I’ve rarely seen my cat like this even when he’s chasing flies like in this video but his meows are very quiet, like a squeak in this video.
Also when he sits down he does a little grunt nosie which i’ve never been able to catch on camera and i cant explain that either.
I like to believe they use it as echo location. Their chrips help them form a perfect 3d visualisation of their surroundings. Like whales hunting for giant squid in the abyss.
I didn't know about this before and I'll never forget the moments when I heard their "chirrrpp" and "kekekekek" noises for the first time. So adorable ❤️
There is bug. Must kill bug. The chattering seems to be an excitement response from my floof as well and it doesn’t seem smart as a hunting mode. That said he is a terrible hunter and would starve in the wild without his black panther sister. You’d be dead before you noticed she was there.
Ours seemed to get the fear with nip, first time ran off and we found her just standing, wide eyed and motionless in the walk in wardrobe, as if on some really bad trip.
I am sorry, I do not. I've been kicking myself for not picking up my phone, but I was trying to get it through his head that they weren't real and that he had seen them countless times.
That's interesting. Hopscotch has always clicked at me instead of meowing. But Googling it, it says that it might be an excited, involuntary reaction when hunting. So if she's clicking at me because she's excited, that makes sense. That or she's going to murder me in my sleep...it is a cat we're talking about after all.
Except if you look up who came up with this, it turns out it was some dog trainer without any knowledge of cats who speculated this was why they did it.
It became popular on Reddit and seems to have just spread.
Personally I think it's a throwback to a common ancestor who hunted in packs. Dogs bark at the things they hunt to communicate instinctually. Since cats are solitary, they still have the instinct to make noise, but they do it quietly.
Yeah the "they're trying to mimic birds" thing that everyone repeats is not substantiated by anything at all and was made up by someone who knows neither cats nor birds very well. It's speculation and imo kind of dumb speculation because it doesn't sound like a bird and zero birds will be fooled by it. Birds have extremely specific calls that even tiny variations in pitch have meaning for. If they hear the "ekekek" they're more likely to be tipped off to the existence of the cat and have a chance to get away before they fall victim to the cat's superior reflexes -- so there is no reason to believe it's an evolutionary trait that exists to help them hunt birds.
I think they just get excited and can't help themselves. It's their squee.
It also doesn't make sense because they do it for tons of prey, not just birds. I've had my cat chatter at a spider, which definitely does not make any noise like that.
Well my cats don’t chatter the sad howl when they hunt and first it irritated me. It still does because it’s so weird and I don’t know if the howling at a fly or if something wrong. Only knew chattering before these two 🤣
I always figured it was begging. My sister has indoor cats that do the ekekek thing and I had no idea what she was talking about. My farm cat, who converted to an apartment cat with required walks outside, never did this.
...Until we had some wildlife come up to our balcony on the other side of the screen. He knew he couldn't get to it, and I heard it for the first time when he was middle-aged.
So it definitely seems some kind of excitement/begging reaction. Someone told me it's "to communicate to other cats that a prey is nearby" but like you said, they're solitary, so that makes no sense.
I had a cat once who was like a genius level feline who figured out how to mimic chipmunk sounds. She would sneak up in a commando crawl while making the chirps, completely fooling the chipmunk.
My tuxie boy makes a lil noise every time he jumps onto something or down from something. It reminds me of those stuffed animals from my 90s childhood that would make noise if you shook them or moved them in a certain way.
My cat yells at birds through the window with this little high-pitched, "MEEEEEE" squeal. I think she's trying to ask them politely but firmly to fly through the glass and into her mouth.
He's being such a good little hunter, that's what he's doing.
Extra good hunting cats like this boy do Ekekeks while hunting in an attempt to trick their prey into thinking they're just another little birdy, such an innocent bird, tweet tweet, nothing to see here, just wandering towards yo- Pounce Death Kill! Super hunting ultimate power, activate! Oh, whoops, it flew off. What? No, I wasn't doing anything. Just sat here cleaning my paws.
My cats meow at each other (kind of). One of them is a hyperactive ball of energy so he will just meow into the void when he wants someone to play with him, and he doesn't really care if it is me or the other cat lol
Other cat is a bit of a grump and when she's getting attention (especially being brushed) and the other one tries to butt in she meows at him to back off. She does not abide by interruptions to her grooming time.
They both grew up as the only cat in the household and were introduced later in life so that likely has something to do with it.
I learned this trapping feral cats for TNR. A true feral will not meow at you, only hiss. Also, keep the trap covered because some of them will attempt to escape by smashing themselves against the wire. (Usually a Tom)
Thats called ekekek-ing. Cats do it when they get REALLY into hunting/stalking. If yoh search ekekek on reddit you can find a whole subreddit dedicated to videoing cats doing it.
It could be a little gnat. Something hard for you to see.
If he's actively vocalizing, he's probably actually chasing something real. Sometimes they play with imaginary things (look at r/greebles), when they do that, they usually aren't vocal. At least, that's how my cats are.
I had a cat that loved to chatter to birds. She didn't want to chase them. She just wanted to let them know that she saw them. I would be out back reading on my porch swing with my cat laying next to me. Occasionally a bird would come sit on the fence and squawk at us. She would lift up her head and chatter back. They would seem to have a whole conversation. When it was done, she'd go back to sleep. It was very funny.
Bug mode activated. Summer time is fun when the random lightning bug or fly makes it into the house. It proves to me why my cats are indoor cats because they couldn’t catch a mouse hopped up on Ambien.
Your cat probably sees a bird. This isn't just "hunting mode", it's specifically bird-hunting mode. Not saying there aren't exceptions, but this has always been the case with my cats.
My cat did this when she saw birds - or the monsters trying to get through the invisible dimensional portal. They were always scared of her, because my life's turned to shit since she left me after 18 years of protecting me.
It's a sound of excitement for something kitty wants, and sometimes frustration that it's out of her reach. There's a whole subreddit for this sound. Check out r/ekekek.
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