Exotic house cat breeders in Chile

[mem]

I'm sure this is a long shot...

Anyone know of breeders in Chile that sell any of the below breeds of cats?

Savannah Cat
Bengal
Serval
Toyger

[admin]

my last cat (just died) was an exotic street cat from temuco, i chased out of my trash can for six months before we reached a mutual benficial arrengment. my wife never sees a mouse (alive or dead), and i provide milk and a warm fire.

[72Shilden]

It's true that you can find magnificent cats in alleyways or in cardboard boxes, just look at the hobo I picked up from the trash containers in my street 3 years ago :

[hlf2888]

There are so many street cats that are beautiful and would be great mousers if female. Visit La Vega supermercado in Santiago. Some stall owners feed the cats to keep the mice away. You can easily get a kitten there... and save a life.

As for selling exotic cats, I doubt many people would pay the surcharge for the "prestige" factor. Research sales of porsches per capita and that should give you an idea. Middle class values here are not what they are in NA.

[admin]

Chileans tend to be more dog people, than cat people.

Yea, I have a long list of specific requirements for my next cat.

I want a female, farm cat, ferro, that was never anyone's pet, and has been with its mother 6 months to a year. I am keeping my eye out for one of my farmer friends in the area that has a colony of cats living in the barn for a litter. I should need thick gloves to handle it until we make friends.

My last cat, only got somewhat domesticated and friendly with anyone but me after she got sick. She also killed so many mice, that she quit needing to hunt mice, due to having bred her own. Essentially, any mouse born in the area that did not have a healthy fear of our house, did not last long. After a few years, they just quit coming around at all, and she quit needing to hunt. My neighbours, with a pet cat, are constantly doing battle with mice. I see them in the headlights at night crossing the road. They are around, just not around my house. My cat has been dead now for over a month, and I still have not seen signs of a mouse around the property. I am just afraid word might get out she is gone, before I get a replacement.

I read this great article on the rat problem in New York. One of the experts said something that is very true. A full grown rat is a very formidable animal for a cat to take on, and not just any cat can do it. Really only cats that have been raised and taught to hunt by their mother, stand a chance at consistently taking down a rat. I watch my cat take on a rat one time, that was up inside a friend"s pickup chewing wires. She ran it down for a good 20 to 30 mins, up and down the street, in to neighbours cars, around their yards, and finally cornered it and took it out when she was able to get in position to jump on its back. By contrast, my neighbours, fat pet cat has trouble catching its own tail.

She hunted dogs, stocked fox, killed rabbits bigger than my dogs, and had a reputation with all the vets in the area for being just downright dangerous to work on. She came back one time completely soaked in dog slobber, to the point my wife freaked out and called the vet because she thought she was injured. The vet checked her out, no injuries. Which led to the obvious question, what happened to the dog who's mouth she was inside to get that much dog slobber on her.

My wife says she does not want another cat. I tell her she has been living campo Disneyland for years due to that cat. First time she sees a mouse, that will change and I need to have a list of qualified applicants ready to go.

[mem]

The diet of a cat, really does make or break the cat for being a serious hunter. If the cat eats starchy kibble it acts as a sedative due to the glycemic effect on its blood sugar. Over a long period of time they begin to gain weight and become quite sedentary.

We have a commoner peasant cat that is a great hunter, list of it's regular victims:

1) Regular birds
2) Humming birds (particularly difficult prey)
3) Rats
4) Mice
5) Lizards
6) Bunnies
7) Once a Chicken that we had to rescue and return before firmly scolding the cat to leave the chickens alone

We have only been feeding our cat raw meat. Almost entirely shredded turkey thigh and then some raw fish. Keeps the cat lean like a panther and full of energy. We watch this cat just sprint around the yard and run straight up trees for no reason other than for fun I guess.

[mem]

Regarding the exotic cats, I have always been fond of the cat breeds that look like little tigers or leopards. I came close to getting a Bengal years ago, but just never went though with it. We already have a common rescue cat that is now spayed, so no more cute little kittens : (

Now one of my daughters wants a cheetah...(actually cheetahs are the most tameable of the other wild cats, especially if gotten as a small cub they can really bond with humans). They are actually quite popular in the middle east as pets. All that being said, it just isn't practical for us to have a cheetah. They need about a football field or two worth of land to roam, which we actually have enough land for, but then we couldn't have any of the other prey animals we want to have very easily...sheep, goats, chickens, cows, etc. So cheetah is just not practical lol. Cubs can be bought from South Africa...I doubt it would be too hard to bring it in "as a pet cat" as long as it was small enough, noone would know the difference, but perhaps I am being optimistic (tongue in cheek)

Regardless, I figured the next best thing would be one of the exotic breeds. They are really cool looking cats. Here are a few examples

Toyger - https://blogyeumeo.com/wp-content/uploa ... toyger.jpg
Savannah Cat - https://i.ytimg.com/vi/p1JxifyK-Ts/maxresdefault.jpg

[admin]

The diet of a cat, really does make or break the cat for being a serious hunter. If the cat eats starchy kibble it acts as a sedative due to the glycemic effect on its blood sugar. Over a long period of time they begin to gain weight and become quite sedentary.

