Boy or Girl? A Simple Guide to Telling Your Cat's Sex

In this guide

Working out whether a kitten is male or female trips up even experienced cat parents, especially in the first few weeks of life when the anatomy is tiny and the fur has not filled in yet. It matters for naming, for planning vaccination and sterilisation schedules, and simply for satisfying curiosity when you have taken in a stray litter, which is common across Indian neighbourhoods where community cats often have kittens in unexpected places.

What to check

Gently lift the tail and look at the space beneath it. You will see two openings: the anus on top and the genital opening below it. In male kittens, these two openings are separated by a noticeable gap, roughly the size of a small button, and the lower opening looks round, almost like a colon punctuation mark. In female kittens, the two openings sit much closer together, and the lower opening looks more like a vertical slit, similar to an exclamation mark.

Age changes what you can see

In very young kittens, under two weeks old, the difference is subtle and best checked in good light with the kitten held gently and securely. By eight to ten weeks, male kittens start to show small, rounded testicles beneath the anus, which makes identification considerably easier. In adult, unneutered males, the testicles are obvious. In neutered males, the scrotal area is flatter but the wider gap between the two openings remains a reliable clue.

A note on coat colour

Coat colour is not a reliable way to sex a cat, with one partial exception. Calico and tortoiseshell colouring, the mix of orange, black and white patches, is almost always seen in female cats because of how those colours are inherited on the X chromosome. A male calico is possible but genetically rare. Orange tabbies, on the other hand, are more commonly male, though far from exclusively so. If you are unsure after checking, your vet will confirm in seconds at the first vaccination visit.

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