meowy cat

[daxter]

Hi, my cat meow's really loadly and very often. Does anyone have any tips for encouraging him to stop? He also demands (meows loudly for ages) to have his food brought into the living room when we are watching telly at night, any tips to get him out of this fussyness? If we try to ignore him he just meows louder!!

[alexgirl73]

Can't help with this I'm afraid. Have you tried a cat behaviour book? Your local library should have some.

[Samz5]

Yes I've had experience with this, my youngest cat Courtney was very very noisy for quite a while, meowing for a fuss and even when she got it she didn't shut up!

In the end we got some information from the vets behavioural expert, she said, firstly do not reward the cat in anyway for making a noise, no stroking, feeding and don't even speak or look at the cat while its meowing, I know your thinking its going to be impossible, we thought that too! It was very difficult to ignore a cat after 5-10 minutes of constant meowing, and it did at first make her more loud and more demanding but she did learn to at least give up quicker.

Secondly, some cats are just a bit bored and are looking for something to do, the vet said to hide food/treats around the house so the cat can look for it and would treat this as a game, this didn't work for us but worth a try.
For the boredom aspect we tried playing with Courtney for at least half an hour everyday, she loved it, this helped with her a lot and she would often just go to sleep afterwards.

So you are going to have to be patient, ignore the meows, maybe just walk away when it starts, the first few days are the worst, but cats are very clever he will get it if you stick to it, We even told our guests to ignore her if she started meowing.
Reward good behaviour, when hes being quiet make sure to give him a good fuss so he knows your not just being mean, and associates him being quiet with rewards.
Try playing or the food hiding game so that he has some fun regularly, and burns off some energy, you don't have to do this everyday but we did to start with.

As far as the meowing to be fed in the living room, I suppose I would just have to advise if he does it pick him up (no fuss or talking) and put him in front of his food in the kitchen, if he keeps just coming back to meow just put him in the kitchen and shut the door for half an hour and repeat again and again until he gets it.

Its not easy to train a cat out of this behaviour but its worth it in the long run!
Courtney is still more vocal than other cats but she no longer just meows on and on for attension, the problem is long gone.

Good Luck