# Cat gender and facial characteristics



## beamjoy (Nov 6, 2010)

There was a post I read on here a few weeks ago that got me thinking. A lot of us have been around cats long enough that we can often guess the gender of a cat by looking at the facial characteristics.

A lot of times I can guess correctly by looking at a cat's face, but I really have no idea what it is that I specifically look at when I do this. It's just an overall thing that I get a hunch about.

I've been trying to figure what it is I'm seeing and really I'm stumped. It seems that the area around the mouth, particularly right around where the whiskers are, is where you see the most difference. I think maybe that part is more angular in males?

Just for fun, I thought maybe we could try to get to the bottom of this. Google was no help, but then I might not be the best Googler in the world.

So what do you look at when guessing gender? Besides the obvious...


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## Susan (Mar 29, 2010)

I've never been able to tell the sex of a cat without looking at the obvious!


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## catloverami (Jul 5, 2010)

I agree with Susan, though with unneutered males they definitely have chubbier cheeks, "stud jowls" they're called.


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## saitenyo (Nov 28, 2010)

I can't tell the difference usually, but I'm still fairly new to cats.

With my two though, by just random coincidence, they each have builds that match some human gender stereotypes. Apollo is very muscular and stocky and big, while Athena is very lithe and petite and elegant in build, so people usually guess their genders right off the bat.


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## beamjoy (Nov 6, 2010)

Seems to me that unneutered males just have big heads in general. But you're right, they do get the big puffy cheeks, don't they?

Well maybe the fact that I can sometimes guess at the gender means I'm a cat gender psychic. Figures. I'd much rather be a lottery number psychic.


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## Auntie Crazy (Dec 10, 2006)

beamjoy said:


> seems to me that unneutered males just have big heads in general. But you're right, they do get the big puffy cheeks, don't they?
> 
> Well maybe the fact that i can sometimes guess at the gender means i'm a cat gender psychic. Figures. I'd much rather be a lottery number psychic.


lol!!


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## koobe (Nov 8, 2009)

beamjoy said:


> Seems to me that unneutered males just have big heads in general. But you're right, they do get the big puffy cheeks, don't they?
> 
> Well maybe the fact that I can sometimes guess at the gender means I'm a cat gender psychic. Figures. I'd much rather be a lottery number psychic.


Cheetah has a very small head/face if we brush all his hair backwards. But he has always been mistaken as a "she" when going to the vet before they look into the record.


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## beamjoy (Nov 6, 2010)

koobe said:


> Cheetah has a very small head/face if we brush all his hair backwards. But he has always been mistaken as a "she" when going to the vet before they look into the record.


My old buddy Ansen was like that. Did you get him neutered early on? I got Ansen neutered as soon as it was possible and I always thought that's why his head wasn't huge like a lot of male cats.


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## Susan (Mar 29, 2010)

beamjoy said:


> Seems to me that unneutered males just have big heads in general.


You make a good point...but I thought we were talking about cats. 8)


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## koobe (Nov 8, 2009)

beamjoy said:


> My old buddy Ansen was like that. Did you get him neutered early on? I got Ansen neutered as soon as it was possible and I always thought that's why his head wasn't huge like a lot of male cats.


I am not sure if early neutering is the reason.
Cheetah and Panther's birthdays are 1 week apart, according to Humane Society, which I do not trust, I think they are almost the same age.

We adopted them at 2.5 months and they were already neutered. I would said Panther's head is twice the size of Cheetah's head. But well Panther is 13 lbs and Panther is 9 lbs.


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## katlover13 (Apr 15, 2008)

Susan said:


> You make a good point...but I thought we were talking about cats. 8)


_*Very*_ good one!!!


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## beamjoy (Nov 6, 2010)

Susan said:


> You make a good point...but I thought we were talking about cats. 8)


 Truth is universal.


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## Comadreja144 (Dec 23, 2010)

beamjoy said:


> There was a post I read on here a few weeks ago that got me thinking. A lot of us have been around cats long enough that we can often guess the gender of a cat by looking at the facial characteristics.
> 
> A lot of times I can guess correctly by looking at a cat's face, but I really have no idea what it is that I specifically look at when I do this. It's just an overall thing that I get a hunch about.
> 
> ...


 
Personally I think the entire muzzle on a male cat has a larger boxier look than a female and the eyes are set differently into the head, generally the entire face is, like you said, more angular.. or maybe more boxy, as to me females have more triangular shaped features- of course this is not always true as I have seen a cat with the large boxy features and after checking the obvious realized the cat was a girl not a boy and vise versa (ive seen males with delicate triangular feminine features)


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