About Savannahs

The Savannah is a hybrid domestic cat.  It is a cross between an African Serval wild cat and a domestic cat.  It is considered one of the larger breeds of domestic cats, though it is generally their height rather than their weight that makes them appear so. Later generation Savannah cats may weigh the same as an average domestic cat but often appear larger due to their stature.

The first Savannah was born in 1986 by crossing an African Serval and a Siamese cat and was aptly named 'Savannah' as that is where Servals are most often seen in Africa.  In 2001 The International Cat Association (TICA) accepted the Savannah as a new registered breed.

Savannahs appear in several different colours that generally come from the various outcrosses that were bred with the African Servals.  Only some of them are recognized by TICA.  They are Brown or Black Spotted Tabby with spots on a tan, golden or brown background, Melanistic- black spots on a black background, Silver Spotted Tabby- black or dark grey spots on a silver background and Black Smoke-black spots on a black tipped silver background.  There are also non-standard colours that can be found in Savannahs such as marble patterns, snow colours and blue point colours.

The Savannah cat's physical appearance is intended to mimic that of the African Serval's as closely as possible.  Ideally they will have lean, muscular bodies with very long legs.  Their back end is higher than their shoulders as the serval has extremely powerful hind legs enabling them to jump to exceptional heights.  The Savannah's head should be proportionately small with large, high-set, cupped ears with predominant ocelli ( white and black markings on the back of the ears that look like eyes).  They have hooded, boomerang shaped eyes with tear stains that run from the eyes to the whiskers.  Savannahs have very long necks and short, thick tails.  Many of these preferred traits will be dominant in early generation Savannahs but tend to diminsh to some degree in the later generations.  There is a very small percentage of male Savannahs that are fertile before the fifth generation making it more difficult to achieve the standards especially as the generations of offspring get later. However; with Savannah breeders working hard to maintain the standards more of these desirable traits are surfacing in the later generation cats.