Apparently the gender of my kitten is really difficult to determine.

[FedUpWithIt All]

We adopted two rescue cats a few weeks ago. An 18 week old grey male and a 9 month old ginger tabby who is still of undetermined gender. We have been calling "her" a she for weeks. Apparently the rescue had been told by a vet that "she" was a neutered male and this was listed on her card. The first moment i saw "her" i suspected that this was incorrect.

After the adoption we took both cats to the vet. The young grey was having trouble with a throat infection so he got most of the attention. I mentioned to the vet that i was not sure if the ginger was/was not fixed and he checked "her" for a scar and said that "she" was an un spayed female. We called the rescue and they agreed to cover the spay.

Well today we took "her" in for the procedure and they said that "she" is most likely a male with undescended testicles. They said that ginger female tabbies are quite rare. Now we are ALL confused. Since the vet would not be in for a couple of hours we were told that they would call us when they find out whether poor Marmalade is a boy or a girl.

:crazy:

[Guava Jelly]

1. I bought a kitten one time and thought it was a girl.

I named it Minnie only to find out she was a he.:dunce:
So i changed it to Mini.
:hi: FedUp :)

[FedUpWithIt All]

3. Hi GOP...er Guava Jelly.

I figure they will be certain BEFORE they attempt surgery.

I am pretty sure she is a female. It is just that these animal experts cannot figure out what they think. :shrug: Really, it doesn't matter to us in the slightest. We like her/him a lot.


:hi:

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

28. That happened to my mom

She was sold a female kitten, and the vet showed her otherwise. The breeder was really embarrassed and gave her like $100 back.

The poor thing kept the name, Cuddles, though...along with his pink collar.

[Inchworm]

2. Hehe

I hope you aren't upset. That happens quite often here. We have 2 "cat people" look then compare answers. I guess basically they just feel for nuggets.

They are right hmm.. about 96% of the time.

:hi:

[FedUpWithIt All]

4. We are fine with either gender option.

She/he is a darling cat. We just want her/him to be fixed and they will have to figure it out for that to happen. :rofl:


:hi:

[SoxFan]

5. Pat the Cat

[peacefreak]

6. That's how Lucy

became Luciano

[elocs]

7. In 1975 I found a little kitten by the side of a street under our Mississippi bridge.

It fit in the palm of my hand, its eyes were still closed, and it was covered with fleas. I took the kitten to the vet to have it checked out and he told me how to feed it. So I took it home and fed it milk with an eye dropper and held it under a little stream of warm water to get it to "go" (the mother stimulates the baby to have a bowel movement and I used a q-tip, and not doing this is why many people have small baby animals die on them when they seem to be eating well).
A week later its eyes opened and it wasn't too long before it was toddling around. When it saw my beagle for the first time it headed for him because maybe this was "mom". My beagle was always keen on the cats he saw through the window, but up-close and personal was too much for him, so he ran. I named the kitten "Ali" because it had to be such a fighter to survive.

When Ali was old enough we went to the vet for the "get fixed" operation. An hour later I got a call at work (I worked for our zoo) and was told they couldn't do my requested operation. "Why", I asked. "Because Ali is a female". Yes, I looked at 3 days of age and never again. I thought it was a male. The vet said not to feel bad because kittens that young are hard to sex, just like baby rabbits. Needless to say I got a lot of razzing at work because of this.

[FedUpWithIt All]

19. Good story. Raising kittens that tiny is a lot of work.

Ali is a great name...even for a tough little girl.

[elocs]

24. That's what was great about the name--it worked for a male or female.

I had to have Ali put to sleep in 1995 and she was almost 20 years old. It was one of the most heart-wrenching things I have ever done because I was with her when they did it and it took 3 times to find a good vein. I had stopped in the car twice before I got there to cry to get it out of my system, but by the third try to find a vein I was losing it. She was a good cat.

[FedUpWithIt All]

27. I'm so sorry. I had to put down my 14 yr old Autumn this last summer.

:(

I am glad you found each other. She was able to live a long and happy life.

I had to put down my 14 yr old Autumn this last summer. It is brutal.

[Kali]

8. along with the fact that yes, they can be hard to sex, hermaphrodism DOES occur.

[leftyclimber]

9. Female ginger tabbies are rare? Interesting.

We have a (theoretically female) ginger tabby who doesn't show any outward signs of, um, maleness. When we took her to the vet for a spay, though, the vet opened her/m up, announced "Oh, my god, this is a male cat," and closed her/m back up. The vet techs were laughing hysterically at their boss (they swear s/he is female because of the lack of evidence otherwise).

