Legitimate Savannah Cat Breeders - How to Tell

[Trish Allearz]

I meant the websites who only post pics of the kittens available with nothing more than a price...no info on the generation other than "F6", etc; no ages given, nothing about personality, and NO adult cats at all, silly

I just had to laugh. I went from too many pics and info to more minimalist, but it makes more work for me because I usually have to send pics of the parents.


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[admin]

I'm not sure there is such a thing as a "typical" cattery. For instance, our cats are our pets, and live entirely in our home. I've been told by many that visit they cannot smell cat urine, though I am always certain I can catch a whiff or two, lol. A home cattery that keeps intact boys inside may very well have a strong urine odor, no matter how much you clean. Our first boy was a spraying machine, and I cannot tell you how many hours I spent cleaning and agonizing over the smell....I am very fortunate neither of our two current boys spray, but one of my intact girls does spray. We generally have 3 to 4 adult cats at any given time running together, and when our babies are around 6 weeks old, they are allowed to join the general population in our main living area. We also have a large kitten nursery and another large bedroom upstairs for the new moms and babies, but have had moms who prefer delivering and raising their babies in the computer room in our main living area. While many breeders do their own vaccines, I choose not to, and have those done by my vet so the kittens can have two vet health checks along with their vaccines, more for my peace of mind than anything else.

In general, I would say that a home cattery that is clean overall (no dirty litter boxes, clean water and food dishes, areas free of clutter, floors swept or vacuumed, a slight smell of urine but NOT overpowering, etc), along with a few cats and/or kittens that may be running freely who appear healthy, well-fed, friendly and happy..is the "norm" I know first-hand. For those catteries whose cats are in enclosures outdoors, the same should apply....

Totally agree with Pam!

 

[MM3]

I tried to get family information on my kitty and proper names of parents. At the beginning of emailing with breeder, he sent One photo of parents. I don't know what happened to that email but I couldn't locate it and asked for another to be sent. Asked on many occasions, Breeders response was I already sent it. I never received the photos again.
I sent another email requesting again information on family tree for my kitty. Breeder requested document from my vet that kitty could not have kittens. I sent the document registered by snail mail. After quite sometime had passed and no word from breeder, I emailed requesting the information AGAIN. No response
Then I receive this message in an email.
I am quoting directly from his email...........
" I only provide registration papers and a pedigree to those who intend on breeding their cat and who pay an additional breeder price for their cat purchased from me. You purchased a pet, not a breeder. If you want her pedigree info so you can breed her your welcome to pay me for breeder rights. Let me know if this is what you would like to do. "Thank you Chris cutting edge cats
He had signed for the postal, so he had the document that the operation had taken place. Kitty could not produce kittens.
Contacted TICA to find that he is not registered.red flag to all of it! ...kittyDOB JUNE 9 2013

 

[Patti]

Coming from the buyers side, word of mouth is key; Eddies Breeder was recommended by a friend & their friend, plus I got to see examples of her beautiful kittens before ever contacting her. With the amount of love & hope we put into these furbabies only the best you can afford is good enough & that includes your own time checking them out. We did a lot of homework before deciding, had 3 referrals, 2 with live examples... If they would put as much effort into the buying process as I'd expect them to put into their new cat they shouldn't get scammed...but then I'm a bit of a control freak, lol.

I think personal references are probably the best source to finding a good breeder, unfortunately there are many people looking for Savannahs who are not aware of this forum, or don't think to look on Facebook or look for Yahoo groups to get references.

 

[MM3]

I think personal references are probably the best source to finding a good breeder, unfortunately there are many people looking for Savannahs who are not aware of this forum, or don't think to look on Facebook or look for Yahoo groups to get references.

Your 100% correct!

 

[SV Dad]

A person could always post on the forum asking if the particular breeder is known to the members of the forums.

 

[John Popp]

I am wondering what a typical nice breeder/ cattery experience is like? I mean for picking up your kitten or visiting. Should there be lots of strong cat urine smells? Cats running around everywhere freely? The breeder doing the vaccinations instead of a vet? I have never had experience with any breeders or catteries except for my Savannah one, so never knew what to expect. Was just wondering what was typical...

If you have fertile males and perhaps some servals chances are you are going to have some urine smells.

Cats running around freely, depends on the size of the cattery. Some share there homes with their breeding cats and kittens and others have separate structures for their breeding cats and kittens. I don't believe one or the other to be ideal, but my experience has been that kittens that share the breeders home are likely to be better socialized.

A breeder doing some of their own vaccinations doesn't bother me. It just doesn't make sense to cart a bunch of kittens off to the vet for vaccinations. Health check ups are certainly different, but just imagine simple things like a cat with a drippy nose, or perhaps something like ear mites and needing to treat and inspect 15 or 20 of them. There is just a lot of things that a breeder needs to be prepared to deal with on their own.

In all I don't think there is a typical experience as the three catteries I have visited are all quite different. They all loved their cats dearly and provided a good home for them.

 

[John Popp]

Red flag when a breeder sells SVs citing characteristics that are not part of the TICA breed standard -- such as F2.5, polydactyl; when a breeder sends the cat to new owners well under 12 weeks of age.

I love the f2.5 gig, sounds like a Savannah revision because of some bugs and anomalies in version f2.

 

[Tort518]

I love the f2.5 gig, sounds like a Savannah revision because of some bugs and anomalies in version f2.

Yup, "error: Savannah could not run. legs.exe failed to initialize"

 

[The Kasbah]

I am wondering what a typical nice breeder/ cattery experience is like? I mean for picking up your kitten or visiting. Should there be lots of strong cat urine smells? Cats running around everywhere freely? The breeder doing the vaccinations instead of a vet? I have never had experience with any breeders or catteries except for my Savannah one, so never knew what to expect. Was just wondering what was typical...

Some catteries allow visitation and others do not. We for example do not allow visitors to mingle with our breeding animals under any circumstances, nor do we allow contact with our kittens until after they have been vaccinated...and typically by that time they are already spoken for.

We offer shipping within the Continental United States OR local pick up.

We do all of our own vaccinating except for Rabies, which must be administered by the vet per state law. Most of the well seasoned breeders do their own vaccinating, btw, so this is commonplace.

The animals nor the environment should smell strongly of urine, except in areas where intact males are housed, as that is pretty much unavoidable.

Hope this helps.