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Early gen sav breeding

Studs

Kittens

Queens

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As with all hybrid breeds the first generation matings between the wild cat often pose problems. In the case of creating F1 or the first generation of Savannahs these problems are often more apparent. To get a chance of getting the male Serval to recognise the domestic female as a potential mate they must be raised together from a very early age. This is why Bertie our Serval has been raised along side our 2 foundation (F2) Savannah queens. The Serval (especially the male) is considerably larger compared to your average domestic breed of cat.

The Serval is native to the savannah planes of Africa and their long bodies and long legs pose a great issue in the actual mating between the Serval and the Queen. If a breeder is lucky enough to actually get the mating done, it takes a very special queen to carry the precious babies. As there is on average a 5 to 10 day difference between the gestation period of the Serval compared to the domestic queen, babies are at times born premature and may need intensive looking after to ensure their survival. Whenever possible we use queens that are known to Bertie to ensure they are safe with him, and also use proven queens that are well known for an elongated period of gestation to minimise the premature birth rates.

Should the breeder be lucky enough to raise the F1 queens to adult hood (all F1 males are sterile) then the difficult task continues to find a domestic male (either a later generation Savannah or other domestic breed) that will recognise the queen is in heat, and will be assertive enough to mate her. Early generation queens can be very fussy on the mates they will allow to breed with them so it is important the potential pairs are known to each other from an early age and are bonded before matings are planned to occur. The F1 queens no matter how well socialised may always retain wild instincts and this can greatly affect the survival rates of the second generation kittens.

Over the next generations of savannahs the gestation periods even out and the breeding process becomes easier, There is greater consistency in the quality of the kittens but due to this still being a new breed and constantly developing the Serval looks and size are often lost in the later generations. This is why we are planning to keep dipping back into earlier generation cats to aim to breed Savannahs that retain the size and wild looks of the Serval throughout the generations.

One quality people often are looking for in the Savannah cat breed is the large open up right positioned ears and this quality is often lost very early on. We are very lucky to have our F2 savannah queen Sunny with us as her ears are the largest and best positioned many have ever seen on a second generation female. We hope with good breeding practice we will keep this quality in both later and earlier generations of the breed.

Although arguably now people are breeding SBT savannahs using only savannah to savannah matings many believe the need to hybridize the Serval to domestics no longer has its place, but in the same breath one could argue that until we get it right and breed Savannahs that consistently resemble the Serval and keep a larger size the work on this breed is still in its infancy.

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