DO YOU PREFER MALE OR FEMALE CATS?

[gini]

In all of the years I have owned cats, I have only had one female. Patches is a sixteen year old Calico. She is just like a problem child that you dearly love. She was about six months old when we adopted her and I must confess I seriously thought about returning her. The day we adopted her and put her in the car she started in - and hasn't stopped for sixteen years. She is spiteful, pees on everything, is beyond demanding and is very jealous. She does anything to get her way.

My males have been the exact opposite and very easy to train. All of my males have been my little soul mates.

What is your experience?


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[kgeorge]

I have had one female cat for 19 years, we found her outside a store at 4 weeks old, she had her moods and was sometimes affectionate but not much a little standoffish (spelled wrong).

Now I have a male Norweigian Forest Cat who is a love, very affectionate and you can do anything with him. ONe thing I did notice is when I was at the breeders the females were not as friendly as the males, even the breeder said the males usually were more outgoing, but the females do come around when they get to know you. I will most likely stay with males cats but I love them all.

[pam_pesto]

I have only had one cat in my life, little Pesto, and she is a girl. While she can be a little stuck up at times, she is very loving and sweet to her mom and dad. She cleans us, and smashes our faces with hers, and generally wants to be wherever her mom and dad are. She runs to the door to greet us when we come home, and cries when we leave. She talks to us incessantly. But maybe she is an exception. I think she's exceptional, that's for sure!

[wolflady]

This is a very interesting topic, and in fact a friend and I were just talking about this the other day! She has a female cat right now, and she asked me if she should get a male or female to add to her family. From experience, and even reading (good ol Cat Fancy and cat books)...I have discovered that male cats tend to be more loving...especially in group cat situations. Don't get me wrong, cats will be cats... They have their quirks.

I've grown up in a multiple male cat household...with an occasional female in the mix. Every single female cat we've ever had was sweet (of course!), but really didn't want anything to do with the other cats. Some people might see this as "stuck up" behavior. My family's first cat was a female calico. She was sweet, and loved to purr and sit in laps(of people she knew). When our male cat moved in, she just didn't want anything to do with him. It's not that they didn't get along. He wanted to play, and she would get annoyed and walk away. Basically they co-habitated and that was about it. Then we got another male cat. The 2 boys bonded quickly and played with each other all the time. My sister has a female cat. Again, she has the same kind of attitude and can be quite standoffish. In college, I took in a female cat...which was going to be dumped by my friend's aunt. I thought that was just awful and took the cat in. She was great...in a single cat household. I was going to keep her, but she had nothing to do with my fiancee's cat...and terrorized him to a point that he turned into being a skittish scardy cat, and withdrawn. We decided to give her to a lady that didn't have any other pets. Right now we have 2 male cats. I have also observed at the cat rescue where I volunteer, that the males tend to be more social with each other than the females. (this makes for an interesting experiment, huh? )

I've read that it's better, if you're going to have a multi cat household, that having multiple males is the way to go. Females will be more territorial against other females (sounds like a wolf pack here!! )than males will be to other males. However, cats are individuals and I have seen multiple females get together just fine.

But then again...will anyone ever truly understand the cat??

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"In a cat's eye, all things belong to cats." - English proverb

[luvdemabys]

Our usual mix is two males and a female. We would agree, the boys are definitely more affectionate and sociable. Before we became addicted to Abyssinians, we'd have two boys. At that time, cats just showed up and claimed us, and not surprisingly, they were toms (when they arrived, we took care of that in short order.) When we finally were contacted about an aby litter, we were entranced by an exquisite little princess. She promptly cowed the two resident alley cats, and she was fairly affectionate. THe girls (at least aby girls) do like to play and Wynki will indulge in a game of chase and be chased with the boys, otherwise she has nothing to do with them, no snuggling or grooming. We find the two to one arrangement delightful.

