Should You Get a Sphynx Cat? Pros, Cons and the Things Owners Regret

We breed these cats and we would still rather talk somebody out of one than place a kitten badly. So here is the balanced version, including the reasons Sphynx cats end up being rehomed.

The case for

• The company. They greet you at the door, follow you room to room and sleep pressed against you. It is a different relationship from most cats.
• No fur. No tufts on the lounge, no seasonal coat blow, no hair in your coffee.
• They are funny. Genuinely, daily, deliberately funny.
• Good with families and other pets. Confident, sociable, and usually fine with dogs and children who handle them properly.
• Health is visible. With no coat, lumps, scratches and condition changes are obvious early.
• They are extraordinary to hold. Warm, soft, faintly suede-like, and always looking for a lap.

The case against

• Weekly maintenance forever. Ears, nails, folds, teeth, and a bath every one to three weeks.
• They need company. Long days alone are hard on them, which often means keeping two.
• They are loud and persistent. Politely ignoring a Sphynx does not work.
• No privacy. Not your plate, not your keyboard, not the bathroom.
• Warmth costs. A warmer house, heated beds, clothing and more food than a coated cat.
• Skin oil on fabric. More washing than you are used to.
• Health testing is non-negotiable, and buying from someone who skips it is where the real risk lies.

The regrets we actually hear about

Not one of them is “the cat was not lovely enough”. They are, in order: underestimating the grooming and bathing routine; buying one for an allergy and still reacting; leaving a very social cat alone all day; not expecting the neediness and noise; and buying from a seller who did no health testing, then facing problems that testing would have avoided.

Each of those is predictable before purchase, which is the whole point of writing them down.

Three questions that settle it

1. Are you happy to bath a cat every couple of weeks for the next fifteen years?
2. Will someone be home most days, or will there be a second pet?
3. Do you want a cat that is involved in everything you do — or one that leaves you alone?

If the answers are yes, yes and involved, you will love this breed. If any answer is a hesitation, tell us and we will say so honestly. A kitten that goes to the wrong home is a bad outcome for everybody, especially the cat.

Meet the cats behind the advice

Everything here comes out of running a household of Sphynx and Donskoy cats — meet the queens, studs and kittens, or send us an enquiry if you have a question we have not answered.