Difficulty dealing with our new (loud) cat
Me and my partner are having a hard time dealing with our new super chatty cat. Here is our situation, if someone has any idea what could help us (i'd like to note that we will see his vet in the upcoming days to talk about it and check his health and if he has any signs of physical discomfort).
First things to mention are: he is just 1 year old. He is neutered. We adopted him from a shelter 3 and a half months ago. He is very sociable with humans and apparently with other cats too (that's what the shelter told us). The shelter also described him as a calm and *quiet* cat. Getting a second cat is out of the question for now.
With that said; here are the details:
He meows constantly except at night or when he is sleeping. He is well cared for and almost never alone at home. We brush him, play with him when we can and he has access to outdoors a few hours a day (we only keep him inside at night because he has a habit of requesting to come in and out by meowing loudly and we'd like to have a peaceful night + there are roads around our house and we don't like knowing him outside with cars passing by at night (he's a entirely black cat)). He has been chatty since the week we got him but it's gradually getting worst. We don't think it's an attention-seeking behaviour because he will sometimes leave the room we are in to meow elsewhere, and he also meows when he doesnt see us. We tried ignoring him which doesn't work. We've now switched to rewarding him when he shuts up (note that he has very little interest in food) by giving him attention and cuddles, but it's not doing any good so far. He meows even when there are no stimulations around him and the house is quiet, but he does meow more when someone talks.
I think that's all the things to note but I'll answer any questions. It's kind of driving us crazy, we always had quiet animals and we are folks that enjoy peace and silence. It's distressing us not to know how to help him, and it's getting to the point that we are just annoyed by him and sometimes even regret we adopted him. We will never give up on him and we are willing to try anything to make it work, but if he stays that chatty forever it will for sure stain our experience of owning a pet a little and leave a bad taste in our mouths. We don't hope he will suddenly go completely quiet, but at least that he will settle down a bit.
Hoping someone will have advices ! Thanks for reading.