Recently I've found some studies that apparently indicated that they prefer females. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2752/089279391787057062 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/scie...he-bond-between-a-cat-and-its-human-44676063/ But a part of me has to ask is this really all that accurate given the flaws with both (One looks at entire families some which have multiple cats and both appear to have small sample size) so I felt like asking your opinions... a part of me wonders that even if they are statistically correct if their aren't other factors the one that specifies older women for instance could entirely be due to.... less than fortunate beliefs of older generations leading older women actually having spent more time with the cats in question and thus forming a stronger bond in comparison as opposed to something innate? I know I'm sketpical of the opposite stereotype of Dogs prefering men myself so an option on that would be nice as well, even if being a cat owner myslef makes me more interested in the first.
Well, I always figured cats just see humans as an ends to a means. I don't know if cats naturally prefer one gender over the other. Like you said, there are a lot of variables that can go into it. The biggest variable I see is size. Since men are statistically larger on average than women, we can be more intimidating to them, although even short women are lumbering giants to cats.
Well the first one does say that juviniles have the worst relationships with cats... it could actually be a case of corrilated not being causation and a lot of the men interviewed not being cat people since it does do entire families.
In hindsight I'm pretty sure that my worry over this issue was just my OCD highjacking my brain to attack one of the things I value most in life my relationship with my kitty babies. Neither study has all that large of a sample size and even the more well rounded one has limited time per cat, doesn't account for the cats primary owner (Most likley to be female especially during earlier generations),and doesn't say weather the owner or cat initiates interactions. Overall thinking logically instead of with my misfiring panic section that these studies as well the ones about Dogs preferring males is not of much value... I highly doubt dogs or cats have gender preferences given they arleady are forming cross species bonds and that quite franky a lot of studies are eager to say gender is the deciding factor in some of these studies because those are the 'common sense' associations... as well as some mistaking of correlation and causation.
My family cat is female and seems to prefer my mom the most out of anyone so I'm not sure about them liking opposite genders more. As a sidenote, our cat also enjoys forcing us to clean her. She has extremely long bright white fur that drags on the ground, and multiple times she has literally stared us directly in the eyes, and purposely sat down in a puddle of something right in front of us knowing it would stain her fur just to force us to clean her. She particularly enjoys sitting in soup. Whenever someone makes soup we have to guard our bowls against her because she will straight up sit in the bowl of soup. She once convinced our dog to sit in soup with her, and we walked into the kitchen to see them both just chilling in the soup pot on the counter like it was a hot tub.
Hmm this is interesting. My cat actually prefers males. I don’t know why but she’s just more friendly around them. She was abused before I had her so I’m wondering if her original owner was a woman because she does not like girls.
My 15 year old, male cat definitely prefers my dad. To be fair, he'll love anyone, but if my dad is around he'll go to him. My theory is that he just wants to go to the warmest spot. My other cat (9 year old male) doesn't really like anyone, though he was fostered, and we assume the foster had little kids who were always picking him up and touching him 'cause now he hates being held by anyone. He loves the company and being around people, but hates being held. I don't think cats have a gender preference, but I think it just depends on how the cat was brought up.
I'm comming to similar conclusions myself. Doe help that 1 of the 2 studies most commonly brought up studied 51 cats for 501 hours total it might seem like a lot but if you add it all together that's 10 hours per household and has a small sample pool... mayby someone with better scientific skills could confirm or deny this but that does not sound like a good way to get results that actually mean much.
Cats seem to like women more. More women seem to prefer cats over dogs. Cats who seem to be people cats like me, for the most part. I know this isn't about dogs but sometimes dogs, even female dogs, prefer men because these dogs are extremely playful and agile, and men will rough house with them. I had this happen last night. My friend has a larger female dog who goes nuts when I go over to visit.
I mean is that a matter of the pets preference or is it the preference of the human letting them interact better though?
Zerak, there's no rhyme or reason. It's mix and match, and chemistry. Just like it is with humans in many situations.
Exactly, it's why I'm skeptical of studies that show dogs and cats as a whole prefering one gender or the other.
Our female cat that passed away only really liked my dad and I. She was fine with my mom but not overly loving. She didn’t like strangers in generally, but was particularly aggressive toward female strangers. My current cat is a male and he doesn’t seem to have a clear preference really.
I know this: After I had my revelation, once I got home, my cats meow had changed in its pitch and timbre.
