A femal cat is "una gata," a female dog, "una perra." If it's someone else's pet, you can use the masculine until you know the gender. You could also ask "¿Es gato, o gata?"

the gender of the noun and the gender of the article should coincide, so.."el"(male) always with male nouns (gato, perro, periquito, canario,caballo...) and "la"(female) with female nouns (gata, perra, tortuga, yegua, ...).

Gracias. For some reason I forgot that animal names are gendered as well.. I've always seen "el gato" all the time. Now I can give my cat the correct gender (even if she does have a boy's name) Thanks!

Hi! Yes, we do have gender for pets, and the article preceding the noun should match with it. El perro, la perra, el gallo, la gallina, el gato, la gata. (Also for plurar forms, of course.) REF.: I'm a Certified Spanish Teacher.