[Caralea]

I have 2 males and one female cat household. Started with a tortise female, added a Petsmart male longhair, then took in a siamese male. The first two got along alright, no trouble. Add a siamese and then it was 'katie bar the door' time. He terrorizes the female and gets along super with the other male. Little Bit (female) Chance (1st male) and Bandit (2nd male) tolerate one another. Chance has really blossomed since Bandit arrived. They are all loving one at a time. Bandit is jealous of the time I spend with Little Bit and will chase her when she gets down. All in all will say the mix is pretty good. Cats will be cats.

[Fuzzy317]

Jackson, a 10 year old male cat, is very easy going, but not a hold me cat at all.

Fluffy, a 12 year old female cat, is easy going too, and she is a lap cat and a table top cat.

Eli our male dog loves everybody, as long as you give him treats and pets.

Rosie our 2 year old female cat is the explorer. She is into everything, and any lap. She doesn't like Eli, and is starting to warm up to Fluffy.

I don't have enough experience with cats, so to me they are not one gender or the other, but they do have their own personalities.

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Recently adopted by a dog, 3 cats, some fish, and my fiancee

[catsncactus]

I think personality just depends on the cat. I've had both male & females over the years. Currently, I have two of each. The tabby female is a love sponge. If we could hold and cuddle her 20 hours a day she would ask for more. The calico female is cold, aloof and fearful. The longhair male was cold and aloof until he was about 2, now he is very interactive, but less cuddly than the female tabby. The shorthair male (male litter-mates) is the alpha male and is agressive and somewhat affectionate and loving, but in a different way than his brother.

My theory-it just depends.

[bookitty1231]

I have 2 DSH females, they are sisters by the way, and 1 Siamese mix male. The females seem to stick together in everything they do, sleep, eating playing,etc. My male had it rough for a few days when I brought him home, but I think they enjoy his company. He is much more loving than they are. He loves to be cuddled, but only by me. He is also a talker, my girls rarely have anything to say, except when one can't find the other. I call them my twins. I love them all, each has it's own unique purrsonality. But it does seem to me males are more affectionate and easy going. We also have a male outside that loves to be cuddled also and he was born a stray under my house.

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"As we all know, cats now rule the world."
--John R.F. Breen

[4 feline house]

We had two siamese girls through most of my childhood (they lived to be very old) and even though they were extremely affectionate, they peed on everything. EVERYTHING! When I was a teenager, we got another little blue point siamese. Ginger was the newer, wedgie siamese, whereas Samantha and Bean were the old apple-headed. Therefore, everyone in my family thought Ginger was ugly. I felt sorry for her, so I gave her special attention, which meant she took to me like a duck to water. But she peed on EVERYTHING! When I left home, poor little Ginger was miserable, so I got special permission to bring her to the sorority house where I was then living, and she never peed on anything again. Before I brought her, she had been hit by a car (remember my post a day or two ago about my mom living on a very busy intersection, yet still letting her cats out?), and her health was never the same, and she only lived a few years longer. And she never peed on anything of mine. But when I was out into my own apartment and wanting a cat, I couldn't help thinking of all the peeing girls we had had, so I picked boys. In fact, I never had a girl again. I thought boys were much easier to housebreak, cheaper to neuter, and way more affectionate. And all my boys were. But then I started fostering, and had a few girls here and there. None of them peed! But the boy fosters were still quicker to warm up to me and some became attached to me, but never the girls. Then one of my girl fosters did get attached, and she had kittens while I was fostering her. I kept her babies, two girls. They were so intelligent, sweet, and affectionate, and very attached to me. And they didn't pee! I would never say this in the same room as my current cats, but these two girls and their adopted step brother were my favorite of all the cats I have ever owned or fostered. So, to make a long story short (or maybe it's already too late for that!), I went from never wanting a girl cat to loving cats of either gender. Incidentally, of my four cats I now have, the three girls are far more physically affectionate than the boy. He clearly loves us, but his idea of "cuddling" is sitting on the arm of the couch while we watch TV. In the meantime, the girls are all jockeying for position in our laps. And no, none of these girls pee!

