# Hermaphrodite cats



## Arianwen (Jun 3, 2012)

One of my cats is a hermaphrodite - the only one I have ever had.
She is very "feminine" and has typical female shape.

I was just wonderig if anyone else on here has one. 

Just curiosity really, but if so, do you think of them as male or female?

I don't think it has impacted on her behaviour at all but you may well disagree with me on that since I am basing it purely on her and some of you may well have much, much more knowledge than me on this one.


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## Vivid Dawn (May 31, 2010)

Just curious, but what exactly is "typical female shape"?

I work with a rescue group, and we have over 100 cats. All the time people are getting genders confused, simply by the cat's appearance... even happens to me. I thought this one cat was a boy, just because it looked that way, and finally found out it was a girl! (I guess I could have looked under her tail to be sure!) And one of the boy cats at the sanctuary always gets called a girl because he's so dainty and has curly long fur.

Besides, once a cat is fixed, they're basically androgynous anyway (unless you count the method of urinating to include gender! LOL)


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## Ritzpg (Dec 7, 2010)

I don't have a answer to your question. But I take care of a feral/stray/dumped cat colony. In 18 months I have TNRd over 35 cats and around 10 regularly dine at my dumpster. I have lost count on the number of "shes" have turned into "hes". Some of my guesses were based on behavior alone (affectionate = female; aggressive = male) and some on appearance/size. The most aggressive/scared cat I have in my colony is female; the most feminine looking, male. His brother (who was re-trapped, re-socialized and re-adopted) is larger and more masculine looking. The most affectionate cat I ever trapped I swore was in heat and, yeah, you guessed it, is male (also re-trapped, socialized and re-adopted). Morale/lesson: us humans attribute feminine / masculine characteristics to cats; cats, don't.


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## Jacq (May 17, 2012)

First point; Transgender refers to an emotional/social gender, not a physical one. I wonder if there's a take-home message here about gender roles in general. Boy cats don't have a problem acting femenine, and vice-versa 
Pedantic soapbox over.

That said, there's got to be a few actually intersexed kitties out there, shouldn't there? I know that people and other great apes and cattle are sometimes born with mixed bits sometimes, so you'd think it's a mutation across mammals.


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## Nan (Oct 11, 2010)

I would think a hermaphrodite cat would be quite rare. Did it have to be both spayed and neeutered?


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## catloverami (Jul 5, 2010)

True hermaphrodite is rare for sure. In 18 yrs. of breeding only had one that I thought was a boy but turned out it was a girl.

Often difficult to tell the sex just by looking....although if a male has not been neutered they usually develop characteristic "stud jowls" by the time they're 2 yrs. old and have a cheekier look. Neutered males don't develop this, so often are confused as females. Even cats themselves can be confused. 

Take a look at my avatar pick and say which one you think is a male and which a female.


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## jusjim (Jun 30, 2009)

Vivid Dawn said:


> Besides, once a cat is fixed, they're basically androgynous anyway (unless you count the method of urinating to include gender! LOL)


The daughter of my next door neighbour has a neutered male who had a boyfriend that got killed by a dog. Judging by his their behaviour I wouldn't call him androgynous. Not sure what I would call him though except... Oh, never mind.


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## Arianwen (Jun 3, 2012)

The vet said she would almost certainly be infertile anyway but her female organs were better developed (that isn't how it was put but it was a long time ago and I can't remember the exact description). The testes were there but flat and almost totally undeveloped. Both aspects were sorted.

As for sahpe, I would agree that kittens are totally the same but I do think females (even ones neutered young) tend, on average, to be broader in the pelvis area. I'm not saying this is universally true (by a long way) but it has een a tendency in the cats I have known well.


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## jusjim (Jun 30, 2009)

catloverami said:


> True hermaphrodite is rare for sure. In 18 yrs. of breeding only had one that I thought was a boy but turned out it was a girl.
> 
> 
> Take a look at my avatar pick and say which one you think is a male and which a female.


The true hermaphrodite has both female and male organs. I think the only way to tell for sure is by a DNA test. The problem, I think, comes about from mixed hormones or mixed hormone receptors. 

Is there an endocrinologist in the house?

I'm thinking that it's the one on the left. On the other hand I don't think you'd ask if that were the case.


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## catloverami (Jul 5, 2010)

jusjim said:


> The true hermaphrodite has both female and male organs. I think the only way to tell for sure is by a DNA test. The problem, I think, comes about from mixed hormones or mixed hormone receptors.
> 
> Is there an endocrinologist in the house?
> 
> I'm thinking that it's the one on the left. On the other hand I don't think you'd ask if that were the case.


The one on the left (white) is a spayed female, the other a male (neutered at 4 mosl). He has a very small head, and he (Zuba) used to confound the neighborhood males who would chirp and want to touch noses with him through a screen door, but would hiss at Alkee and showed no interest in her. They are both 7 y.o. but Alkee is 6 mos. older.


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## Arianwen (Jun 3, 2012)

My darling had both sets of sex organs - she still has a vulva and I assume a penis tucked away somewhere.


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## Carmel (Nov 23, 2010)

I've never known a hermaphrodite cat before but I know they exist, they'd just be really rare, just like it is rare in people. I used to know someone that's neighbour had a hermaphrodite dog, though...

If I did have a pet like that, I think I'd consider it whatever gender I first assumed it was, or by whatever productive organs are more developed. It would not matter on personality at all, cats don't have a set of strictly female or male characteristics.


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## Arianwen (Jun 3, 2012)

In some ways, that's why I put "feminine" in inverted commas - she is what people think of typically as being feminine. 

I acquired her and her older brother (now dead - the Tom with asthma that I have mentioned) from a very weird variety of animal hoarder. When I first met her, I don't think I had many preconceptions beyond the fact that she was the same size as her sister and smaller than her brother.


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## LaurulFeatherCat (Sep 16, 2011)

TuxCat was first checked and had a penis. I checked the kitten at five weeks and then my vet checked the kitten when Tux was eight weeks old. Definite little penis. Over time, Tux developed no scrotal sac and no testes descended. I noticed the little round opening where the little penis was located was becoming elongated like you see with a female. At three months of age, Tux went into full female heat with the rolling, licking and yowling. An exam showed the female slit opening of a vagina, and very small vulva, with a tiny little nub at the bottom of the slit that was the little penis, but which had shrunk in size. I delayed taking Tux for desexing surgery due to money problems and when I did finally take her at 18 months, I warned the SNAP vet about her weird anatomy. The vet said he found the little nib of penis had no spines, but she did have a true vagina and two uteri as well as one normal looking ovary. The second gonad was not differentiated and did not show either eggs or sperm when he sectioned it out of curiosity. 

So my black and white little wild hermaphrodite (vets term it intersexed) is now termed a female since the vet felt she would have been capable of having kittens. Vet said this was only the second instanced of intersexed kittens he has ever seen and that is is quite rare. I have had experience with a total of 61 cats and kittens in my lifetime so far as either my pets, my rescues, or my fosters, and this was the first time I experienced a hermaphrodite kitten.


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## Arianwen (Jun 3, 2012)

My vet used the term hermaphrodite but "intersex" is certainly simpler! I remember he also said that it was more common in goats! I can milk a goat but admit that was something I didn't know!


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