I think that depends on the cat. I’ve had some very affectionate females, and some “who the hell are you and why should I care?” males. Of course, the reverse has been true too.
We had a male cat named Annie. We got her so young, it was impossible to determine her sex, so we flipped a coin. And the coin indicated that she was a girl cat, whom we named Annie. Except as time passed, it became apparent (to our vet at least) that Annie was a male. But by that time, her name and pronouns had been established, and we never stopped calling that cat Annie, and kept feminine pronouns: “her food,” “her litter,” and so on. It didn’t stop Annie from being a fine and lovable cat.
As far as gender-linked behavior in cats, my family has noticed that cats have a tendency to favor opposite-sex humans (male cats love the women in the family, female cats prefer the men). Even in cats who generally like anyone, their favorite human tends to usually be of the opposite sex.
Would you postulate that cats can detect gender through pheromones or the person’s behavior?
There are pheromone examples like male iguanas reacting to a menstruating woman. Our African Grey Parrot reacts very differently to men and women and yet studies suggest birds cannot detect the gender of human contacts.
I don’t know if there are any statistics; but the most affectionate cat I ever met was female, and at least one of the most standoffish was male. (And yellow, while we’re at it.) So I’m reasonably certain that individual cases don’t necessarily match any such generalization.
I’ve had cats of both genders who only really trusted me.
Again, I think this is more a matter of individual differences.
I think it’s far more likely to be scent (presuming that they pay any attention to this, which I’m not sure about.) Human behavior also varies widely, and cats don’t have human stereotypes in their heads.
I’m inclined to see claims like these (“male cats are more affectionate” et al) as examples of humans’ propensity to generalize upon the smallest of sample sizes and most anecdotal of evidence.
Imagine the outrage if someone actually set up a randomized, controlled study to test this. Particularly if it turns (as my intuition suggests) that there is no large difference based on color/breed/sex. With large meaning enough that it would make choosing based on that criteria worthwhile (so more than statistically significant, more like 10% or 25% more likely to be affectionate).
Most orange tabbles seem to be quite affectionate - our two were (well, one of them was more of a peachy tan… the other was a true marmalade cat).
On the other hand, I also had a tuxedo cat at one point and she was quite friendly.
700 square feet is fine. Especially if you get a good cat tree, and position something near a window so Fluffy can watch “cat TV” while you’re out.
It’s been 30 years since we’ve had cats (effin’ allergies) but I seem to recall they found the litterbox without problem. Not a bad idea to show the cat where it is, of course. Maybe even bring a small sample of used litter from wherever the cat lived before?
My Marmalade was quite affectionate to me – when he wasn’t biting and scratching me, that is. Most other people were afraid to touch him. He had a warning note on his chart at the vet.
And he had always lived with multiple people around, who had treated him gently; so it was his nature, not due to having started feral or to having been abused.
(Nevertheless, I miss that cat.)
[ETA: he was the result of a pregnancy in a cat so young that when my housemate asked when she needed to be spayed, I thought she had a couple of months’ leeway – but she was already pregnant. She produced two kittens, and the other one only lived a few hours. I don’t know whether Marmalade had a bit of brain damage, though he seemed fine other than his attitude, and lived to nearly 20.]
That’s the video I thought it was. – 13 kittens, I’m pretty sure; and he’s finding other homes for most of them.
(They all seem around the same age; but it’s extremely unlikely they’re all the same litter, that’s too many. I wonder what happened – was somebody clearing out their spring barn cat crop? That is obviously not the right way to do it.)
Our boys Cocoa and Vash are both friendly to us, but for some reason (maybe acclimation during the pandemic to having us around all the time with no visitors) Cocoa (but not Vash) has become fearful of strange humans.
It may be anthropomorphism and confirmation bias on my part, but I really do think orange tabbies (who are almost entirely male) tend to be a bit friendlier, a bit braver, and a bit derpier (in an endearing way) than other kittens I’ve fostered.
But not always. I once had an orange tabby who held out for two standoffish days after I’d successfully brought his (non-orange) sibling around. That’s a long time for a kitten! Usually once the dam breaks and you make friends with any one member of a litter, the others follow in short order out of jealousy and FOMO.
I had a beautiful calico cat growing up named Ruby. She was the best lap cat ever. But I think it may have been because she spent her days murdering mice, small birds and basically any small living thing she could. She had an outlet for all her aggression.
(One time I saw her pluck a robin out of the sky! She was really good at murdering things. We really should have kept her inside. I miss her.)
The most human-aggressive cats I’ve known were an orange tabby (see earlier in this thread) and a little black female. The most cat-aggressive cat I’ve ever met was also an orange tabby (that one was fine with people, but I couldn’t keep him because he was persistently attacking my other cats. Did manage to find him a good home, though.)
I’ve known calicos ranging from calm to shy to moderately grumbly.
These may not be as de-coupled from a tendency towards friendliness towards humans as it might seem. I was looking for a link to the original papers I ran across about research in France, when I saw Psychology Today picked up this story in 2020 (they include a links to some of the original studies). Feral orange males per the research on average are more aggressive (and they are on average larger, which is possibly correlated) than other males which seems to lead towards higher reproductive success in areas of low cat density where they can physically out compete other males. This strategy fails in areas of high density because there are simply too many males to exclude from the breeding pool.
But speculatively I think the assertive, reckless traits that lead to aggression around reproduction in ferals could easily be sublimated into outgoing friendliness as well when we start talking well-socialized pets. It’s not exactly an idea built on a concrete foundation, but it’s not quite straw either - maybe adobe .
Neither of the cats I’m describing was in any way feral.
ETA: I have no idea whether there are statistical differences in cat behavior that line up with color. I am entirely certain that even if there are, the color of any individual cat tells you nothing about the likely behavior of that specific cat.
Well, sure - that’s why I emphasized tendency. We’ve all known mean, pissy pets. I think socialization first, individual temperamental variation second would be more important. But I wouldn’t entirely discount color-linked genetic influences. I just wouldn’t base my future pet acquisitions around them.
ETA: Or in other words, I agree with your edit . Don’t get an orange male expecting it will be invariably friendly. But I do think it is kind of interesting from an academic POV.
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. Don’t get an orange male expecting it will be invariably friendly. But I do think it is kind of interesting from an academic POV.