Highly Trainable- Sphynx cats are intelligent and highly trainable.  Having a Sphynx cat is like having a cat, dog and monkey all in one.  Sphynx cats can be trained to do almost anything a dog can do.  They can walk on a harness, fetch and listen to commands (like come, go, sit, stay etc...).  Plus, they can balance in high places, they display acrobatic abilities and they even will use their front paws as hands to open doors and drawers!  They are highly expressive, constantly letting you know how they feel and what they want. They can even use the toilet with very little or, usually, no training. 

Myths and Truths- A certain color or sex is the best: NOT!!!!  The personality of the Sphynx cat depends on the genetics of the parents and the environment the kitten is raised in. 

Safety-Indoors-Collars- One of the most important things is to keep your Sphynx cats indoors.  Too many things can happen to outdoor cats or even indoor/outdoor cats.  Any cat that is outdoors is susceptible to cars, disease, fleas and other animals, just to name a few things.  For indoor safety, I never recommend nor let my own cats wear collars.  If you must have a collar on your cat, please make sure it is the releasable type!

Proper Nutrition- By nature Sphynx cats are carnivores.  It is extremely important that your Sphynx cats get the proper nutrition in the protein of meat.  Meat should always be the main ingredient in any food you feed your cat.  I highly recommend a good Brand Name Dry Food with Meat as the first ingredient.  Feeding your Sphynx kitten with a cheap brand of grocery store cat food, saturated by fillers, will simply make your Sphynx cat vomit and create a lot of clean up chores for you.  Some table scraps are okay as a treat and I feed my Sphynx cats leftover meat, fish and veggies.  They have different tastes (like us) and some Sphynx cats like veggies a lot, especially green beans.  Most Sphynx cats are not picky eaters.

Litter- I recommend and use clay litter. Pine litter and tore up newspaper are other options.  Never use scoop-able litter. First of all, when the litter gets wet it cements.  When cats use the scoop-able litter it gets in-between their paw pads and they lick it off and it can cement in their intestines.  Second, scoop-able litter is not as sanitary as the feces is removed, but all the bacteria and germs remain.  I highly recommend changing litter boxes often and letting them soak in steaming hot water with bleach or ammonia. 

A Good Veterinarian- God Bless all Veterinarians, for they love animals otherwise they wouldn't be doing what they love to do.  It is so important to have a Veterinarian that you feel comfortable with.  It is a fact that most Veterinarians are trained on dogs, even less know about purebred cats.  Make sure your veterinarian is experienced with purebred cats and you have educated, breeder advice as a reference.  I can't tell you how many times, when I first started breeding, that the veterinarian didn't have a clue and a Sphynx breeder friend had the answer. 

Vaccinations- For vaccinations I recommend a 3-way distemper (Fort Dodge PCT) vaccine for all cats.  I myself have all my Sphynx cats tested and vaccinated yearly and that is what I highly recommend all pet owners to do.  Many states require the rabies vaccine.  I don't like it myself and I have heard that it can cause cancer at the sight of the injection.  That is second hand information though.  If you do vaccinate for Rabies please wait until your kitten is 6 months old. The 3-way distemper should be administered yearly and keeping your Sphynx cats indoors is of the most paramount importance.

Surgery- If your Sphynx cat ever needs any type of surgery, make sure your veterinarian uses ONLY Isoflourine (gas anesthesia).  NEVER use Ketamine as Sphynx cats (and other cats) can have a reaction to it.  Hopefully your Sphynx cat will only need one surgery in her or his lifetime; to be spayed or neutered.  KETAMINE SHOULD NEVER BE USED FOR ANY SURGERY!  Even the slightly bit can have devastating consequences.

Medicine- Should your Sphynx cat need an general antibiotic, we have found Clavamox to work extremely well with purebred cats.  Of course, please have your Sphynx cat evaluated by a vet first.  Should your Sphynx cat need eye drops we have found Tobramycin very effective.

De-claw- I highly disagree with de-clawing.  A de-claw is actually the knife amputation of the first digit on the fingers.  I know I would hate to wake up from surgery and have the first digit of my fingers completely removed, and I have no doubt you feel the same.  With proper care a cat does NOT need to be de-clawed.  The nails should be trimmed every two weeks.  To trim the nails, simply extract the nail (thumb and forefinger-compress the paw pad and the top of the paw) and look for where the red starts in the nail (that is the blood).  Do NOT clip anything but white!  All the white on the nail can be completely removed.  Just remember not to hit the red.  Nail caps are another alternative to trimming.  The nails caps come in cool colors and are glued over the top of the nail.  For those who feel they must de-claw their cats, DON'T.  If you absolutely must please find a Veterinarian that uses laser surgery.  Laser surgery is much less painful, the healing time is much faster and the chance of infection is a whole lot less.  Also, never have the back claws removed as that can lead to biting behavioral problems.  Think you want to de-claw?  Check out these links first!!!

http://declaw.lisaviolet.com/

http://declaw.lisaviolet.com/declawstory.html

I hope this information has helped.  As always, I am totally dedicated to helping Sphynx cat lovers and Sphynx cats in any way possible.  If you have any questions, comments or interesting information to add, please feel free to contact me.