[Logan]

I grew up with a male, holy terror, Tigger, who lived to be 18 years old. I remember him as being very affectionate when he wanted to be, but I have the scars to prove he wasn't always so sweet. I think I probably brought some of the aggressiveness on by playing too rough with him. He was a wonderful cat, who to this day, my mom remembers for how many things he broke and scratched in her house!
Shrimp Boat was my timid rescue kitty. She only loved me. Never wanted to go outdoors, and unfortunately was a "scaredy cat", excuse the pun. We had her for 7 years, but took her on a trip once in our camper, and she escaped and we never saw her again. I grieved for her and I still do.
Mimi came next and has been the queen of my family for almost 12 years now. Mimi is one of those wonderful cats who is so easily taken care of. She goes out when she wants, comes in when she wants and can love you to pieces, WHEN SHE WANTS. She loves to sleep on you. She is especially affectionate when we are in bed. But the arrival of Butter, a male, has thrown her for a loop. Butter is not a lap cat, but loves to be near us. He is much younger and very playful. He sleeps on the bed, but never on one of us. Maybe he'll come around because he's only been with us for about 7 weeks now.
Bottom line....I just don't know. Mimi, alone, is a terrific cat and defies all the "female" stereotypes mentioned before. But with the addition of a young, curious male, her personality has changed. Maybe female cats need to be in a single cat household.
I love both, but learn something new from them every single day!

[khoiho]

My darling girl Miuccia who I found on the street at the age of 5 weeks can be quite aloof. She does not like to be touched for long or held unless she felt like it, and she'd bite if you cross the line. She usually likes to keep her distance, she won't rub up against people unless it's dinner time. She doesn't "talk" and she rarely purrs. Although she is not very physically affectionate, we could feel that she loves us passionately and intensely. She just shows this is other ways. She keeps her distance but she follows us around. She climbs into bed when I'm asleep and would sleep on my head. When I'm in the bathroom I shut the door, and when I open the door she is always just outside waiting for me. Most of the time she will just lie on the carpet about a meter away and gaze at us, blinking in a very languid and seductive manner.

Our little boy Xander (who is half Burmese) is the complete opposite! He will climb all over us to get hugs and caresses. He purrs and purrs, and would actually fall down and roll on the ground once we start petting him so that we would continue to pet his roly-poly body. He will run towards us and start rubbing against our legs and tripping us over and he will call to us continuously. We have never seen him in a bad mood or bite anyone.

From my observation of cats (not just my own cats) in general, I feel that boys are usually more physically affectionate than girls, but if you have a good relationship with a cat, they will find ways to express their love for you.

[felixowner]

do you think it matters the gender of the owner to the gender of the cat? i am female and have had two males, halley and felix, and one female, S. i don't know whether it is them or me, but i've felt like the males were acting like more of a spouse, and the female like more of a sister. (it's probably me)

[4 feline house]

Spencer:

Sadly, alot of times cats and dogs are afraid of men because they have been previously abused, and there are far more male abusers than female, so it is likely their abuser was male, thus the fear of men. I'm not male bashing, lots good and bad can be said of both genders.

[HowieDawn]

This may be a little off of the subject....but it fits in with the last couple of replies. A couple of years ago, my husband's uncle died. He had a quaker parrot. The parrot did NOT like women. I thought that everyone was crazy....a bird cannot ditect the sex of a human. Anyway, we ended up taking him (Sam) We got him home and he was great. Loved everyone. He even mimicked the squeek in the dryer...and learned to say "hush" when i fussed at him, (considering I told him HUSH a lot) Then it happened. About two weeks into it...he started bitting. He loved my husband very much. Would ride around on his shoulder and give him kisses. He did not like me at all. He would bite me when i fed him, bite me when I pet him. So, I don't know why he acted this way. I definately know that he was never mistreated by a woman or anyone.

We ended up having to give Sam to one of my husband's brothers. I was getting too many triangles on my hands. (triangles are the shapes of the deep impression a bird makes when they bite you!! )

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Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails, Explore, Dream.
-Mark Twain

[This message has been edited by HowieDawn (edited February 24, 2001).]