Savannah Cat History

Savannah cats were originally a cross between an African Serval Cat to a domestic cat. Now breeders are using Savannah cats and breeding back to a African Serval cat in order to  capture the exotic look in lower generations.

It was thought that an African Serval cat would never breed with a domestic cat. Luckily although its extremely hard to do it is possible.  F1 Savannah cats are one of the hardest cats in the world to produce.  The first documented Savannah Cat was produced by Jude Frank in 1986. That Savannah cat was named “Savannah”, who was a cross between a Siamese Cat and Pure exotic African Serval cat.

It was not till 1996, Ten years after the first Savannah cat was produced, that Patrick Kelley and Joyce Sroufe wrote the original version of the Savannah Cat Breed Standard which was then presented to the board of the International Cat Association (TICA).

Visit our Queen’s Page to see one of the first F1 savannah cat produced by Joyce Sroufe.

It took five years till the Savannah Cat Breed was accepted for registration with TICA. Since then many of the earlier Domestic Cats that where once used to start the foundation of the Savannah Cat breed have been labled as Non-permissible. Such breeds are Bengal cats. Bengal Cat are a cross between another Exotic cat to a domestic cat. The body shape of the Bengal is completely contradictory to what needs to be produce to further the Savannah Cat breed.                  

Today’s Savannah Cat Breed

Obviously using a regular old barn cat is not going to enhance the Savannah Cat breed. So in order to move forward in a progressive manner breeders now focus on using Savannah Cats and breeding back to an African Serval cat. This results in higher percentage F1 Savannah cats.

Why produce higher percentage cats?

Its actually very simple. Every  “Purebred cat” that exists was formed by select breeding to produce a certain outcome. To get a certain outcome you must increase your odds of reaching your goal.

If you remember back when you were in science class your teacher may have referred to marbles to explain genetics. Well each cat brings a new set of “marbles” or “genetics”  to the table. With each new set you never know the outcome.

This is why its so important to breed back to the pure exotic! Every time you breed back you chances of retaining the exotic look grows higher.  Eventually you can have an F5 savannah that looks like an F3 savannah and so on.