Pets and Transitioning

[Espenoah]

This may seem kind of a strange question, but I've been sort of curious about this for a while, and as someone who hasn't transitioned yet, I can't answer this for myself.
For those who have had pets throughout the various stages of transitioning, have they acted any differently around you than they did before transition? I'm sure animals can sense that sort of thing, so how do they react?

[Stella Blue]

Haha I was actually just thinking about this before, as a fleeting thought, while petting my dog! I'm also interested to know this. I'd think they'd be like what the hell? Why do you smell so f'n different all of a sudden?? 

[Arch]

There's another thread around here on this topic.

My cats didn't seem to notice anything at all.

[Silver]

Nope. Well, maybe my rabbit attacks me less but that's because I don't irritate her as much/pick her up.

[V M]

It's kinda hard to tell... But my dog seems to have noticed somewhat

Particularly since I started HRT... He'll come up and sniff me for no apparent reason

He seems happy about it anyway, a little better behaved to some degree but then he also seems to want to exert his maleness like he's "The Man" of the house

It's somewhat amusing really  Him being a Cocker Spaniel and such

[Between Names]

I'm pretty sure my rats don't care, just as long as I keep feeding them yummy snacks.

[Janet_Girl]

My female cat has become closer to her Mommy.  As if she knows we are the same gender.  My male could care less as long as he if fed.

[rejennyrated]

Well it's not exactly a pet thing - but I used to ride a lot, and one of many reasons why I changed from taking premarin to Estrace was that I got totally fed up with stallions acting odd around me. I swear they could smell the equine hormones on my skin... and the stallions would show some considerable interest which actually could get kind of scary.

It may just be a coincidence but as soon as I switched to human hormones the problem stopped.

[noxdraconis]

No, my dog behaves exactly the same way as he did before.

[Teknoir]

Depends on the animal.

My fish don't mind. They like everyone. They go happy-spaz when anyone goes near the tank.

When I was living at my parents place, they had a cat that loved men. Weird cat, was normally a bit standoffish until I started T. 2 weeks later and the cat was all over me.

I didn't change my appearance at all - only the T. My arrival pre-dated the cat's arrival by several months - so it wasn't just the cat getting used to me.

The other cats that sucked up to everyone didn't change behaviour at all, only the one with a gender preference.

It wasn't just me that noticed it, my folks remarked that the cat seemed to like me a lot all of a sudden for no reason

Considering their dogs didn't start barking when I arrived there last time, I don't think animals think you're another person. To them, you're still you - you just smell a little bit different after HRT (but not different enough to smell like an entirely different person).

[justmeinoz]

It seems to prove the adage- "dogs have owners, cats have staff!"

[sneakersjay]

My pets didn't notice.  If they did, they don't act any differently.  Except that they now like to lick my pillow.  Eww.

Cat, as long as his bowl is full, he doesn't care.


Jay

[Espenoah]

Hm. That's interesting. I guess it's different for every animal.
I'm wondering how my dog is going to react, since he acts a bit differently around males and females. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

I like reading these interesting stories.

[cynthialee]

When I first started several months ago my dogs would bark at me when I would present female. They stoped after about 3 times seeing me, so I guess they lost thier prejudice.

[Darlene]

My snakes don't seem to care.

[Miniar]

Skelfing (my sis's cat) was warming up to me, then I got on T and she withdrew. Now she's warming up to me again.

Mús ("my" cat) didn't change her approach much, but for a few days she was a little "wtf?!?!?!" towards me whenever I picked her up, but that might have been whatever else was in the gel than just the T... it had a pretty strong odor.
Now on Nebido, she's back to her usual self.

That's all the "current" animals.

I've known animals with gender preference, usually towards males. I've heard the "oh he/she usually doesn't like girls, how odd" when they are all "yays" at me, a number of times.