We have one male cat and two inherited cats of each sex.
All of them are super sweet but can be vicious if provoked and DD can be super rough with the animals sometimes.

We have had cats all our life and I have to say persoanlly I prefer males to females though our inherited female has brought me round a little bit.

Sadly cats do not do much to deter snakes, infact neither do dogs or other animals. If a slithery is going to be there it will be there regardless. Last year we have a meter long tiger snake go right past our border collie have a big long drink from her bowl then go right past her again to a hole in the shed.

The summer before that we had a 30cm tiger snake in our lounge room and the cat just sat there watching it.

While cats can keep mice down, really there is little other than that they can do for snakes. If you worried about slitheries on your property pm outback girl and ask her about the boundary thing she has to keep snakes out of her yard.

If you get a male you will be wise to neuter him. aside from the territory marking which they don't really do until they get a bit older (ours was desexed at 9 months and no marking within that time) male cats will wonder to find a female in season.

Our boy was inside until he was roughly 10 months old. He knew his food was inside and I think he has been less inclined to wonder too far from the house compared to other cats I have had. We also have a cat door too so our boy can come and go as he pleases through the day now and we lock him in at night. The other cats are farm cats and while we feed them I still view them as MIL's animals so we don't do any extra care for them, none are chipped or vaxed except our fella.

On the health issue, I have had a lot of cats over my life time and really its been down to good and bad breeding. we have had females with health issues and males with none until they are really really old boys and vice versa. The surgery for desexing is easier for boys. they slit a little hole in the sack, pop the nuts out, removed them then stitch the hole back up. For girls they open them right up and, I believe, remove the whole lot.

A good cat or a bad cat comes down to personality. I have always gone with the animal that has shown an interest in me. When I have locked eyes, if it has come over then its mine I wait to be selected so to speak LOL.

Good luck hun.