06/22/2025
Sorry for the in-your-face photo 🙀, but we get asked a lot about how to tell the difference between female cats and male cats. It’s especially difficult to decipher when dealing with a neutered male cat or kittens who don’t have obvious man parts yet.
Our very willing models for this awkward photo were Tony who has recently found a home greeting folks at the Spay Neuter Clinic 😻 and our very own Moonfrye, who was born to a stray cat at our house 6 years ago. ❤️
As you can see from the illustration, the distance between the a**s and ge***al area is much greater on a male cat than a female. You can also tell from the shape of the ge***al opening. On a male, it is circular (similar to a : colon). On a female, it is more like a vertical line (similar to a ; semi-colon).
Another simpler, but less reliable, way to tell the s*x of your kitten is by the color of its coat. Tortoiseshell or tri-colored cats are almost always female. The chromosomal makeup of female cats is solely responsible for this coloration, so you can pretty much guarantee any calico cat is a girl as well. Orange or ginger-colored cats, however, are most often male. Yet, this trait is not as reliable as the tri-colored trait, as only three-quarters of ginger-colored cats are male.
