Male Cat Crying

Question
I have a 1 yr old male (unneutered) and he is crying non-stop.  He will cry for over an hour straight. This started recently and I do have plans to get him neutered in about a month. Is there any other reason he would be doing this that I should be concerned about? And do you think I should move forward the neutering? Thanks.

Answer
Hi Breanne,

Thank you for your question. I think the first things to do would be:- (a) ensure that he is not crying because of some health problem/pain (although, from what you have said, it doesn't sound like a health problem, i would prefer to be sure); and (b) to ensure that the crying is not in response to another cat (such as a nearby female 'calling' because she is in season). If it is such a response, moving the neutering forward would probably help - and it certainly wouldn't do any harm anyway. Without actually hearing the type of crying it is hard for me to know for sure what it might be about.

Assuming this is a straightforward behavioural problem, the most likely reason for the crying is that making this sound has been 'working' for the cat inasmuch as he has been getting a reaction (from you or from someone in the family) whenever he does this. Even negative attention (such as being yelled at) is typically preferable to an animal than no attention. If the reaction (which is rewarding to the cat) occurs sporadically (i.e., from time to time as opposed to every time the cat cries) it actually strengthens the crying behaviour even further. The way this works is much like a slot-machine/one-arm bandit - you don't know when you'll get a payout or how big it will be. The machines are programmed this way as this is what gets the strongest gambling behaviour. To cut a long story short, the solution to the problem is to completely ignore the crying behaviour (don't look at the cat, don't talk to it, touch it etc.) so that this behaviour effectively stops working for the cat. It will probably get worse before it gets better, however. This is known as the 'extinction burst' - basically the animal tries even harder to get it to work, similar to a person thinking/saying "i know i'll hit the jackpot if i just put in a couple more coins". Nevertheless, provided you are consistent (i.e., you do not respond in any way at any time), the crying behaviour will go away/stop. Animals do what works for them, if it stops working, they'll stop doing it. Maybe you can invest in some earplugs to help you through this phase...!!!LOL. I would also reward the cat (with food treats, attention, a game, etc.) whenever it is being quiet. Reward every time it is quiet in the early learning stages, once it starts to know that being quiet earns it a reward, you can start rewarding intermittently - to strengthen the quiet behaviour.

Please let me know how this goes as your feedback enables me to 'fine-tune' and improve my interventions - to everyone's benefit. Thank you.

Regards,
tania