We have a commoner peasant cat that is a great hunter, list of it's regular victims:

1) Regular birds
2) Humming birds (particularly difficult prey)
3) Rats
4) Mice
5) Lizards
6) Bunnies
7) Once a Chicken that we had to rescue and return before firmly scolding the cat to leave the chickens alone

We have only been feeding our cat raw meat. Almost entirely shredded turkey thigh and then some raw fish. Keeps the cat lean like a panther and full of energy. We watch this cat just sprint around the yard and run straight up trees for no reason other than for fun I guess.

No my cat had no problems killing humming birds. She would leave her 4 mouse offering in a nice neat row by the back yard in the morning, then go lay on our front porch next to the flowers and snack on humming birds all day. Her record was 5 in one hour (that I seen). Only about 1% of the time was I able to intercept, force her mouth open, and let a live humming bird fly away like a tweety and sylvester episode. She got wise to that, and became more hit and run about it. Strangely, we put up humming bird feeder, where we thought she could not get to them. There was a particularly aggressive male hummingbird that use to defend the feeder, that after a while seemed to start leading the other birds towards our cat. It was some sort of sick interspecies death pack they had going on.Then also, I once had a cat with one working front paw, that use to pick fights with other cats she had no chance of winning and lead them in front of my dog to be killed. Leave it to a cat to figure out how to exploit other species killer instincts to their advantage.

[admin]

Regarding the exotic cats, I have always been fond of the cat breeds that look like little tigers or leopards. I came close to getting a Bengal years ago, but just never went though with it. We already have a common rescue cat that is now spayed, so no more cute little kittens : (

Now one of my daughters wants a cheetah...(actually cheetahs are the most tameable of the other wild cats, especially if gotten as a small cub they can really bond with humans). They are actually quite popular in the middle east as pets. All that being said, it just isn't practical for us to have a cheetah. They need about a football field or two worth of land to roam, which we actually have enough land for, but then we couldn't have any of the other prey animals we want to have very easily...sheep, goats, chickens, cows, etc. So cheetah is just not practical lol. Cubs can be bought from South Africa...I doubt it would be too hard to bring it in "as a pet cat" as long as it was small enough, noone would know the difference, but perhaps I am being optimistic (tongue in cheek)

Regardless, I figured the next best thing would be one of the exotic breeds. They are really cool looking cats. Here are a few examples

Toyger - https://blogyeumeo.com/wp-content/uploa ... toyger.jpg
Savannah Cat - https://i.ytimg.com/vi/p1JxifyK-Ts/maxresdefault.jpg

Hope your cheetah is trained to eat SAG agents.

I use to have a friend with a mountain lion, that was pretty much a house cat (the size of a golden retriever).

[hlf2888]

We had a male kitten dropped off at the sanctuary. Beautiful grey panther with green eyes. But he would not hunt. He would lay on a rock all day catching rays and watching the chickens and then run around on the roof all night (feral street cats live on rooftops). I believe that when we speak, or think, we form these invisible thought bubbles over our heads and the truly perceptive can intuit them. For instance, say the word apple. Can you say it without picturing an apple? So I told the street cat that if he kept running on the roof all night, he would have to go back to town. I pictured driving him to town and dropping him off. I was very sad but we needed to sleep. He stopped running on the roof at night, is still with us and still does not catch mice.

[Julito]

Such a different cat culture for some.

All uncontrolled cats to me are feral, they're native animal and bird killers, millions daily all over the world. I can't count the number of times cat owners have told me their "dear kitty" doesn't kill birds, lizards or anything else they can get their teeth into for a bit of amusement.

There are far more efficient ways of addressing mouse and rat problems than getting a cat or two.

When I was a kid cats were uncontrolled in Australia, hence the huge feral cat problem still decimating wildlife. Over the last 15 years or more people in urban areas have been legislated to control their cats, confining them to their properties, sometimes only within the house and cat runs, otherwise they're fair game, they're trapped and disposed of, or simply shot. In rural areas they're baited.

Since it was legislated and enforced I now see many small native birds and lizards where I grew up that as a kid I only saw in books.

[admin]

i use cats, because i have dogs. if i used poison or traps, sooner or later the dogs would get in to it. i am also not messing around with handling mice, anymore than absultly needed, due to the hanta virus here. i prefer to leave it to the pros. The cat population is the least of the birds concerns here. in 10 square km, there is like perhaps 10 cats, and most of them are lazy homebodies

cars and dogs are so far the biggest threat i have seen to the local native birds. in fact biggest threat to native birds, is probably other birds.

overal the birds are in pretty good shape. the seasonal duck pond in the field in front of my house is filled with hundreds of birds most of the year, and they are far from stressed about anything. i could probably walk up and just grab one of the ducks they are so relaxed. i have had chilean partridge walk across my front yard, and past my cat. think she thought it was too easy. no game in that game bird.

my big concern with mice, them eating the wiring in the cars. i have friends that use poison and traps, and their wiring gets eaten, especialy the older soy based wiring.