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Conference misery::feline_v1

Title:Meower Power is Valuing Differences
Notice:FELINE_V1 is moving 1/11/94 5pm PST to MISERY
Moderator:MISERY::VANZUYLEN_RO
Created:Sun Feb 09 1986
Last Modified:Tue Jan 11 1994
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:5089
Total number of notes:60366

174.0. "How do you tell kitten's sex?" by KEEPER::MALING () Tue Nov 12 1985 14:14

I've often heard stories of people who thought their kitten was a male and
it turned out to be a female, or vice versa.  In the most extreme case I
know a guy who took his kitten to the vet to be spayed and after the vet
had begun the operation he realized that what he was looking for wasn't 
there since the kitten was a male.  I think I read a similar story in this
notes file as well.  Is it that hard to tell the sex of a kitten?  Does
anyone know how its done?

-Mary
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
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174.1BEORN::BROWNWed Nov 13 1985 02:158
I've been around cats all my life and have never had any trouble telling
if a kitten was male or female. Unless it has very long hair. The way I
was taught was to turn the kitten upside down and look under it's tail.
If it looked like an upside down exclamation point it was female, if
it looked like two dots it was male. This seems to be as good a descrip-
tion as any but to really learn you have to actually look at a couple
cats and see the difference for yourself.
kris
174.2PICA::HIDERWed Nov 13 1985 03:3916
  
  I think most people get in trouble because they expect to be able to
  tell the same way you do human babies..

  In cats the distance between one and other is greater in males than females,
  I found this the easiest way to tell.  In older (unneutered) males
  it becomes quite obvious.

               o                       o
     female                    male
               o
                                       o

  hope this helps..

    ..Paul
174.3PEN::KALLISWed Nov 13 1985 19:478
re .1:

If you turn the kitten over, on a female, the exclamation point will
be right-side up (!).  If you leave them alone and lift their tails (you
generally don't have to, since kittens usually hold their tails vertical),
_that_ is when the exclamation point will be inverted.

Steve Kallis, Jr.