I think it is impossible to work out what the rarest cat breed is. There are many very little-known breeds where there are only a few cats in existence. One brand new breed (at Oct 2010) is the Nile Valley Egyptian. There cannot be more than a handful of these cats at this early stage. We can, though, get a good feel or idea about the rare cat breeds.
One thing that immediately comes out of this survey is that the super-exotic cats that should be rare cat breeds are becoming less rare; I am thinking of cats such as the Savannah (wild/domestic hybrid) and Toyger (domestic hybrid and careful breeding) for example. This is because of their continued and increasing popularity.
The flip side is that the dwarf cats are the rare cat breeds because of the controversy surrounding them. I expect this group of cat breeds to remain rare for that reason. The exception is the founding dwarf cat, the Munchkin, which has become more widely accepted in part because this is the most attractive and established of the dwarf cats.
As I have stated there is a remarkable correlation between the criteria utilized. For example, the availability of photographs of the cat breeds and the cat breeders. This is to be expected of course. One set of data supports the other.
A natural consequence of looking for the rare cat breeds is to find the most common. In this exercise it became apparent that the Bengal cat is the most common cat together with the Maine Coon, Persian and Siamese. These also the most popular – one supports the other.
The Bengal was an exotic cat, but no longer due to the breed’s popularity. It has joined the ranks it seems to me.
The cats analysed as rare cat breeds from the mainstream cats, under this scheme were: –
Burmilla
California Spangled
Elf Cat
German Rex
Kinkalow
Kurilian Bobtail
Lambkin
Minskin
Napoleon
Ojos Azules
Serengeti
Skookum
Sokoke
Tiffany
The breeds highlighted are the rarest.
The contents of this page other than the photographs are copyright Michael at Pictures-of-cats.org.
- Messybeast (for the fringe breeds)
- Pictures of cat.org (for popularity of breeds)
- YouTube search (number of videos of breeds)
- Google web search (rare breed search)
- Google image search
- The Cat Channel (for the frequency of breeders)
I have a Tennessee Rex a new breed in development with Tica. It features the new to cat fancy satin coat mutation. The satin coat is as it sounds shiny like silk or satin and soft like a cashmere sweater.
so is that why most rare breeds of cats can be not cheap at all to purchase one? my first cat was a maine coon cat but i didn’t have to pay to much money for her because i adopted her from a humane society
Rare cat breeds are actually normally no more expensive than the more common breeds. Some are rare because they are not popular so very few are bred by breeders. If they are not popular that forces the price down.
I hope you are well Darlene. Nice to hear from you.
We live in Dallas tx Behind us is a large creek and park and gold course we often see the outline of a cat that looks to be 25-30 lbs we have small dogs for comparison. It has the enlarge ears like a savanagh cat or singapore cat. Should we catch it or call animal control. It stared down a skunk last week
Personally I wouldn’t call animal control because if the cat is doing no harm it may end up being killed. Large Savannah cats (F1-F2) are rare so probably not that. Could be a large tabby cat. He/she may be an outdoor cat roaming widely. Personally, I’d watch and wait. No harm done. I don’t see any danger. Large domestic cats and even small wild cats aren’t a danger to people. It is the opposite.
I’d be carefully about catching it because someone might own the cat. Technically it could be theft to catch a cat and take it away.
But of course each person has their own way of dealing with things. My style is to live and let live unless you have to take action.
Thanks for asking.
It has super large ears in the moonlight the silhouette is beautiful. We don’t feel threatened. But if its rare wanted to make sure its preserved safely. But I have never seen a cat as big or have those directional tall ears.
Natasha, could you capture a picture?
If this cat seems relatively harmless, PLEASE don’t call animal control. That would mean certain death.
Hello, have you heard of two cats that have mated and given different breeds, that is a havana brown and a bombay black cat , gave birth to a ,……….. Persian, racoon, bombay, korat,and a munckin
A raccoon is not a cat! Sometimes two breeds have produced a new breed. An example is the Burmilla. However, I am sorry but the cats you refer to are incorrect.