Less Allergens on Female Cats - fact or fiction - thoughts????

[Claire_smc]

When I was looking after my friend's male cat both me and OH were horribly allergic to him, but I'm not allergic to Pepsi at all. However, the lady at the rescue centre said sometimes people are more allergic to short-haired cats than long-haired ones so that might have had something to do with it?

[Feline Costumier]

I think associating it with the colour/age/sex is a lot more to do with coincidental higher levels of allergens in the puss cats than anything else.

I'm allergic to all cats (so far, haven't met many peds to be fair), I am more allergic to cats I have never met before and therefore have no tolerance to them. I will continue to make choices based on personality and need than possible lower allergen levels!

[Dawn F]

funny someone I know thinks she is more allergic to dark fur

[wharfevalley catsprotection]

Hehe!

I remember when I went to visit Katie for the first time and mentioned that i'd heard that female cats have less allergens and the CP fosterer looking at me like I was wierd lol! I can't remember where i' seen'/heard it!

I seem to be more allergic to white hair as well - when I visited Noah, I was streaming!

[Den]

I'm not allergic to cats and used to work in a cattery so I've been around my fair share. However, my friends female bengal makes my eyes go really puffy, gunky, and really quite sore. It's horrible and I've never had anything affect me like that except her 

Not sure what it is about her. I've stroked other Bengals before with not problems.

[madkittyrescue]

think its safe to say that I'll treat it with the same scepticism as always!   may be a grain of truth in there somewhere.....

[Desley (booktigger)]

I haven't had an issue with the age of them, and the one who is moulting the most in my house is Ellie, the only one under the age of 12

[Janeyk]

I've mainly had black cats and not noticed a problem.  I've been more affected by cats with white on them, our first cat Penny was tabby/white and Byron is tortie/white, Pep is tabby white.  I've also noticed it's worse with females/older cats.

[Desley (booktigger)]

My worst reaction was a pure white female, although she had really coarse fur. Molly is pure black and hte only problems I have with her is when she sleeps against my nose/throat/chest - and that is more a suffocating thing!!

[Pinkbear (Julie)]

I have heard this black cat thing before. A couple of years back a lovely woman adopted a Calico kitten from me but wouldn't let me smuggle a pure black to keep it company as she said black cats give her a bad reaction. I thought she was barking! 

[madkittyrescue]

I've done a little more digging on this this morning and it would appear that the statement on Wiki is a) very vague b) when you read more behind it the actual cause is glycoprotein Fel d1 which is apparently only not present in 1 in 50000 cats they reckon.

The male vs female as far as I can tell doesn't hold much weight as it is far more to do with this protein that is secreted in the glands and saliva and this varies between cats regardless of sex or colour or coat length strangely enough.

I did find a very down to earth piece written by an allergy foundations in NZ which was more 'sense' than 'scare' for allergy sufferers

I've always known that it isn't so much the 'fur' that causes the allergy and have to admit made interesting reading to get down to what underpins it all - cats secretions!! 

http://www.allergy.org.nz/shop/allergies+a-z/allergy+triggers/cat+dander.html

Whilst I'm sure that some studies probably would find patterns each is only using a small number of cats - say up to 200 - which when you look at the 1 in 50000 figure for the protein really (to me) isn't going to give you a good cross section to make any definitive conclusions.....

So for now - will still meet this one with some sceptisism.

[Mark]

I had B&B guests once who sent me a whole list of requirements, which included "do you have cats and what colours are they?" They claimed that black cats shed more allergens. I remember finding something t the time that agreed with them. They also asked how long was it since I had painted in the house and did I plan on doing any more painting before they arrived 

Nice to have some reminders of why I gave up doing B&B (people are a pain)

[JackSpratt]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_allergy

I've just skimmed through this and found this statement:

It appears that female cats shed substantially lower amounts of allergen than males, and a neutered male sheds significantly less than a full male tom.[citation needed] In 2000, researchers at the Long Island College Hospital found that cat owners with dark-coloured cats were more likely to report allergy symptoms than those with light-coloured cats.[10][11][12] A later study by the Wellington Asthma Research Group indicates that hair colour has no effect on how much allergen a cat produces.[13][14]

Interesting stuff.....

[snarf]

a friend of mine recently remarked that hes "not allergic to my cats" which is something hed never mentioned but apparently he was really allergic to the cat his mum had while he was growing up ( which she kept regardless  ) but hasnt reacted even slightly to mine- one of which insists on clambering all over him constantly. he does still react to other cats (no idea on % tho). so maybe its not male/female just individual genetic make up?

[sweepster]

If I may have a 'bounce'... My partner is a bit allergic to cats (it seems to fluctuate) but is far more affected by male cats - hence we have three female cats.  A few years before we met he acquired two male kittens, but had to rehome them due to the severity of the symptoms (hayfever-like running eyes and nose, and itchy skin).  He found some research on t'internet which claimed that it's to do with the particular protein in the cat's saliva - male cats have more of it, or something 

Eta: ...though if neither the woman in question or her brat child are actually allergic, but she has read in Hysterical Mothers Weekly that female cats = 'less allergens' = better, then I'd just like to let out a really long  sigh

[madkittyrescue]

I've just had a phone call from a lady with a screaming brat child in the background who has just told me that it must be a young female cat as female cats have less allergens  - now I have never heard this in my life - anyone else??

personally my thoughts are what utter tripe - but you never do know if there is a grain of truth - hence thought I'd bounce it around.