Cats are typically active and outgoing pets. Therefore, it is uncommon to see your cat quieter than normal. You might get alarmed if you see your cat getting dull. You might think: Why is my cat so quiet all of a sudden?
Might wonder why is my cat so quiet. Not meowing enough can be a personality issue too. For example, some cats do not always find it amusing to meow. Hence, the quietness of such cats should not alarm you. However, sometimes, our cats start getting reserved out of the blue.
In such situations, it can be challenging to read the moves of your feline.
You might get surprised or even frustrated after seeing your pet in such a situation. So today, we will discuss why is your cat quiet.
Your cat could be depressed
It might be challenging to digest, but your cat can get depressed like humans. Yes, it feels disturbing that our cats also go through bad phases mentally, as us. However, cats may get depressed for specific reasons. The following are the reasons why your cat could be sad.
- Loss of a loved one
Cats also grieve the loss of a loved one like us. They may develop bonds with your other pets or strays over time. However, your cat might have difficulty after that pet or stray passes away.
For example, you might be petting a dog with your cat. Your cat had gotten attached to the dog. When the dog passed away, the cat got depressed as well. Although. It is temporary grief, but it might affect the liveliness of your cat. Your cat may recover within a few weeks.
- Missing an old environment
Just like grieving the loss of a loved one, cats also suffer if their home changes. Just like you miss your home, cats do the same. You might be living in a friendly environment with your pawed buddy. But, you consider moving home due to budget restraints or job changes. Unfortunately, your cat might be unable to adapt to the new home environment.
Your cat could be sick
Why is my cat so quiet? Maybe because of sickness. Cats getting sick is normal. Every animal or social animal gets sick from time to time. But there are different types of conditions.
Depending on the nature of the illness, your pawed buddy could be silent. On the other hand, not meowing could be a symptom of any significant underlying disease.
Here are some of the possible conditions
- Upper Respiratory Infection
URI can cause a lot of irritation in humans. Similarly, it can cause a lot of disturbance in cats as well. The entire respiratory process can become troublesome for cats if they get diagnosed with upper respiratory infection or URI. Your pet will also show symptoms of sneezing, coughing, lethargy, swelling of mucous membranes around the eyes, or a discharge from the nose during this infection.
Not properly meowing could be a symptom of any respiratory infection. Therefore, taking your cat to a vet is compulsory as soon as you see these symptoms.
- Tumors or Polyps
There can be growths of various types in your cat’s throat and vocal cords. These excessive growths may cause your cat to stop vocalizing properly. The intensity of these growths can range from entirely benign polyps to very serious cancerous growths. In severe cases, the symptoms will be obvious. If you see any signs, you must take your cat to the vet soon.
- Hyperthyroidism
This disease typically happens to older cats. In this, the thyroid glands of the cat become hyperactive. It can also cause weight loss in cats. If you think your cat has a 1% chance of hyperthyroidism, you need to check it. If it gets diagnosed, take the precautions of the vet seriously to cure your cat. Otherwise, the issue can become more critical.
- Ringworm
This disease can also make your cat quieter than usual. There are multiple symptoms a cat might face or feel during this disease. Ringworm has symptoms such as Inflamed areas of skin, infected claws, circular areas of hair loss, and inability to speak with activeness. If your cat is unnescerrily tired these days, there is a chance that the ringworm disease is at play.
Your cat could be injured
Yes, your cat can become quieter than usual if it’s injured. When your cat gets hurt, it is less active. So pay focus to your cat when it is silent.
But you must be wondering if the cat is injured, the injury will be visible, but that is not the case. Cats’ injuries are only sometimes visible to us. For example, the cat might have fallen from your house’s roof or height. Hence, it must have gotten a fracture or something, but it cannot communicate about it.
Some fractures cannot be identified by us quickly. Also, since cats cannot speak, it is hard for us to understand what they are saying, which brings us to another question. You must wonder if the cat is in pain; wouldn’t it communicate to you through screaming? Well, the answer is only sometimes. All cats have a different ways of coping with pain.
Some cats become silent when facing pain, while others meow a lot when they face physical bruises.
So, if you ever wonder why your cat is quiet suddenly? An injury could be the reason.
Age factors
It might sound strange to you, but cats also get silent due to age factors. Yes, you heard that correctly. Like humans, cats also become less energetic when they age; This is how nature intends them to be. But, when they get old, they realize they are no longer in their prime. So, they try to conserve their energy as much as they can.
These old cats lost most of their energy during their youth days. As time passes by, all animals become less energetic. So we need to understand what the cat communicates when it gets old.
Your cat could be mad at you!
Your cat being mad is a rare reason it is entirely silent. However, we must consider all possibilities. When your cat is mad at you, it might go mute. Cats have evolved to the point where they have mastered the art of manipulating their owners.
Cats know what to do if they want their owners to listen to them. For example, if a cat is mute because it is mad at you, you will be likelier to listen to the cat. You will cater to its tantrums, and you might even go to the extent of solving its problems.
It is the new normal for your cat
This reason can be a big exception. There is a slight chance that your cat’s personality has completely changed. Now, you do not have to worry about it. Just like human beings grow with time, animals grow too. We are not talking about physical growth over here. Emotional growth is the topic of discussion over here. Due to changes in habits and behaviors, your cat may only want to talk a little.
Time can change anything. With time, your cat’s personality can shift too. But it is challenging to point out whether this silence is normal or abnormal. Simple, you need to monitor your cat closely. Once you spend a few days with your feline, you will realize the valid reason behind its silence.
Your cat is uncomfortable with the environment
Now, there are multiple aspects of this. First, there is a possibility that your cat does not like the environment you have provided for it. Maybe you have relocated it to another room of the house, or perhaps you have changed its bedding or renovated the place where your cat plays the most.
Due to any of these reasons, your cat might be getting uncomfortable. When your feline gets uncomfortable, instead of communicating it correctly, your kitty is getting drained. Such a drained mood can cause the cat to go mute. So, if your pal is silent after such an environmental change, you need to put effort into changing the environment.
Making the environment the same as before might take time and effort. Still, it would help if you tried to improve the cat’s surroundings as much as possible.
Conclusion
There can be several reasons that can cause your cat to become quiet. Depending on specific circumstances, you can determine the reason behind its silence. It would help if you always took your cat’s silence seriously. Although it can be due to a minor reason, there can be an underlying medical reason. Delaying its investigation and the reason behind the silence of your cat is troublesome.
Ensure that you take action right after you notice this pattern. However, there are different patterns of meowing in all cats. If your cat does not meow much since birth, you might not need to worry too much. Some cats are naturally silent. Although we must get them checked for hidden diseases, they are probably fine since they are always quiet.
As time passes, keep on monitoring your animal. Sometimes the pets start talking again correctly in a few days. They take days to return to standard talking patterns. You need to understand the circumstances of your cat to make it active again.