Strange buzzing/clicking sound with mouth- not heard before!

Booshy · **Posted:** Tue Sep 01, 2015 10:07 am

Hi guys!
Haven't posted for a while. Hope everyone is ok!
Yesterday one of our two bengal boys started making a really strange sound and I wanted to check if anyone had come across it before or knew what it was.
I have had various cats since I was very young and had bengals for three years and never come across this sound before. It is not the noise they make when they watch birds, for example.
Anyway my husband and I were watching TV and heard this weird noise - at first we thought it was an insect or something then realised it was the cat. He was just crouched down on all fours and kept making this buzzing noise, sort of screwing up his mouth at the same time but not opening it. He may have been chattering his teeth, I don't know?? He did it about 10 times and it lasted about 5 seconds each time, then he stopped. He was totally still the whole time and just staring at us. He didn't respond when we called him or went over to him.
Before and after he acted normally. Really curious as to what this is as it was so strange!
Thanks hope someone can help :)

Donna741 · **Joined:** Wed Feb 05, 2014 9:03 pm **Posts:** 1048

Diesel makes some of the strangest sounds I've ever heard when he's hunting bugs. None of our moggies make sounds like he does. Occasionally he'll think he sees a bug on the ceiling or high up on the wall and he'll start making sounds and be frozen still "watching" it but it turns out to be a shadow or a reflection of light.

Maybe your boy thought he was hunting.

Sherry · **Joined:** Thu May 23, 2013 2:21 pm **Posts:** 9217

A cat has about 100 different sounds it can make. Raiden makes about 10! His "chattering" is the cutest! Not sure what yours may have been doing. Hopefully, he didn't catch a fly in his mouth.

zakadoh · **Joined:** Fri Aug 14, 2015 1:51 pm **Posts:** 190

Hi There,
I got 2 new bengals about 2 months ago and I am still amazed at the amount of different sounds they make, and they are still coming up with new ones that I have got to work out what they mean!

I am not sure if it is the same as you are describing, but Maasai (my brown boy) has this weird sort of extended buzzy, clicking sort of noise he makes at the end of a yawn. It took me ages to work out where it was coming from as well, but I think that is coming from his back teeth?!

Zak x

brianj12 · **Posted:** Wed Sep 02, 2015 7:31 pm

It's really difficult to describe a sound with words. They are just different and incompatible mediums. Perhaps you could record it or do a video?

fwiw, neither of my bengals have the really huge vocabulary that some of my other cats have had, but they do make some sounds I had never heard before. Mostly different types of growls that really startled me the first time I heard them.

CMYKjill · **Joined:** Tue Sep 23, 2014 6:38 pm **Posts:** 1838

Both my cats growl when they have a lizard in their mouth. It's very faint and drawn out. When I first heard it, I couldn't figure out what it was and where it was coming from. Now I know and hear it often. The cat without the lizard is always right there hoping it will pop out of the growling mouth so she can swoop in and get it.

Sherry · **Joined:** Thu May 23, 2013 2:21 pm **Posts:** 9217

Raiden also does this "clicking" sound when he is high play mode and chasing the end of a wand around the carpet! He doesn't do it every day ... but most days. I think it's from the excitement of the chase.

Booshy · **Posted:** Wed Sep 23, 2015 10:50 am

Hi all, thanks for your replies! I did try to video him doing this several times but he hates having a camera pointed at him and I never managed to catch him doing it! I think I have found the answer though and it's not good. Last night I found a tooth on the sofa so I think he's been grinding his teeth together, or trying to dislodge one which was loose.

We have a vets appointment first thing tomorrow. The really worrying thing is that last year his brother's teeth started falling out. He had to have several removed at the vets and had all sorts of test, but the vet had no idea what was wrong. Both cats are only just three years old. Coolio has seemed fine until now so I'm really worried the same thing will happen to him. Otherwise they both seem really happy and healthy but it's so strange. Both of them were very poorly when we first got them as babies. They both had TF and campylobacter so maybe this has knocked their immune systems somehow. Boosh was definitely more poorly and we thought at one point he might not make it. He's the one whose teeth fell out first (he still has his canines but has lost all the rest).

Has anyone experienced this before or has any knowledge that we may be able to speak to the vet about? I want my babies to be healthy!!

Sherry · **Joined:** Thu May 23, 2013 2:21 pm **Posts:** 9217

Your vet should be able to tell you a lot after examining your kitty! Google is a friend as well, and you can find out just about anything if you search! Hopefully, this is nothing serious.

spitspot · **Joined:** Mon Jan 12, 2015 2:26 pm **Posts:** 734

Oscar chatters and clicks when he is watching birds and squirrels!

Booshy · **Posted:** Thu Sep 24, 2015 11:25 am

Just to update you all, Coolio has had to have all his remaining teeth removed as they were loose.

The vet thinks that with both cats the tooth loss has been caused by all the antibiotics they had to take when they were kittens. It's a relief to know he's not in pain now and that we know what the problem was.

Sherry · **Joined:** Thu May 23, 2013 2:21 pm **Posts:** 9217

Oh, poor baby! Losing one's teeth is not great and means a really soft diet since the kitty can't chew. Hope this solves the clicking sound.

spitspot · **Joined:** Mon Jan 12, 2015 2:26 pm **Posts:** 734

Oh bless him! We rescued an old stray cat from Cornwall when I was a kid. He lived on the beach and was a well known stray. My parents took him to the vet and spooky (named as he was always creeping around in the dark) had only one canine top tooth in his mouth. All the others had been removed so he had been cared for once. We had two precious years with him and loved him to bits. He did fine with no teeth to speak of. He even caught a weasel once and brought him through the cat flap. The weasel was unhurt but furious! I think Spooky had intended to suck the weasel to death :lol:

Donna741 · **Joined:** Wed Feb 05, 2014 9:03 pm **Posts:** 1048

Poor guy! At least he's not in pain and I'm sure he won't mind a soft diet I know ours love getting canned food!

Booshy · **Posted:** Fri Sep 25, 2015 9:16 am

Thanks for all your messages :) He seems much happier now he doesn't have wobbly teeth to contend with, poor thing! The vet actually said he should be fine eating biscuits once his gums healed, he said cats' gums will be strong enough to crunch them up. I guess if it hurts him he just won't eat them.
Both of them still have all their canines, apparently the canine teeth have much longer and wider roots on them.

Strange buzzing/clicking sound with mouth- not heard before!

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