When you get a pet do you decide what gender to get?

Question

Just out of interest. As a child I would always pick a female. Do you assume that a different s*x pet will bond with you more?

Although I don't believe in gender differences etc I think because of hormones/biology animals can probably smell/sense our pheremones and can tell whether we are male or female.

PS: Proud parront, my baby parrot's photo was published in a magazine the other day!!!!!! :-DDD

Answer 1

I remember that my parents always got female dogs. They said it was because they didn't like the aggression male dogs showed and they thought the habit of lifting their legs to pee was truly disgusting. Also, in some smaller breeds, male dogs seem to like humping everything that's vertical, including human legs.

Answer 2

With me it never mattered what s*x the animal was; rather it was if I felt a connection to be more precise; unfortunately many could not be mine, because they belonged to someone else.

Answer 3

Congrats on the baby parrot!

I wouldn't really care about the first pet's gender, but the second yes. We ended up with a girl dog and wanted another dog and to avoid "you know what" we're going to get another girl dog.

Answer 4

If I'm getting a dog I try to pick a male, with other animals it doesn't matter as much, but I would still probably pick a male. I did have female cat once, she was a great cat and I usually don't like cat's.

Answer 5

I got to pick with my current dog, and I preferred the idea of a female if one would seem like my kind of dog.  There was never a question in my mind about getting her spayed as early as my vet was willing to do it, so it had nothing to do with her having puppies -- I didn't want that to deal with.  Squatting to pee just seemed much nicer than wanting to lift a leg to pee when you're going to try litterbox training your pet for the first time ever in your life.

I think a male dog would bond with me just the same -- my parents had a male dog when I was a baby, and he apparently took to me in no time and would check on me early and often to make sure I was okay if I made a noise.  It was more of a breed thing, not a gender thing.

Can mammal-ish pets tell if we're male or female?  Yes, I don't see why not.  Do they really care if we're male or female?  Probably not, because it's not like we're ever giving off the right signals for potentially mating with them.  The chemicals vary too much by species.

Answer 6

I wanted a sweet-natured calico cat and got one.  I didn't know at the time that calicos are always female.  She's 16 years old, diabetic and very mellow.  If I ever get another cat, I'll choose another  female and have her spayed, of course.  I have nothing against male pets, but we've always had less aggressive females.

Answer 7

I'm a cat lover, and personally, I prefer female cats because in my experience, they tend to be more intelligent.  (NOTE TO ANTI-FEMINISTS:  I am talking about CATS here, not all species.)  Also, they rarely spray.

Answer 8

When we've gotten our pets, we go to the shelter and choose the animal(s) that fit for us, regardless of gender.  We had a sister/brother set of lab retrievers.  After the sister passed away, we took the brother to the shelter and had him play with the other dogs until we found two brothers who were perfect for us.  Just make sure you get whatever animal it is fixed and it shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Answer 9

aww how cool about the parrot pic..i always preferred a female cuz males spray everywhere and im not tryna have me place smell like pee..even though my female cat has been in heat for 6 freakin months now(since i had my baby,how finny is that)