Getting a new cat is exciting, and deciding which cat to get is tough. Among the different cat breeds, different colors, and hair and tail lengths, there has always been a great debate about what sex of kitten to adopt.
Should you get a female or male cat? Does it matter? And what are the behavioral differences between male and female cats? Let’s find out.
Behavioral differences in intact male and female cats
Most of the distinct male and female cat behaviors depend on their sexuality. They are different sexes, after all. Therefore, most differences among unaltered cats:
- Intact male cats tend to be restless, wander around, spray urine, and are more aggressive towards other cats and, in some cases, people as well.
- Intact female cats go into heat, which is expressed as excessive vocalization, rolling on the floor, and intrusive attention-seeking. If they have kittens, they can be extremely protective and aggressive.
Female cats vs male cats — how they compare if you spay/neuter them?
If you are going to spay or neuter your cat, the differences mentioned above diminish. Pet owners often say that neutered male cats tend to be friendlier and more attached to their owners. They also often say that females are more independent.
But is it true? There isn’t any real proof of the above statement. Quite the contrary, a study that examined cat personality found no link between the cat’s gender and their friendliness, independence, timidness, and other personality traits.
One thing is that male cats do become a lot friendlier after neutering. This is likely because the behavioral changes are more prominent in male cats when compared to females.
Cats’ behavior depends on a lot more than the sex of the cat
Even if male cats were friendlier in general, that shouldn’t dictate your choice if you get one cat. If you are adopting 100 cats, you can talk about statistics. However, if you select one, or two cats, their individuality is more important than the generalized, statistical behavior of cats.
Who cares that specific gender of cats is thought to be friendlier than the other? Statistics are on average, and you are getting nothing but an average cat, are you?
We’ve interacted with hundreds of cats, and we talked to people who’ve interacted with even more. None of us have ever met two identical cats, not in terms of appearance, and not in terms of behavior.
- There are female cats who are friendly, shy, outgoing, lazy, active, aggressive, calm, loud, and aloof.
- There are male cats who are friendly, shy, outgoing, lazy, active, aggressive, calm, loud, and aloof.
A cat’s behavior depends on many things: the breed of the cat, the environment and interactions during its early life, the age when the kitten left his mother, the number of kittens born in the same litter and several more. Also, its experience and interactions with your family throughout his or her whole life matter.
That is, if you’re choosing a fearful kitten, it does not matter if it is a boy or a girl. If you select a playful kitten, its sex does not matter either. Besides, you still can, to an extent, alter your cat’s personality through its experiences, both positive and negative.
There isn’t much truth to the thought that people and cats don’t change. Things we experience change us every day, and the same is valid for cats. Especially — kittens.
Choose a kitten based on his or her personality traits rather than sex.
The first one is far more important than the second. Of course, if you think that spaying or neutering a cat is a poor idea, then you need to know that there are substantial differences between male and female cats. Males wander, fight, and mark more than female cats do. Females, on the other hand, tend to be loud. REALLY LOUD! Yep, still talking about cats.
