Is my vet correct about this?

Question

my cat would sit on the window sill and her jaw would kind of lock up

when we took her in for her checkup the vet said it was a normal thing they do when they are hunting.

she must have been looking at birds out the window

is my vet correct

my other cat does not do this

Answer 1

Totally normal !

Answer 2

If you copy and paste, I think you'll go to a YouTube example of this cat "Chirping".  It has to do with primal hunting and physical involuntary responses.  They get hooked into stalking a bird--even thru a window--they can't help themselves.

I've had two Siamese cats that did this, and it wrirded me out until I read about it.

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Answer 3

Do you mean the chattering sound they make? It is normal behaviour....

Answer 4

I've never heard of that being normal...

edit: My cats chatter at the window, but their jaws dont lock. Maybe I'm misunderstanding.

Answer 5

Not all cats do the same things because they have different reactions just like us humans we're all different personalities.So yes it's normal or maybe your cat wants to go outside.

Answer 6

Yeah its normal... my cat does it all the time.. she also kinda mirts.  like a half meow half chirp whenever she sees a bird.  if it bothers you, close your windows.

Answer 7

is this the behavior?

http://cats.about.com/od/catpictures/you...

"chattering" is a common thing many cats do. the way my vet boss described it is that they do it to call other cats in for help when something interesting has been spotted, and this noise is less alarming to the potential prey than a straight-out "come here and check this out" meow would be.

most of the time this will be aimed at small prey animals outside, but cats do it at birds, squirrels, moles, dogs, other cats, laser pointers...pretty much anything they're wanting to go after.  we've had cats do it when they were upset in our clinic as well, so it's not even always based on the desire to hunt something.

it's quite cute, really, no cause for alarm at all. not every cat will do it - a lot of it depends on how strong their hunting instincts are. two of my cats do this regularly when world-watching out the window, but the third (who really doesn't have much of a prey drive and would let a bird land on her without blinking) doesn't do it at all ever.

Answer 8

cackling or a chattering sound?  yes that is a normal response to a cat who sees prey that they can't get to.  both of my cats do it.

Answer 9

all three of mine do this. pretty normal behaviour when they see prey that they can't get. although mine also do this when wondering cats get onto my balcony and they can't get too them to scare them off. (my cats if they went out would be the neighbourhood bullies as they are bigger than most of the cats here. don't worry about it.

Answer 10

Yes your vet is totally correct, one of my cats does this but the other one doesnt, it varies with each indivual cat. They do this because they are excited and frustrated they they cannot get to the prey that is under their nose and very tempting and irresistable to them.

Answer 11

I have 3 cats and I have 1 that does that it's normal he is the hunter