Do cats from opposite sex get along better than same sex?

[cookiedough03]

I get this from people around me, "Oh why did you adopt another female kitten? You should have adopted a male kitten that way he can get along with the female resident cat." "Two female cats will fight all the time."

any insight into this? Thank you.

 

[ArtNJ]

Timely spayed and neutered cats are basically the same as far as I know -- never seen any scientific evidence to the contrary. You can find all sorts of opinions about difference from people that have massive experience though. However, those opinions are not all the same, so yeah, I'll go with there is no reliable evidence there are differences. If you are talking not neutered/spayed or not timely neutered/spayed then of course its a different story.

 

[Caspers Human]

I agree. Spayed and neutered cats should get along better, no matter what the sex.
They don't have those hormones flowing through their systems telling them it's time to mate.

Even when cats are both the same sex, they will still compete with each other for dominance.

I think this is one of the best reasons to get your cats fixed.

 

[jcat]

This is merely anecdotal "evidence", but two males or a male and a female seem to get along better in the long run. Most of the time when a cat has been surrendered to our shelter because two (spayed/neutered) cats that lived together harmoniously for a year or longer - sometimes 5 or 6 years - decide they no longer can, both are females. Some people claim it takes longer to introduce two females, too.

 

[Kat0121]

I have two females. Both spayed of course. They get along fine. They are not friends but they coexist.

 

[cindy321]

I vouch for opposite sex. Even for spayed and neutered cats, boys seem to do better than girls, based on my personal experience

 

[Katie M]

Every pair I've had has been opposite sex. One pair consisted of a brother and sister, and they weren't separated until she died. I don't know if Beau recognized Belle as his sister, but he certainly grieved like he'd lost his best friend.

My current pair gets along quite well. Charlie welcomed Selene almost immediately-I think he was bored and needing a cat buddy.

 

[gilmargl]

If we are only talking about cats accepting other cats, (all neutered of course), then I agree, it really doesn't matter. But, if we are expecting unrelated cats to sleep together and groom one another, then, in my 50 years experience of cat ownership, I found that my 2 (or 3) males were the ideal mix. The one female at the time was accepted but remained the outsider. As my group slowly changed to females only, I have never had any 2 females who interacted so closely as the males did, welcoming all male strays into the home!

In a shelter situation, the stress on the animals means that some cats seek comfort from another cat and that it depends far more on the temperament of the individual cats concerned rather than on their gender. When rehomed, the necessity for a companion is not so acute.

Whatever you choose, it will always be a bit of a gamble. Brother and sister can turn from an adorable pair of loving kitties into a super dominant male and a frightened female who hides under the bed all day. Two brothers (or even 2 sisters) can end up in a similar situation. On this subject, a vet once answered my query: "I like my sister, but I don't want to have to live with her, so why should we expect cats from the same litter to live the rest of their lives together in harmony? It doesn't necessarily work that way!"

 

[Sonatine]

Anecdotal evidence here, but my two females get along quite well. They don't usually cuddle, but they play together daily and groom each other. They were introduced as young adults, too. Both of them came from a cat cafe with lots of other cats. I didn't get them at the same time, however; the resident cat had mostly kept to herself while in the cafe, while the new(er) one had spent more time there and played with lots of other cats.

Now introducing a male kitten to the mix. One of them likes him already, the other doesn't (yet). So without seeing any actual studies on the matter, I'll have to assume it depends more on the individual cat than sex.

 

[Dario the GreyCat]

My parents have 3 working cats and my adopted stray working cat, Vincent. The boys like to hang out together and the girls tend to hang out together. Vincent will be neutered soon but everyone else is fixed.

It’s more the personality of the cats than the gender.

 

[fionasmom]

I agree that this is all anecdotal and I have never seen a real pattern with cats, especially since everyone is fixed. My personal indoor only pets have all been rescues, so it has never been based on needing to get one gender or another for a certain reason.

I have found the opposite sex issue to be much more pronounced with dogs and I have always considered that before bringing a new dog into the house.

 

[Krienze]

I was under this belief for a long time. It's why when I originally went to adopt a kitten after losing CiCi, I looked for another female cat because Isabel was used to being around other animals but Sammy was used to being the only "new" cat and had never been introduced to a "new" animal since he'd literally been born in my bathtub (his momma was a stray we cared for)

When I went to meet the kittens we had a female in mind but I absolutely fell in love with Jasper. He stole my heart but I was worried, when I voiced my concerns the woman told me as long as they are spayed and neutered and what not, there is no reason for them to not get along. So we adopted him. Then we later adopted his sister. All four cats get along just fine, though they all are also all spayed and neutered.

 

[moxiewild]

I've always heard the same, that two females are the least likely to get along - but not necessarily that male/female get along better.

In our experience with dozens and dozens of fosters (all neutered), male/male combo has worked the most, and we've found that females who don't get along with other females also don't get along with other males - so not really a female/female or female/male thing, just certain females have not tended to like any cats, other than those they might have been brought up with. We've had very few males like that in comparison. (We actually notice a similar pattern among our 60+ ferals - even when unneutered, surprisingly enough).

But for both males and females, we've found it's far less about sex, but whether they like other cats or not, period.

And, of course, most of it depends on neuter status and how well they were socialized to other cats as kittens. That makes the biggest difference. For all of the 10 week and under kittens we've brought up, there is absolutely no discernible difference between males and females, because we work very hard to socialize them to other cats (and usually have 10+ other cats in the house to help us do that).

 

[cataholic07]

I have 3 kitties, 2 males who are brothers, and a younger female. All 3 are fixed. The boys were pretty bonded cuddling alot, but one had way more energy then the other. We ended up foster failing the girl. They generally all getting along great, cuddling, and grooming. The only issue we have is that the boys play rough and little girl doesnt always like to play rough or be on the bottom lol. So yah she will hiss at them during play if they are rough. But she still seeks them out to play. Its like she really wants to play with them, and sometimes plays nice with them, then the other times she's like 0.0 lol. Its uh.. yah lol. Man cats play rough .. why do cats play rough?

But yah I think its more about personality, energy level and if they are fixed. A senior cat may not want a kitten who pesters them while another could view an adult as a threat but happy to have a kitten around. You dont want two dominant cats, its always best to have cats who have been well socialized with other cats and who are cat friendly. Along with of course, slow introductions (go each cats pace!) and tons of resources.

 

[mizzely]

I've only ever had females and they got along just fine. Never even thought about an issue based on gender honestly!

 

[flybear]

I adopted ... first a male kitten - neutered at 10 weeks by the shelter and then two female kittens about 5 months later - sisters ... they were also spayed early around 12 weeks. They are now about 2.5 years old and all three of them get along - the sisters are still close to each other and we often Joke that the older of the sisters is married to our tom ... - all three still sleep together - in all kinds of combinations ( all three,, the two sisters, the boy with a girl ... changes daily). My boy was a bottle baby who was sick all the time as a baby and he has very awkward social skills ... the girls had to teach him etiquette but he can still be very overbearing ... we kept both girls as the dynamic worked perfectly : The overbearing brother couldn't focus his attention on just one target ... and all lived together peacefully. I think with cats ... sometimes they love each other and sometimes they don't ... sisters or not sisters ... same sex or not ... Our cats loved each other from the day they met ... no introduction needed - but we had a few foster kittens that they absolutely did not like at all ...