound cats make.
Funnily enough, however, they don’t really use meowing as a means of cat-to-cat communication – aside from when they are kittens to get their mother’s attention.
While feral cats (i.e. cats who live independently without human “owners”) often outgrow meowing as a means of communication, pet cats often carry the behavior over into adulthood.
Research suggests that our domesticated kitties learned they could use their cat meows as a way to get our attention.
As this would often (let’s be honest, almost always) result in us giving them food and attending to their every need, they obviously just keep doing it.
In other words, meowing is beneficial as it increases a cat’s chances of survival without requiring much effort on their side (Tavernier et al., 2019).
Smart, right?
Bearing all that in mind, different pitches and lengths of meows can convey different messages.
For example, a short, high-pitched meow can be a greeting, while a long, lower-pitched meow can be a request for food or attention.
We’ll see later that humans have become quite good at understanding what different types of meows mean.
Trilling, Chirping, Talking, And Chattering
Trilling, chirping, and talking are sounds cats often make when they are happy or excited.
The sounds may be accompanied by other friendly behaviors, such as seeking out physical contact like rubbing against people or objects.
Trilling and chirping are short, high-pitched sounds, while talking can be a longer, more drawn-out sound.
You might also see your cat making a funny chattering-type sound when she is stalking prey.
Purring
Purring is that typical cat vocalization our kitties make when they are happy and content.
However, cats can also purr when they are scared, in pain, and even when they are close to death.
In this instance, purring may be a way for cats to self-soothe in times of fear and stress.
Purring is a low, rumbling sound that is created by the vibration of the cat’s vocal cords.
Interestingly, unlike other vocalizations, cats purr both when they are inhaling and exhaling.
Different Types Of Purring In Cats
Researchers have discovered two different types of purring in domestic cats.
The first type is called the “unsolicitation” purr, which occurs when the cat is calm and content, either alone or in relaxed social situations.
The second type is known as the “solicitation” purr, which is produced when the cat wants something like food or attention from human caregivers.
This purr has a slightly higher pitch and can sound more insistent compared to the relaxed unsolicitation purr (Atkinson, 2019).
Hissing And Growling
Hissing and growling are forms of communication cats commonly make when they feel threatened or scared.
They often go hand-in-hand with other defensive or aggressive behaviors, such as an arched back and puffed-up fur on the back and tail.
Essentially, they are warning signals telling other cats to stay away.
The cat may escalate to an aggressive response if her warning is not heeded.
Yowling, Wailing, And Screaming
Yowling, wailing, and screaming are loud, drawn-out sounds cats make when they are angry or in distress.
They can be very loud and are often followed by all-out aggression if one cat doesn’t remove themselves from the equation.
Female cats also tend to yowl when they are in heat.
“During the receptive period of her reproductive cycle an entire female cat will emit a continuous repetitive cry, commonly referred to as ‘calling,” explains Atkinson.
“Also throughout the breeding season, entire males, when aware of a female in estrus will produce a distinctive long-duration ‘mowl’ sound.”
If you’ve ever heard it, you’ll know how surprising it is that such a relatively small creature can make so much noise.
It can go on for hours too.
Snarling And Spitting
Cats may snarl and spit when they feel angry or threatened.
Snarling and spitting are also warning signals that tell other cats to back off.
They are usually accompanied by other aggressive behavior, such as hissing and growling.
Cat Sounds Explained
If you’re hungry for more about cat talk, Cat Lady Sweden (aka Associate Professor of Linguistics, Susanne Schötz) can tell you everything you need to know on her YouTube Playlist, Introduction to Cat Sounds Explained.
It’s quite fascinating – I recommend you take a listen if you have a moment.
Scent Communication
As we’ve seen, cats have an elaborate system of communication that involves a combination of verbal and nonverbal cues, but another important part of that is scent communication.
Scent plays a vital role in how cats communicate with each other and with their environment.
Scent Glands
Our furry friends have special glands in different parts of their body, including on their temples, cheeks, corners of the mouth, chin, tail base, and between their toes.
Marking
Cats are territorial animals and use scent marking as a way to communicate with other cats in their territory.
They do this by rubbing against objects, using those scent glands to leave behind their unique scent.
This helps other cats identify that the area is already claimed by another cat and avoid conflict.
When cats rub against objects, ‘headbutt’ a person (or an object or another cat), or scratch against something with their claws, it’s another way of leaving behind their scent as a type of calling card.
This is how they send different messages to other cats, like, “This is my territory” or “I was here.”
Urine Spraying
Urine spraying is another behavior that is often associated with marking territory.
Cats do this by backing up to vertical surfaces, such as a wall, a tree, or your best furniture, and spraying a small quantity of urine at what will be nose height for another cat.
Spraying is more common in male cats that have not been neutered, but neutered males and female cats may also do it.
Some cats will spray and nothing comes out.
If you have one of those, count yourself lucky!
Aside from marking territory, spraying can also be a sign of stress or anxiety in cats.
In such cases, a cat may spray as a way of surrounding herself with her own scent.
