1. Their behaviors change when they are in heat
It is important to remember that female cats have a heat cycle, usually between February to October. During these stages, a female cat will experience stress and anxiety.
They meow frequently and are more
likely to run away or roam for miles around to find males.
Your female cat may also become unusually affectionate.
She may rub up against furniture, doorways and especially your ankles to spread her scent.
When a female cat is in heat, she is also more likely to spray a concentrated
mix of urine on vertical surfaces to leave a scent mark and let the opposite
sex know that they're available.
2. Female cats have several nicknames
Molly is a generic nickname for female cats, whether
they are kitten or older.
When a cat is pregnant or nursing and raising kittens, she is called a Queen.
This is meant to reflect the cat's importance, as well as her protective nature. Female cats are continued to be called queens until they stop nursing kittens.
Unneutered male cats however, are often referred to as “toms” or “tomcats.”A recent report based on the database records from Nationwide Pet Insurance, found that the most popular female cat name in 2021 was “Bella.”.
The name Bella has Italian origin and means pretty.
3. Nearly all calicos and tortoiseshell cats are female
Tortoiseshell cats, also known as torties, have bi-colored coats that look like the shell of a tortoise.
Likewise, calico cats have a tri-color coat with distinctly-marked patterns that contains black, white and orange.
Interestingly enough, calicos and torties are almost always female.
This is because only the female X chromosome carries information on coat color.
Males have only one X chromosome, but females have two X chromosomes.
This
means colored coat patterns are almost always reserved for female cats.
4. Females live longer
As in humans, female cats tend to live for longer than their male counterparts. On average, the life expectancy of female cats is a year or two more than male cats.
Creme Puff was an American cat who died at the age of 38 years and 3 days. She was the oldest cat ever recorded.
On top of dried commercial cat food, Creme Puff's owner fed her eggs, turkey bacon, broccoli, coffee with cream, and every two days an eyedropper full of red wine. don't go replicating that diet though it is important to remember that wine and coffee are toxic to cats so we don't know how her long life can be explained it may be that the cat itself was genetically predisposed to living a long life
5. Female cats form colonies and stick together
In the wild, female cats live in colonies that loosely resemble lion prides. Within colonies, female cats help each other raise their kittens and guard the colony from intruders.
The queen cats will nurse, groom and protect each other’s young.
Adult male cats however, do not live in
colonies. They remain on their own to avoid having to compete for food and
females.
6. A litter of kittens can have multiple fathers
Cats can have between one and nine kittens in a litter, and kittens in a single litter can have multiple fathers.
The ability to produce a litter of kittens fathered by more than one cat is
known as superfecundation.
7. Female cats are more likely to be right-pawed
Believe it or not, most cats have a dominant paw. A
study found that 52% of female cats showed a right-paw preference, 27% showed a
left-paw preference, and 21% showed no preference.
8. Spayed female cats live longer
Studies have found that spayed cats live 39 percent longer than intact females.
This is because spaying prevents reproductive diseases such as mammary and breast cancers. Even better, it eliminates her risk of developing ovarian and uterine cancers because the ovaries and uterus are removed during the procedure.
Sterilization also reduces the risk of
developing malignant tumors and life-threatening infections like
pyometra.
9. Female cats are harder to get adopted
Multiple studies
conducted on animal shelter data have found that female cats had a longer stay
at animal shelters than male cats. On average, male felines were at the shelter
for 6.4 months, while female cats were there for 8.3 months.
10. Female cats can get pregnant young
If they are not
spayed, female cats can get pregnant as soon as they reach puberty at four
months old. And in just 10 years, one female cat could produce around 49,000
kittens.
11. Female cats are more standoffish
A survey of veterinarians who specialize in cats
ranked females as less affectionate than male cats, and some studies support
the claim that female cats are more standoffish and fearful toward
humans.
12. Female cats are less likely to scratch
Because male cats are more territorial, they have a
stronger urge to scratch furniture, doors, and things like carpets.
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