How to determine the sex of a kitten – the nuances and rules for determining the sex

Many people get pets for themselves, not by purchasing them on the Internet, in the market or in a store, but by picking them up on the street. Foundlings in most cases are kittens or already adult cats. Of course, this method has considerable risks: a pet picked up on the street must be shown to the veterinarian as soon as possible in order to make sure that the kitten does not have any diseases (and, as practice shows, there are a lot of them), to put down the necessary vaccinations and possibly get information about treatment. However, one of the main questions that interests new pet owners is the following: “how to determine the sex of a kitten?”.

Although there are other situations. Perhaps your beloved cat has recently acquired offspring, and you are interested in the gender of the babies. How to determine the sex of a newborn kitten? Let’s discuss these situations in order.

How to tell the gender of a kitten?

No matter how trite it may sound, but in order to determine the sex of a selected or acquired kitten, you simply need to look under his tail. Wherein probability of correct identification sex in short-haired pets is higher than in long-haired ones. Of course, if you have a veterinary education or significant experience in raising cats, you can easily determine the sex of a baby, regardless of the length of his coat.

Place the baby in your palm and take a close look under the tail. Under the tail, the pet has two holes. What is located above and closer to the tail is called the anus, namely, the exit of the rectum. The opening below the anus is the urinary tract. In females, this opening is vertical and located close to the anus. The male differs from the female in the presence of two small swellings, which are called testicles. Under the testicles, males have a small round opening in the foreskin.

How to determine the sex of a newborn kitten?

The gender of newborn babies is much easier to determine than after some time. At this time, their fur has not yet dried up and has not risen. Moreover, if your cat has given birth to a large offspring, it will be much easier to determine the sex of newborn babies, since they can be compared with each other, clearly seeing and feeling the differences between females and males.

It should be borne in mind that in newborn males, the testicles, as a rule, are not lowered from the peritoneum. You may not notice them until until baby is 4-12 weeks old.

So, in order to determine the sex of newborn crumbs, it is necessary to act on a similar principle. Look under the tail – there the pet has two holes. In newborn cats, the distance between these holes is very small (no more than five mm). In newborn cats, this distance is greater – up to one cm – because there is still an empty scrotum between them.

• If the pet is already ten days old. This period varies the presence of a bald strip in females and red circles that circle the genital and anus. In cats, this place is hairy.
• If the pet is forty days old. Oddly enough, even experienced breeders make mistakes when determining the sex of kittens. Therefore, when purchasing a kitten at this age, it is strongly recommended to check for yourself (if the gender of the pet is especially important). As a rule, experienced breeders are able to distinguish a male from a female not only by gender, but also by body structure, and even in the form of a muzzle. During this period, gender differences become especially obvious:
  • urogenital opening – shape and location;
  • the distance between the anus and the urogenital opening.

If you are going to independently determine the sex of a newborn kitten, remember a few rules:

• carefully hold the baby in your palm, laying him on his tummy and raising his tail;
• the optimal period for determination is 20-30 days of age;
• avoid violent actions, if the baby breaks out, it is worth postponing the procedure;
• keep procedure time to a minimum.

The following should be avoided:

• tear off the baby from the mother at the time of feeding;
• pick it up by the tail;
• put pressure on the genitals or cause pain;
• take a newborn baby in your hands before he turns 20 days old;
• keep the kitten in your arms for a long time, because it may have a strange smell and the cat will refuse to feed it.

A kitten under one month old should not be taken into your own hands also because at this age the baby’s thermoregulation is still undeveloped – it can become supercooled even in a few minutes.

Determination of the sex of a pet by appearance

Experienced breeders determine the sex of kittens by their color. A tortoiseshell pet (otherwise called a tricolor – the presence of black, white and red colors) is definitely a female. The rufous coloration is a marker of males, so this is most likely a male.

In addition, some breeders determine the sex of a pet simply by looking at its face. However, this method is by no means exact, it only allows you to verify the correctness of its definition.