This helps make her feel more secure or establish her presence in the face of competition from other felines.
In my experience, depending on the cat, this can be quite likely to occur in a multi-cat household – especially if introductions between the different cats are not done properly.
Scratching
Cats scratch to mark their territory, stretch their muscles, and sharpen their claws.
As I’ve already mentioned, cats have scent glands between their toes so scratching is another way for them to communicate with other cats by leaving behind a scent marker.
Scratching also creates very visual signals that show other cats they were in the area.
Cat Social Structure And Relationships
Contrary to popular belief that cats are solitary creatures, they are quite capable of forming complex social relationships with other cats.
Having said that, their social structure and the friendships they have with other cats (or lack thereof!) can vary depending on the situation and the individual cats’ personalities and temperaments.
In multi-cat households, cats often form their own little social groups within the group.
For example, in our current household of 6 resident rescue cats (4 males and 2 females, all desexed, ranging from 4 years to 14 years of age), there are varying degrees of friendship, including:
- One bromance
- A sibling pair who were separated at birth and aren’t terribly interested in one another
- Two overlapping pairs or trios of playmates
- Various groups of 2-3 nap buddies
- Various groups of 2-3 who hang out together
Within the group of 6, there are also cats who tolerate each other without being BFFs, as well as a healthy dose of feline irritation and, at times, downright hostility.
Again, it all depends on the different contexts.
Luckily, none of the cats actually fight, although we do get the occasional standoff.
This usually happens when one cat wants access to something and the other cat is in the way – or even if the aggressor just wants the other cat to move.
We address this as much as we can by providing multiple resources (food bowls, water dishes, toys, scratching posts, and litterboxes) so there’s less competition and more possibility for the cats to space themselves out.
But, at the end of the day, it’s important to recognize that cats are individuals with their own quirks and preferences – just like humans!
How Do Cats Communicate With Humans?
As we’ve seen, cats use visual, olfactory, and auditory signals to communicate with other cats, but they also use a lot of the same signals to communicate with humans.
I’ve already mentioned, for example, that if your cat approaches you with an upright tail, it’s a sign of a friendly greeting.
Similarly, when your kitty engages in a spot of head rubbing or flank rubbing, she is marking you with her scent.
You may also have seen her do the “slow blinking” or experienced her kneading her paws against you.
How Cats Tell Us What They Want
Research shows cats can recognize their names and distinguish them from other words.
They can even have different meows and purrs to communicate their hunger when they want food.
What’s fascinating is that humans can also pick up on these subtle changes in their cat’s meow and understand – correctly – what their cat is trying to say, more often than by mere coincidence (Turner, 2021).
Studies also show that, when it comes to understanding humans, cats pay attention to where we’re looking and use that information to gather important clues.
They can also match pictures of faces with the sounds people or cats make when they are expressing specific emotions.
This suggests that cats can have a general understanding of how their social partners – whether feline or human – are feeling – (Koyasu et al., 2020).
How Good Are You At Reading Your Cat’s Emotions?
Let’s now flip it around and explore how good humans are at understanding how their cats are feeling.
Research shows that some people at least can tell if their cats are feeling happy or sad just by looking at their faces, without any other clues.
Most people, however, are not so great at understanding how their cat is feeling based on her facial expression only.
Interestingly, women did better than men, which is similar to what happens when humans and dogs show emotion.
Surprisingly though, living with cats, or having a lot of experience with cats, did not necessarily help people to be better at reading cats’ faces.
Take The Cat Body Language Quiz!
So I have to ask – how good are you at reading your cat’s facial expressions?
Do you know when she’s happy or sad? When she’s angry or scared?
Researchers at the University of Guelph in Canada put together this great little quiz to go with their Cat Faces Study (Dawson et al., 2019).
The goal is to find out whether people can detect whether cats are in positive or negative situations.
But here’s the kicker. You have to do this by looking at the cats’ faces only.
The quiz contains eight very short video clips of cats’ faces in positive or negative emotional states and takes just a couple of minutes to complete.
Do give it a go – it’s quite fascinating and you might be surprised at the results!
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Resources
- Cat Body Language 101 [Video] – Fear Free Happy Homes
- Cat Communication – Trudi Atkinson
- Cat Sounds: Cat Vocalisation Types – Susanne Schötz
- Feline vocal communication – Chloé Tavernier, Sohail Ahmed, Katherine Albro Houpt, & Seong Chan Yeon
- Introduction to Cat Sounds Explained [Video] – Cat Lady Sweden
- Humans Can Identify Cats’ Affective States From Subtle Facial Expressions – LC Dawson, J Cheal, L Niel, & G Mason
- The Gaze Communications Between Dogs/Cats and Humans: Recent Research Review and Future Directions – Hikari Koyasu, Takefumi Kikusui, Saho Takagi, & Miho Nagasawa
- The Mechanics of Social Interactions Between Cats and Their Owners – Dennis C. Turner
- Why Do Dogs, Cats, Camels, and Llamas Make That Weird Face? – Jason Bittel