We all felt terrible about cutting open a cat that did not need to be cut open, and the vet techs speculated that s/he was an early spay, which was why there was no evidence of a scar when they shaved her/m belly.

OTOH, this cat pees like a male cat (i.e., gallons at a time) and has a pretty square head -- looks more male than female IMO.

So I, too, have a gender neutral cat. Whatever s/he is, s/he's a nice cat, although a little odd (severely malnourished when s/he came to us and never really "quite right").

[FedUpWithIt All]

20. Wow, that is interesting.

I can't believe they opened the cat up and still were confused. :wow:


This one has male bits but no testicles. He also does not appear to have ever had testicles. So we need to try and find them if he still has them. lol

He has a rather feminine personality. I have only had males in the past. They were all similar in some traits. This little one is very different. He carries around a little toy like it's a kitten. He cleans up after and sort of teaches the other cat. He is a nearly neurotic litter digger.

[KamaAina]

23. I thought that about one in four ginger (orange) tabbies were female.

Not nearly as rare as male calicos (one in a thousand, and they're XXYs, hence sterile).

[HopeHoops]

10. You should try figuring out a baby hermaphrodite rabbit - I have one.

I'm not joking. We thought he was male, and technically he is. From early on you could see the penis was there and he has even left "emissions" during cuddles. Six months later, blood in the cage with no wounds on the rabbit made me take another look, and yes, it was a vagina next to the penis. I took him to the vet and there was one on the OTHER side as well! He/she is a great pet, but that's simply weird. We still use "he" and say "good boy".

[FedUpWithIt All]

21. Do you still have her/him? Has there been any side affects of the condition?

It is amazing when you consider the variations of nature.

[HopeHoops]

25. Well, he does like to cuddle - he just spent about an hour purring with me, a dog, and my cat.

I didn't know bunnies could purr until we got him. The critters all get along and sleep together when given the option.

[meow2u3]

32. Have you pet spayed AND neutered

:rofl:

[meow2u3]

33. Self-delete -- dupe

[applegrove]

11. I have a female ginger cat. All the doctors tell me it is rare but she exists.

So it can happen.

[Jamastiene]

17. I used to have one too.

I don't think they are that rare. Tortoiseshell males are rare.

[applegrove]

18. I've heard one in 200 for female gingers. But I keep running into people who've had them like you.

So I doubt those numbers.

[TZ]

12. You should name it...

CreekKitty..
:hide:

[Arugula Latte]

13. I don't think orange females are they're as rare as they say. My mom has one; my sister has one.

[FedUpWithIt All]

14. UPDATE: It is Mr. Marmalade.

:shrug: :hi:

He has a penis but there is a strong possibility that his testicles have not descended. This is problematic i guess because the heat kills the function of the tissue and eventually it might cause a tumor. So we have to have him tested to find out if he still has 'em and have them removed if he does.

He is about 3 mos. younger according to additional records we were given today.

He dodged a bullet today but his clinic appointment was quickly filled up by young Monty, our little grey. We pick him up in a couple of hours.

[lukasahero]

15. Hee. Poor little thing.

We adopted a stray cat and named 'her' Matilda until the vet corrected us a couple of weeks later. We even bought all 'her' stuff in pink! Seriously, I'm not a pink kind of girl but this little feline looked beautiful in pink. So we named him Theo and kept the pink. :)

[Jamastiene]

16. I'm an expert at looking at, ahem... parts such as that.

Here is what you can do:
See if you can get both kittens side by side and stand behind them. Make sure you don't feed them beans or chili first.

Take a look at the one you know is male.
Then take a look at the one you aren't sure about.

Is "it" closer to the asshole than the boy cat's or is it about the same distance away.

Closer to the asshole, it's female.
About the same as the boy, it's a boy.

It's about distance.

[FedUpWithIt All]

22. Distance eh? I will have to check that when Monty, our grey kitten, heals.

:hi:

We have to get him into our regular vet next week for a testosterone test to see if he was ever snipped.

[triguy46]

26. We took a 'her' in to be spayed and found out...

that he had undescended testicles. All worked out for the best, no long term gender dysphoria issues for the cat, but we needed a while to adjust.

[FedUpWithIt All]

29. We all keep right on calling her a him.

It is an adjustment mentally, which i find odd. No skin off his nose though...:-)

[SPKrazy]

30. This has nothing to do with your cat story

while that's interesting and all...

your avatar picture, while very small... is SOOOOOO CUTE!!!

I like it better than your old one...

I'm telling you, if you get tired of your hubbie, tell me where to go to find ya :D

[FedUpWithIt All]

31. ...

:hi:

:)

[SPKrazy]

34. LOL

I'm glad you are happy and doing well...

:hi:

:hug: