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Domestic Wildcats Sells Sick Kittens - domesticwildcat.com - Domestic Wild Cat - Taran Nolan

Rafiki

Site Supporter
I am in SoCal. Rafiki is from Halestone in Huntington Beach.

As others have stated, the size can vary to a ridiculous degree even in the same litter. Mike and Sandy Hale were dead-on as to how big they thought that Rafiki would be. That was a matter of experience based on previous litters from the same pairing and luck. LOL. They made no promises as to the size. Rafiki is a 15 lb F3 female and that was exactly what I was looking for.
 

Brigitte Cowell

Moderator
Staff member
In So Cal, Mike and Sandy Hale make lovely F2s as recommended, they are also very honest about what you can expect which is an asset in a breeder. No false promises and years of producing healthy socialized kittens :)

Sue of Amara makes lovely kittens if you go out of state. Also Kelly of Wyldthingz is up in Northern Cal and produces F2 kittens among other generations...
 

RBgodzilla

Savannah Super Cat
Just went through those sites. Yeah, those cats are beautiful! I really appreciate your advise and recommendations.

I understand that we don't know how big a kitten can get and as long as it is bigger than regular house cat then I think that will be fine. :)

I will contact the mentioned breeders and ask about availability. Any thoughts on Amanukats? They seem legit and have responded to our emails, so I was wondering if anyone has dealt with them before.

So my last question (sorry to thread jack. :) how would you distinguish between a breeding cat and just a pet? I was thinking if I bought a female that it is possible she might have babies down the road (if things were planned and with an appropriate male).....is there something different when buying these cats? Or am I just over thinking this? Ha ha.

I will post general questions on the appropriate thread ( I will look for one) but you guys have been really helpful I kept on going. :)
 

Rafiki

Site Supporter
I am not familiar with Amanukats but hopefully some folks here are.

You might want to start a new thread focusing on your quest for your purrfect companion!
 
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WitchyWoman

Admin
Staff member
So my last question (sorry to thread jack. :) how would you distinguish between a breeding cat and just a pet? I was thinking if I bought a female that it is possible she might have babies down the road (if things were planned and with an appropriate male).....is there something different when buying these cats? Or am I just over thinking this?

First thing you should do is try to find a breeder-mentor who can provide insight into what it takes to breed. Someone who will help you navigate the complexities of preparing for breeding as well as the actual breeding. Females who remain unbred are at risk of developing pyometra, a life-threatening uterine infection. If you have an unbred female for a few years before breeding her, you run the chance of encountering this issue. So before you buy your breeding female, you should already have your breeding plan in place. As has been mentioned before, it is very very rare that a breeder will loan you a stud. So you'll have to have an enclosure built for the male whose urine makes skunk smell like expensive Parisian perfume. Unaltered female urine is nearly as bad. Unaltered males and females will spray urine so without a dedicated space in your house or an outside enclosure for those times when the female is in heat, your house will have an eye-watering, throat closing aroma that not everyone will appreciate.

You will pay a lot more for a breeding female because she should be an excellent example of type. Same for the male. And if you're not in a position to buy excellent breeding stock, why bother. There are already a plethora of people out there producing savannahs that are not contributing to the health and progress of the breed.

Prepare for disappointment and heartbreak too. Not all kittens survive; not all females will breed a male and vice versa. You may invest in breeding cats and get no offspring. The cost of breeding will almost always be more than the money you make from selling kittens. Most hobby breeders (small, home run catteries as opposed to large scale operations) are in the red more often than not.

I'm not a breeder and can't speak to how to select a breeding female. I'm sure our member breeders will chime in.
 

Brigitte Cowell

Moderator
Staff member
Just went through those sites. Yeah, those cats are beautiful! I really appreciate your advise and recommendations.

I understand that we don't know how big a kitten can get and as long as it is bigger than regular house cat then I think that will be fine. :)

I will contact the mentioned breeders and ask about availability. Any thoughts on Amanukats? They seem legit and have responded to our emails, so I was wondering if anyone has dealt with them before.

So my last question (sorry to thread jack. :) how would you distinguish between a breeding cat and just a pet? I was thinking if I bought a female that it is possible she might have babies down the road (if things were planned and with an appropriate male).....is there something different when buying these cats? Or am I just over thinking this? Ha ha.

I will post general questions on the appropriate thread ( I will look for one) but you guys have been really helpful I kept on going. :)

Witchy Woman has given you a lot of information. As she said, it's not such a matter of getting a pet and deciding later on to breed. Female cats are NOT like female dogs where you can do that. And breeding cats is harder than dogs in that no, most breeders will not stud out their male cats, and male cats are stinky and nasty to house. So you really do need to decide before you get your kitten what you wish to do. You should NOT decide to breed to "recoup" the money you spend, there's so many unexpected expenses to breeding that this should not be a factor. I did a somewhat similar thing (although I did come from a background of my family breeding horses and dogs) and seriously if I had fully known what I was getting into, I would simply have spayed my girl and been a happy pet owner. it's impossible to fully put in a short post.

I know OF Amanukats but this is not a breeder very involved in our breed group to know well. I do think we've had a cat into rescue from her and she's not taken it back. So maybe more, once you've paid your money, you are on your own there...

So to distinguish between pet and breeder, beyond the complications referred to above... when selecting a pet kitten you truly are looking one that just speaks to your heart. My first Savannah, a pet male, was a gorgeous cat. He was NOT a good Savannah, way too many Bengal attributes. When I chose my second, as a potential breeder, the considerations were different. The Breed Standard had to be a huge factor, as well as health and temperament. It wasn't just about prettiness and about what I wanted...but what the breed should be and what I wanted to produce. it's a different thought process.
 

Patti

Admin
Staff member
Any thoughts on Amanukats?
Just reading all the hype on the first page turns me off: "We breed some of the largest and most wild looking savannah cats available." Again, there is no way to guarantee size, so this is just an advertising gimmick; "The Savannah Cats are the worlds largest domesticated breed." Completely false - the Maine Coon is the largest cat breed, and there are probably a couple of other breeds larger than the Savannah.

how would you distinguish between a breeding cat and just a pet?
A breeding cat should only be of the best quality. The goal of any breeder should be the improvement of the breed, not to create pets to sell to other people. It has been estimated that only 10-20% of all kittens produced (of any breed) is breeder quality, and only 10-20% of those are show quality. You can find many gorgeous Savannahs that don't necessarily qualify as breeder or show quality, but they are still very special and unique in their own way.
 

RBgodzilla

Savannah Super Cat
Good info! You guys are awesome.

I think we have veered off the original topic for this thread so I will continue doing more research in the appropriate thread. :)

Thank you all.
 
Thank you so much! I just called with no answer. I'm fixing to write a letter requesting refund if she's not able to provide a health agreement and a few other things since I'm truly scared of the purchase at this point with all the negative stuff seen on this forum and on another internet site. I so hope she just refunds me and Ill get Bandit. I will keep things posted here on whether or not she does the right thing. She truly seemed to be a Christian lady and talked about prayer in a few conversations. If she does the right thing I will sure post to that effect or vice versa.

I just wanted to let you know we had the same problem with DomesticWildCats.com (Taran) in June 2014. We adopted two "Savannah/Jungle Cat 2.5" kittens, both were females, one was a snow and the other was the typical Savannah brown color. At the time, they were 12 and 8 weeks old, from two different mothers, same father as yours. We took them to all of their vet visits, got all of their shots, but they came home sick with parasites and Giardia. The Giardia was very difficult to clear up and also very contagious, thankfully none of our other dogs or cats got it, but I did! By the time our snow cat "Luna" was 5 months old she had emergency surgery and had cancer throughout her entire body, same as your cat. There was nothing they could do so we had to put her down, we too were heart broken! We also fought the Giardia for over two years with our other cat, Lelu, with other medication and diet because we were worried about giving her the typical medication to treat it because there was a possibility of causing permanent brain damage and after just losing Luna, we didn't want to lose Lelu too. Most research said that the cat's body would rid itself of the disease on its own by the time the cat was around 2 years old. Lelu is now 3 and I am taking her in this week for another Giardia test to make sure she no longer has the disease. This is important because we don't want her to pass this disease onto another kitten. My husband and I are finally ready to try and adopt another Savannah and have put down a deposit, from another reputable breeder, on a real male F2B Savannah kitten. I have been following this breeder for a year now and know she is the real thing. I have done my homework on Savannahs and know that you get what you pay for. Therefore we know we really want a legitimate F2 Savannah and we are willing to pay for a real one. I am sorry you had to go through the same thing we went through and I wish there was something we could do to get them shut down. They are still in business and still selling "sick kittens". At the time it happened to us, Taran gave me some story about her sister having to watch the kittens at her farm because a family member was really sick or had just died and that is where they got the Giardia. She also said the cancer was a "freak" thing and did offer us another cat or a refund and we took the refund because she didn't have another "snow" at the time and that is the whole reason we went to her to begin with. We were only going to get the one until we got there and then my daughter talked us into getting Lelu too. We never met Jimmy and we met Taran in a parking lot, which looking back was very odd, but she said it was because her house was a mess because she had just got back in town because of the illness or whatever.
 
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