Cat or tomcat: Which is really different

Whether it's a cat or a tomcat makes a big difference, especially with unneutered animals. After castration, the differences in everyday life become small. What remains is more a matter of health: male cats are more often affected by urethral obstruction and have a higher risk of diabetes, and female cats live somewhat longer on average in a large British evaluation. And the character? Race, origin and personality are more important than gender. Here we separate what is proven from what you hear.

Uncastrated: two very different roommates

International Cat Care, a British specialist organization for cat medicine, clearly describes the differences in unneutered animals:

The uncastrated she-cat

• Heat: The first heat usually occurs around the sixth month of life, sometimes earlier. During the mating season, the female cat calls about every three weeks, as long as she does not become pregnant, and she calls very loudly.
• Offspring: A female cat can have up to three litters a year.
• Health: Unneutered kittens can develop uterine suppuration and are more likely to develop mammary tumors later on. According to International Cat Care, neutering before six months lowers the risk of certain types of cancer.

The uncastrated tomcat

• Territory: He roams widely in search of mates, sometimes doesn't come back and runs the risk of being run over.
• Marking: He marks with strong-smelling urine, sometimes in the apartment.
• Fights: Unneutered male cats fight more often, get bite abscesses and are more likely to spread infections such as FIV (feline AIDS) and FeLV (leukosis), which are transmitted through bites.

In other words: If you keep an unneutered cat in your home, you will notice the difference every day. That's why International Cat Care recommends routinely neutering both sexes around four months of age, before they reach sexual maturity.

Castrated: what else is different

Urinary tract

The Cornell Feline Health Center explains: Male cats, even neutered ones, are at a higher risk of urethral obstruction than female cats because their urethra is longer and narrower. Such a blockage caused by urinary stones or urine semolina is an absolute emergency. Typical signs include frequent trips to the toilet with little or no urine coming out and an increasingly restless cat. According to Cornell, middle-aged cats that are overweight, exercise little, use a toilet in the house and drink little are particularly affected.

For cat owners this means: A cat that strains and doesn't let down anything needs to be taken to the practice or the emergency service immediately, even at night. As a preventative measure, it is worth making sure you have enough fluids: According to Cornell, wet food contains at least 75 percent water and is therefore a good source of water, while dry food only contains 6 to 10 percent. Fresh water should always be available.

Diabetes

The most important risk factors for diabetes in cats include obesity, older age, lack of exercise, male gender and cortisone treatment, according to the Cornell Feline Health Center. In some countries, Burmese cats also appear to be affected more frequently. The figure is the lever that you can influence: You can find the right amount of food in the cat food calculator.

Life expectancy

A large evaluation by Teng and colleagues (2024) evaluated data from 7,936 deceased cats from British veterinary practices. Female cats had a life expectancy of 12.51 years at birth, male cats 11.18 years, i.e. 1.33 years less. As I got older, the gap became smaller. Neutered cats lived on average 1.07 years longer than unneutered cats, and mixed breeds lived 1.27 years longer than pedigree cats.

These are average values from practical data, not a prediction for your cat. And it's a statistical connection: The study doesn't show why tomcats live shorter lives. The Cat Age Calculator.

reveals how old your cat is in human years

Costs

A difference is stated in black and white in the veterinary fee schedule: Castration of a male cat costs 30.32 euros as a simple surgical fee, while for a female cat it is 56.48 euros for the removal of the ovaries or 89.00 euros if the uterus is also removed. The reason is the more complex procedure in the abdominal cavity. Anesthesia and additional services are added, the full invoice is in Neutering a cat: costs, process and timing.

And the character?

A common cliché goes that male cats are considered cuddly and female cats are considered more willful. We have not found a reliable study that proves this for neutered domestic cats. That's why we don't write it down here as a fact.

What is important instead is proven. The Cornell Feline Health Center recommends considering age and personality when choosing: An adult cat's character is already developed, so you're more likely to know what to expect. A kitten is curious and playful, its personality is still developing and you can help shape it. The size, appearance and, in some cases, temperament can be predicted better with pedigree cats than with mixed breeds.

If a certain temperament is important to you, ask the animal shelter or breeder about the individual animal, not the gender. The test Which cat suits me shows which breed suits your everyday life. The breed portraits are helpful for comparison, such as the Ragdoll or the British Shorthair. And with an adult domestic cat from the animal shelter, you can see the character before you make a decision.

Two cats: Which combination?

The same applies here: male and female cats, two males or two females are possible. We can't give you a hard and fast rule as to which combination works best. On the other hand, getting to know each other can be planned well, described step by step in Bringing a second cat together. If you have siblings of different genders, castration should be planned in good time: According to International Cat Care, littermates also mate as soon as they are sexually mature.

Identify male or female cat

According to International Cat Care, the gender of young kittens is often difficult to determine. If you are unsure, ask your veterinary practice. The gender is checked there at the latest before the castration. Anyone who keeps an outdoor cat should also know that cat protection regulations affect both sexes: In Wiesbaden, for example, outdoor cats and tomcats must be neutered, identified and registered from the age of five months.

Frequently asked questions

Read more

• Catering a cat: costs, process and the right time
• Kitten initial equipment: checklist for the first days
• Merge second cat
• Cat names for male and female cats
• All cat breeds at a glance

Whether male or female: every cat has its own look. If you want to capture exactly that, you can find our cat portraits based on your photo here.

Quellen, abgerufen am 05.11.2026: International Cat Care: Neutering your cat; Cornell Feline Health Center: Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease; Cornell Feline Health Center: Feeding Your Cat; Cornell Feline Health Center: Feline Diabetes; Teng KT, Brodbelt DC, Church DB, O'Neill DG (2024): Life tables of annual life expectancy and risk factors for mortality in cats in the UK. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, DOI 10.1177/1098612X241234556; Bundesministerium der Justiz: Gebührenordnung für Tierärztinnen und Tierärzte (GOT) mit Gebührenverzeichnis, Stand Änderung vom 15.03.2023; Cornell Feline Health Center: Choosing and Caring for Your New Cat; Landeshauptstadt Wiesbaden: Katzenschutzverordnung, einfach erklärt