Safari Cat breeders (2022)

Quite a few people search for breeders of this cat. It could have been as popular as the Savannah cat, possibly (see below the table as to why I think it isn’t). The breed is rare and there are few breeders. I have searched high and low and I think covered all possibilities but I may have missed one or two. If I have, please contact me on mjbmeister[at]gmail.com if you want to be listed. It is entirely up to you.

I compiled this relatively short list from various sources on the internet. There are two aspects, I feel, to the exotic cat or wildcat hybrid cat market. Some don’t like it as they say it creates cats that are too wild, which makes them unsuitable as cat companions and which leads to relinquishment and perhaps death.

Many others are fascinated by wild cat hybrids as they place us close to the wild cat. A third perspective exists. The original wild cat hybrid, the Bengal, was created at least in part to highlight the plight of the wildcats, persecuted as they are around the world, frequently for their skin or at least a part of them and sometimes they are captured to domestic them for pets. In my estimation the wild cat hybrid for the domestic cat market has not achieved that goal in any shape or form. But there are some wonderful breeders of wild cat hybrids. One of which is A1 Savannahs.

Update April 17, 2022: this list was compiled about 12 years ago! Currently, I do not have the time to redo it. It needs redoing because invariably cat breeders go out of business when the owner of that hobby business retires. These are not like normal businesses which continue sometimes for many years because somebody else takes over. Therefore, some of these links will now be redundant and for that I am sorry. Some will still work so they are worth trying out!

One possible and perhaps likely reason why the Safari cat is rare, and as a consequence Safari cat breeders too, is because this cat is harder to breed than the Savannah cat. And, as I understand it, the Savannah cat is hard to breed itself.

Dale and Holly Hummel, of Select Exotics, a leading breeder, fill me in. They confirm that the Safari cat is harder to breed than the Savannah. They refer to the Safari cat as a “forgotten” cat. Despite the fact that the wild cat parent of the Safari cat, Geoffroy’s cat (Serval for the Savannah), is smaller making breeding, on the face of easier, Geoffroy’s cat presents “chromosomal differences”. Females rarely carry to term. And they say there seems to be a sex-linked gene affecting males that is lethal. As a consequence, Safari cats are extremely rare. It makes me wonder why we do it, actually. Anyway, Select Exotics have been the most successful breeder of this breed, they say.

Another possible reason is because the wildcat hybrid market became saturated. Some cat breeds went forward and some simply were not marketed as well and faded.