Kitten Gender - How To Tell Male Kittens from Female Kittens

You may want to find out the gender of a kitten for a number of reasons. Maybe you want a specific gender of a cat for a pet.

Or maybe you're trying to decide on a name, love "Princess" (for example) but aren't sure if your little furball is a boy or a girl...

You may laugh at this, but I know two people who have made exactly this mistake. They named their male kittens Lily and Phoebe - whoops!

To figure out the gender of a kitten, go somewhere with good light. Hold the kitten still; the best way is to gently pinch the skin on the scruff of their neck between your thumb and first finger. Lift their neck slightly, but keep their back feet on the ground.

With the other hand, gently lift their tail to an upright position so you can see their butt. The diagram here (badly drawn by me - sorry!) shows what a female (left) and a male (right) look like.

The top opening in both cases is their butt. Both sexes have a second opening, which is where their sexual organs are housed.

In female kittens, this second opening is very close to their butt and slit shaped.

In male kittens, the second opening is considerably further away from their butt and is round in shape.

In most cases, by doing this it's really easy to work out kitten gender. The only time you may have a problem is with long haired kittens, as their fur can hide the areas you're trying to look for. If you do have difficulty, get a second person to move the fur out of the way so you can see better.

If you've just discovered the gender of your kitten but are struggling to think of a name, here are lots of suggestions...

Cute kitten names A - Z
Female kitten names A - M
Girl kitten names N - Z
Male kitten names A - M
Boy kitten names N - Z

And if you're interested in how a kitten grows and develops in the first 12 weeks of its life...

Kitten development