Cat Behavior – Why Your Cat Yowls at Night

If your cat yowls, day or night, you need to know why and how to stop it.

Hearing your cat, or a neighbor’s cat yowling at night can be a frightening experience. It is such a screeching noise that makes my blood curl. It sounds as though someone is being murdered, painfully. And why is it during the night, when you expect your cat to be asleep on the foot of your bed or in its own bed.

Cats yowl for a number of reasons. Understanding these reasons can help you work out how to stop this infernal noise before your neighbor carries out his threat to ‘do something about it’.

The most popular reason cats howl is because they are searching for a mate. And most tom-cats are not fussy, or even faithful. Any female cat that is on heat and not too far away is the one he wants. And he might not be satisfied with just one female. Toms can and will do almost anything to get to a cat in heat, including ripping your screen door to shreds.

But don’t think that your female cat is the passive partner waiting for the roaming toms. A cat in heat will surprise you in the way she will carry on and the distance she will travel to find a partner, or partners, to mate with. And you can expect your female cat to yowl as well, especially if she senses a tom-cat nearby.

The male cat has barbs on his penis which are believed to cause the female to ovulate. As the male withdraws, the female will howl.

Cats will also yowl if they are defending their territory. If a strange cat wanders in, especially if there are females around, a tom-cat will try to scare it away by making loud screeching noises. If this doesn’t work, a cat fight may occur which will create an even louder ruckus. Cats will fight and try to injure any strange cat in the neighborhood and the yowling and screaming is enough to wake the dead.

While the yowling in this video is not terribly loud, it is unusual for cats to stand this close to each other when yowling or growling. Notice the body language with the ears back and the tail of the ginger cat twitching.

Another reason for howling that must be investigated is if the cat is in pain. If you notice blood or the cat in obvious discomfort, call the vet. Be very careful in picking up the cat as you are in danger of being bitten or having deep scratches inflicted. I suggest sitting on the floor with a towel on your knee and talking gently to the cat, allowing it to come to you. If you have a strong bond with your cat, it will trust you to look after it. Keep it wrapped in the towel while putting it in the cat carrier.

If your cat yowls at night because it is looking for a mate, have it neutered or spayed. This will stop the urge to roam. If it is a neighborhood cat that is making all the noise, try turning the hose or sprinklers on it or rattling a tin full of marbles. If you can get close enough that is. I would also suggest if your cat hasn’t been altered, you make sure the doors and windows are shut so it can’t get outside.

Why do cats yowl at night? I don’t know of any scientific reason. Perhaps it is because it is quieter, not as many people and traffic around. Maybe the cats feel safer in the dark. Perhaps the cats, like some teenagers, like escaping and getting back in without anyone knowing. I do know that I am very glad that I live in a rural setting and am not kept awake by the neighborhood cats having a loud party next door.

Continue reading about Cat Behavior – Why Your Cat Yowls at Night

Feral cat populations explode, especially if they are left un-neutered.

This is the number of kittens a pair of breeding cats, having two litters per year, could have in seven years. And imagine this number of feral cats living in your neighborhood, fighting over food and fighting each other. Cats have increased in popularity as pets because of their value as companions and this, coupled with their ease of care, make them ideal pets in today’s busy society. Cats do not need to be walked for exercise or taken to ‘training’ classes, they do not make a lot of noise or take up much room. There is no real need for a cat to be taken outdoors once it has been trained to use the litter box. And in busy cities, there are too many cars and dangers for the average house cat to deal with safely.

• • It is estimated that there are over 60 million households in the USA that have cats and over 90 million cats. This number does not include wild or feral cats. An estimate of cats born each day could be over 85,000. These numbers are from 2002 so are conservative for today’s figures. This has the potential to be a huge feral cat problem.

• • Los Angeles taxpayers alone spend nearly $10 million per year to house, feed, kill and dispose of tens of thousands of perfectly healthy but unwanted pets every year. More than 2,000,000 feral cats are homeless on L. A. streets.

• • The cost to ordinary Americans who fail to spay or neuter their cats, allowing them to breed uncontrolled, is growing astronomically each and every year.

• • Remember, one un-neutered male cat can impregnate many female cats. It is distressing for me to know that healthy, lovable kittens and cats are legally euthanized each day. It distresses me even more to know that people, every day, are disposing of kittens and cats by drowning them or throwing them out of moving cars or just leaving them in the bush somewhere. Not only do these cats become wild and often diseased, they prey on small animals and birds for food, destroying some native habitats.

Contrary to popular belief, it is not necessary to let your female cat have a litter of kittens before having her spayed. A kitten can get pregnant at approximately 4 months. One suggestion is to have all kittens neutered at 8 to 12 weeks so pet shops will only be able to sell neutered kittens and this will help reduce the problem of growing numbers of feral cats. Only licensed breeders would be able to have un-neutered cats.

The surgery, performed under anaesthesia, is not painful, does not have a long recovery, and prevents certain deadly diseases. Animals that are spayed or neutered are healthier, live longer, want to stray less and get into less fights.

It is a fallacy that male kittens ‘don’t need neutering’ as they ‘don’t have kittens’. As in the human world, one male cat can make many female cats pregnant.

In our small rural town, three ladies got together to tackle the problem of unwanted kittens. They fund raised in any way they could and arranged that anyone could have their kitten spayed or neutered for free through the group. Our vet undertook the operations at a minimal cost to the group and the fund raising paid for everything. In a few years over 400 kittens were sterilized at no cost to their owners, preventing a feral cat problem developing which in turn helped save many small animals and birds in our native bush.

You don’t want to be adding to the feral cat population where you live and once neutered, there won’t be tears from young family members when their ‘beloved kitten’ has to go to a new home.

I have noticed a number of ‘Trap, Neuter, Return Programs’ on the web. These programs do exactly what their name suggests and has been proven to greatly reduce the feral cat problem in their particular area. However, these programs cost money and it is usually the taxpayer who foots the bill. Your cat is like a member of your family and you want the best for it. You need to become a responsible cat owner and have your cat neutered or spayed, otherwise you will be adding to the ever growing and increasingly expensive problem of feral cats.

Why not invest in *Veterinary Secrets Revealed, which has been written by a vet who has practiced Veterinary Medicine for over a decade. I’m sure it will soon become a valuable resource that could save you a good deal of money. And if your pet is healthy and well looked after, hopefully it won’t leave home and add to the feral cat problem.

Continue reading about Feral Cats – Could You Find Homes For 420,000 Kittens?