Boy personality versus Girl personality

[2ketzels]

Is it just my experience or do you think that 'boys' are outgoing, playful, funny, leaping in play, dominant, expose their bellies to scritching, generally acting more 'dog-like' while 'girls' are more timid, polite, asking permission to come up, soft, gentle and play close to the ground while hunting? My Boy is so funny!!!   his sister Luna is never funny but she is sweet.  However, I DO notice a difference when they 'catnip' - he becomes very romantic with his 'chair' while she gets aggressive and tries to bite/chase Boy - the only parallel i know is that of a drunken female who gets more aggressive & nasty while a man may become extra funny, chummy & dopey. SORRY about those generalisations of people.  But with cats - do male and female have only a male personality or a female personality per se       

comment would be nice, thanks

 

[emilymaywilcha]

The only cats I ever had were two female American shorthairs and a male mutt. Because Wilbur was not a purebred, I always assumed his personality came from doglike breeds, not the sex genes. American shorthairs don't have canine purrsonalities.

Of course, someone else might think sex does matter, but the only way to know for sure is have both sexes in a litter of kittens.

 

[orientalslave]

I would say that in general boys are softer, girls more domineering (even when neutered) and seem to cause most of the trouble in the multi-cat households I have known.  My girl kitten seems to start the wrestling, my adult girl is far less happy about the new kittens than her brother, and it was just like that last time I had a female cat.  I was devastated when she died, the boy cats relieved.

 

[yayi]

Girls seem to be more cautious when meeting something new, while the boys kind of rush to explore it. On other things like dominance, playfulness, need to cuddle, there isn't much of a difference that I see. 

 

[p3 and the king]

I really don't agree with the whole "Boys are more affectionate than girls" myth.  I think it has to do with their "raising" and socializing at an early age more than gender.  My girls are very affectionate.  So are my boys but I raised them all... Well, I raised 3 of them.  The other 3 were raised by very "hands on" breeders. 

Also, my Phoebe is very friendly with strangers and always wants to make a new buddy whether it be human or animal.  My others, not so much.  They are cautious at first and this includes my boys. 

I don't really notice a difference in them in any way. Maybe if they weren't desexed there would be?  But overall, they are pretty much at the same level on a lot of things which discredits the theory to me.

 

[txcatmom]

I do think there are some tendencies toward certain personality types with each gender.  I really think if someone wants a cat who is laid back, snuggly and friendly they are more likely to get that with a neutered male.  I'm not saying there aren't plenty of laid back, snuggly females....because there are.  My favorite cat blog has an article on this topic...

http://www.wayofcats.com/blog/cat-choosing-boy-or-girl/657

And I like this one even better.....

http://www.wayofcats.com/blog/boy-cat-girl-cat-revisited/11016

 

[aeevr]

I also do not think you can assume anything about personality based on gender.

 

[bigperm20]

I also do not think you can assume anything about personality based on gender.

I agree. I've had an equal amount of affectionate and standoffish cats of either gender. Although, if I had to choose based on the experience with my cats over the years, I'd say females are more affectionate than males by the slimmest of margins. I base this on a couple of my male cats being sweet, yet still acting aggressive towards me occasionally. None of my females were like this.

 

[emilymaywilcha]

In my limited experience, one girl was more affectionate than the other and the most affectionate was my boy. Both affectionate cats were dominant. So although my favorite cat was the boy I never thought sex was the reason.,

 

[odiakkoh]

My experience with fosters and my own cats haven't shown anything conclusive.

 

[2ketzels]

interesting feedback from all of you.  i was just reviewing my experiences with cats over my lifetime and considering some input from friends here; i was just wondering if there wasn't a pattern. it seemed to me that individual cats didn't have such distinct and different personalities.

but thank you all for your thoughts. 

 

[emilymaywilcha]

Cats certainly do have individual purrsonalities, just like people, regardless of breed, sex, and age. Nobody can dispute that fact. However, it is interesting to think sometimes there seems to be a pattern.

 

[ronandbarry]

I agree with 'yayi' and 'P3 and The King' as well as with you. I don't think boys are more snuggly than girls, I think it all depends on how old they are when you get them. I also think boys are more adventurous. I agree with everything you say as well, though. Louisa 

 

[2ketzels]

thank you for turning me on to Way of Cats!

 

[txcatmom]

thank you for turning me on to Way of Cats!

Yay! 

  I'm so glad I discovered it too.  She has such great insight into cats and shares so much great information.  Plus, she participates in the comments threads and will answer questions.

 

[melesine]

Yep, out of my two boys I got as kittens one is cautious but snuggly. The other is adventurous and outgoing but doesn't like to be picked up or petted too much. He is happy laying near you though and purrs loudly when he does. Our girl that we just got is 5 and she is affectionate and loves to sleep in bed with us. In fact we fell in love with her partly because she would always come running when she saw us, to get petted. Poor baby was kicked outside by her previous caregivers, our neighbors. But her breed is known for it's affectionate nature. 

I really haven't seen evidence that the gender stereotypes are accurate. 

 

[ibiscribe]

The (six) cats we had when I was growing up were all from the same litter, and I've seen similar behavior in Ana, Tohee and Keef, as well as friends' cats. The boys generally seemed more "dopey sweet" and happy-go-lucky. I wouldn't say doglike, but certainly more mellow and accomodating. The girls might be more opinionated (if that makes sense), I would not say domineering, but less likely to just give up and let someone else have their way. Like, I had to be more careful walking around Keef because he might get up if he (mistakenly) thought I wanted to sit on the kitty bed, but if it was one of the girls she'd just give me that look that says "excuse me, did you want something?" and go right back to licking herself. If I wanted the kitty bed I'd better wait my turn, lol.

I don't think boys are more affectionate than girls at all, though; if we're talking about general personability, IMHO that's largely how the cat is treated, not what its gender is (I'm always surprised when someone won't give their cat the time of day, but expects it to love all over them like a dog... cats thrive on reciprocal relationships). But I do think boys/girls will show affection in different ways. Our boys were always "lovey" and willing to cuddle all the time, unless they were doing something "really important" like hunting/eating. The girls not so much... they were happier to say hello if we met in the hall, or curl up together if it was obvious the human was willing to sit still for a while, but at other times they might have things they wanted to do, like look out the window. I guess you could say our female cats had their own agendas more often, when the males were more likely to be sociable at the drop of a hat.

There was still a lot of variation though... Spunky (one of our boys) liked being near me whenever he could and seemed to enjoy riding on the back of my bicycle, but he wasn't the sort of cat who craved petting. Ana was extremely lovey and almost always happy to be around me, but didn't have a personality I would term "happy-go-lucky" or "boyish"... she was still an "opinionated" girl and it often showed.