How many miaows does your cat have?

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

Jaffa has a vast array of noises (purrs, whines etc) to go with his vast array of faces    Mosi, however, tends to stick to shouting.  He used to chirrup rather than miaow, but now he tends to just yell from the outset. 

[Skiddaw]

Lovely thread!

The Munchkin's meows include:

I'm really pleased to see you (chirrup)
Chase me! (loud chirrup)
OK, OK, it's quite nice to see you but you don't have to go on about it (slightly bored chirrup)
I'M GOING TO GET THE CHUNDER CUP RIGHT NOW! (agonised meowwww closely followed by heaving)
I'm going to go out in a moment (strange, high pitched meow when by the cat flap)
I'm going to jump up onto the workplace in the kitchen (similar to above but slightly more pathetic sounding)
Get me out of this bloody box! (deep, resounding meow when in cat basket, often leading to the Chunder Cup meow)
Food. Now. (silent meow whilst looking pointedly at bowl)

Will have to see if I can identify some others!

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

misa has loads and sasa has various squeaks and the birmans sound the same with there howls and mrrrrows.

kocka used to sing and chirp and it was lovely 

[Bazsmum]

Its not only the amount of meow's that amaze me, its the different sounding meows that every cat has.... I have 15 cats here and if they were not in the same room as me but meowed I would know who it was! 

[Fire Fox]

So far Noah only has two, but I haven't yet attempted taking him to the vet in the carrier or been 'cruel to be kind' in any other way! We have silent where-have-you-been miaow when I get up in the morning or return from going out somewhere and, this morning, proper wake-up-I'm-bored miaow whilst sat in the bedroom doorway. He doesn't cry when hungry, just appears by the food bowl every time I am in the kitchen!

[Sheli_80]

Garfield has a right go at me if I talk to anyone but him when I first come into the house. It's really funny because it's a long drawn out "meeeeeeeeeeee" as me me talk to me not silly daddy just me. He is turning into a right diva.

I think Baxter is trying to prove he has more miaows as he is currently chatting away quite happily to himself in the corner on his favourite perch.

[Tiggy's Mum]

Lukey has a relentless moan 'm-e-oan' - it's actually quite annoying  Riley, despite being a big beefcake has the girliest, most pathetic set of squeaks 

In general they have different ones for:

Feed me
 
Let me out

Stroke me

Look at me

Get up

Stop holding me upside in your arms and swirling me round* applies to Riley only

[LadyJane]

'omghellowwherehaveyoubeenallthistime?' meow

And I bet that's not just when you've been out all day either 

You know it!!

[Feline Costumier]

I chatter away all day long to my two who both look at me with utter disdain mostly as if to say will you shut up and just give me some attention or go away I'm trying to sleep!

The only time Dave talks is when it's to his invisible friend I have no idea why and there is no pattern but he regularly chirrups and whines away to no-one in another room and my talking to him has no effect, he carries on till he is good and ready. Oh and he occasionally has a whinge when I'm in the shower, a sort of, you've abandoned me, how very dare you go in there with the water and proceeds to watch me from the toilet cistern or shower mat.

Chilli meow occasionally, usually when she wants fed but I must be a very good Meowmy because she doesn't do it often

[fluffybunny]

'omghellowwherehaveyoubeenallthistime?' meow

And I bet that's not just when you've been out all day either 

[Janeyk]

We have had vocal cats our first cats Penny and Squeeky had many different Meows I love chatty cats and talk to mine all the time.  However,  Byron and Pepper only do 1 kind each - both hello meows - Byrons isn't often and is very deep not what you'd expect to come out of the mouth of such a dainty little thing I was surprised when I first heard it!     Pep's is when he senses I'm there (cos he's deaf/blind)  he is extremely vocal.  Our Schui just did silent meows in the house to anything he passed be it us, Byron or even his own Shadow    but he was deaf and did very strange loud meows outside in the garden.

[LadyJane]

It's true, the more you speak to them, the more they respon.  Samson hardly uttered a word when he got here but we now have:

'time to get up' chirrup
'dinner time,surely' meow
'please don't hold me like that Daddy/something is wrong' meow
'omghellowwherehaveyoubeenallthistime?' meow
'its been 30 seconds since i last saw you but I'm still pleased to see you' chirrup
'I wanna play with you' squeek to the birdies coupled with shaky tale and doe eyes

There's probably more but I think these are the main ones.

[fluffybunny]

Geoffrey is the same although Milly has only a couple.

Ummm let's have a think of all those Geoffrey has...

I can think of at least 10:

'where are you'
'I'm feeling sick'
'I'm hungry'
'Look at the bird out there!'
'I brought you a present' (slightly muffled miaow accompanied with a gift of mouse/bird/frog etc)
'Why have you shut the toilet door'
'Hello mummy!'
'Hello Milly' (greeting to his sister)
'Get off my territory' (to another cat)
'Get me out of this carrier/I don't want to go to the vet'

 

[Sheli_80]

It does seem the more you talk to a cat the more they respond. I talk to Baxter more than I pet him as he is very very timid so that he can used to me. When Charley arrived he couldn't miaow at all, he would open his mouth and nothing came out and we had to "teach" him. I don't think we were good teachers though as he sounds more like  asheep than a cat but I guess its better than nothing  

[Catz]

Osacr has a few meows too. He has his "feed me" chirp and then his "where are you?" mew and his "I can't reach you there" chirrup when Magnum has jumped up to the wardrobe out of the way.

Magnum just chirrups all the time. I've never heard him do a proper meow.We have full blown conversations.

[Christine (Blip)]

What an interesting question    But I can't answer it because Blip has a large number of miaows and I've never tried to count them: perhaps I should!

I'd say at a guess that Blip has at least half a dozen miaows - it could be more - and numerous other little sounds as well.  I always talk to her and she to me, and my hypothesis is that the more you talk to your cat, the more articulate s/he gets 

I think this is fascinating and I'll try to keep a log over the next week 

[clarenmax]

Poot is a very vocal little man, and I think he's probably got more we've not heard yet!!!

He is a little chatterbox, walks around chirruping to himself, and chattering away 

[Sheli_80]

As I type this my little Baxter is chatting away (him and Basil are playing hide and seek and it looks like Baxter can't find him) and I realised that he actually at least 4 different miaows for different occasions/people. He has a very distressing miaow that reserved for when he is about to be sick, one for talking to me (ie I need my dinner), one for when he is bird watching and then there is his everyday miaow which usually gets used for finding the other cats. He is quite possibly the most talkative cat I have ever met, he's always "talking" and seems to have full blown conversations with the other cats.

Most people think I'm mad when I say my cat has 4 different miaows and I'm hearing things. I'd love to know if other cats do it, I know he is happy as he has good body language but there is always that little voice that says- why does he talk so much.