Howling

Question
Hello,

My cat is 1 & 1/2 years old, she was a wild cat living in our yard with her mother up until she was 3 months old when her mother was killed, we decided to take her in. At first she was an outdoor cat that came in at night but then she had kittens and ended up keeping 1 of them. we decided to keep her indoors with the kitten for the last 5 months as we live on country roads and she has nearly caused accidents. The problem is that she keeps howling all day and keeps us up at night how do we stop her from doing this. Oh and she is spayed and has been to the vet in the  last 4 months and seems to be in perfect health.

Thank you
Lorna


Answer
Hi
well the short answer is that you may not be able to stop this behaviour.

It sounds to me like she is wanting to go outside again and is howling to be let out. Now this could be caused by boredom rather than any desire to be with other cats, especially as she is now spayed.

Cats use their meow to get our attention and they have learnt that when they do we come and either pet them, give them food, or even if they get shouted at this is a positive response from you as they have your attention.

the only thing I can suggest is to try and enrich your cats home environment to try and distract her from hew howling and also to build in some regular play times with you, so that she can get used to this regular contact with you.

i have a web page with some ideas about how to keep an indoor cat happy which you may find of interest here

/indoor-cats.html

Also you should stop responding to her howling, I know this is hard to do, but if she gets no response she will come to realise that this behaviour does not get her results.

best wishes kate