If you follow my Facebook, you may have seen a little photo series I did over the course of my last litter. Identifying the sexes of kittens is something that comes up frequently on social media, usually with oops litters and inexperienced breeders. Despite being new to breeding, I'm all for helping people learn so I decided to take weekly photos to show the differences between a young buck and doe. I don't know which kittens they are in week one but for all following weeks, they were the same two dumbo topazes.
I don't know why but I've always found it fairly easy to identify bucks and does at a young age. As long as I have at least one of each to compare... If I got a litter of all bucks or all does, I'm sure I'd get a bit more confused! Bucks have a larger distance between their urethra/penis and their anus, whereas on a doe they're much closer together. The nub (urethra) is also usually larger and more obvious on a buck.
In week two they both look quite similar down below... Fortunately the does nipples give her away!
Week 3 is another slightly ambiguous week when looking at photos but hopefully you can see the mini testicles on the buck. They are of course much more noticeable in person.
Week 4 is where things start to get pretty obvious! The buck now has very noticeable testicles. It's at this point I really start to wonder how pet shops and dodgy breeders mis-sex rats at 6+ weeks...
There's not much to say on week 5 - they're just growing and becoming increasingly easy to identify.
Week 6 caused a rather big stir on Facebook! I feel sorry I subjected my poor boy to such laughter, even if people were very impressed with his 'size'. Full disclosure, not all bucks are the same size so don't panic if you have a buck with small testicles! I can't say that's a sentence I ever thought I'd write....
Nearing the end now at week 7 and things are all looking good. It's very clear which rat is a buck and doe, and again I'm amazed that people can get this wrong at this age. I'm sorry the light is a bit dodgy on this week though!
Last but not least we have week 8! I was planning to stop at 6 weeks as they don't change much after that but people asked for more so who am I to say no? By this age they were both a lovely size and ready to go to their new homes. Well.. the doe was. The buck stayed!
Hopefully this is helpful for people who need to sex kittens, or just for those who like to learn stuff because they can. If they all grow well it's obviously very easy to distinguish between the two at a young age. However, there are some instances where one or both of a bucks' testicles may not descend. In this case, you can usually feel them as lumps inside their abdomen.
If you have any suggestions of other series or educational posts I can do then please let me know!
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