These amazing cats were created by crossing an African Serval cat with a common domestic cat. This cross breeding of a wild cat and a domestic cat produces large friendly kittens that resemble a small wild cat. We feel they are the perfect pet! They are bold like their wild ancestors with little fear of water, new people, dogs, walking on a leash, car rides, visiting the vet etc. They retain the wild cheetah markings of the Serval cat, and yet have the sweet affectionate nature of a domesticated house cat.
We call them our “Couch Cheetahs” !
This cross breeding is not easy to do and has made the Savannahs very rare and very expensive especially the offspring from the first generation that have a high percentage of serval blood. You will hear breeders refer to F1 Savannahs and F2 Savannahs etc. This is in reference to where in the pedigree the Serval cat is. If the Serval cat is a parent of a kitten the kitten will be referred to as being an F1 kitten as it is “1”generation removed from the wild cat. If the kitten is considered an F2 then the serval will be a grandparent to the kitten, so “2” generations away from the kitten.. etc etc. To understand more check out our pages
Because breeding an African Serval to a Domestic pet cat is a crossing of two different species, with a different genetic makeup it takes a lot of skill and experience plus a huge handful of luck to be successful at it.
An average gestation (pregnancy) of a Serval cat is 73 days and the average gestation of a Domestic cat is 63 days so you can already see one of the first problems! The Domestic mom cat will go into labour when she is 63 days along and deliver kittens that may not be fully developed and ready to be born until 10 days later. Many breeders have home based incubators and special equipment to keep these premature babies going until they can catch up with a full term kitten. Many kittens do not make it. Many kittens are lost inutero. Many pregnancies are reabsorbed or incompleted.
Also, convincing a Serval cat to breed to a Domestic cat is not an easy thing. Imagine asking your dog to breed a fox?! These are different species and they do not immediately relate to each other as potential mates. These are only a few of the reasons that these cats are rare and expensive, but WOW they are beautiful and fascinating to live with. Just read our "wanna-be princesses" page to see some of the entertaining characteristics of these cats.