Walk a Savannah cat - a dog in cat's body

Imagine a dog in cat's body.
First appeared in the 1980s, Savannah cat is the crossbreed offspring of a domestic cat and the medium sized, large eared wild African cats. They have became very popular near the end of the 20th century and have been registered as an all new breed. While being the largest domestic cats in the world with only about 5000 of them around the world in 2008, Savannah cats are much more social than typical domestic cats, and their loyalty are often compared to the dogs. With their long legs, and the unusual energetic nature, you can walk them like dogs and even teach them to play fetch.

A photo of Savannah cat being walked.



A Savannah cat with her kitties.


Look at the size of the Savannah cats. Are we looking at a cat or a leopard? lol







Look at these "leopards" go.


If a picture is worth 1000 words, then a video would be worth 10,000 words! (videos of Savannah cats)

video of walk a Savannah cat




More Savannah cat videos











Awesome cats, aren't they?
Hey, I have just decided, my favorite cat is Savannah cat now.
If you like dogs' personality, and the cats' look, you can get an all-in-one package deal with a Savannah cat.

Savannah cat playing fetch



Have you read the video description?
Quote -
"ABBA, loves to play fetch.. I also have to be careful when we walk by a pond or some kind of water.. Otherwise. she will jump right in..."
- end of the quote
They all say cats hate water. Now we have an exception.

I don't know about everyone else, but I want a Savannah cat now.

I saw someone here a few years back on a beach with their Savannah playing in the water. And their size can vary a bit. I don't think their ever small, but all of the videos in that first post are almost definitely F1s. Meaning first generations, serval x DSH. the F2s, F3s, etc can be bred in different ways, back again to another DSH, to another F1, so on and so forth, producing smaller options sometimes. I actually prefer the F1s.

Not that I've done much research on this or ever considered getting one...

I guess F1s are bigger, with longer legs. Easier to walk them. I heard F1s goes for tens thousands of dollars each. The demand for these Savannah cats are high while there are so few of them.

There are definitely breeders selling for a good deal less than that. Your not going to get one for $50 either though. The f1's do tend to be the biggest and most expensive. But those guys don't even neccesarilly have a cattery to produce those, you have to have african servals. I'm sure they can be tame, but that is very, very far removed from a fat house cat sleeping on the sofa.

http://www.drinkwatercats.com/cattery.html

If I ever get one Savannah cat, it will be a F1 for sure. The more generations down the road, the smaller they get, and they also lose the original traits of long legs, etc. Might as well become less energetic. Common house cats can go for as low as $5 at local animal shelters. I don't expect to get a F1 Savannah for anything less than 4 digits no matter how good the deal is. It is a mini leopard we are talking about.

For those people who have had dreams of getting a leopard or other big cats, Savannah cat is a nice substitute. Get F1 for sure. Size of a small leopard, yet sociable like dogs.

I just checked the price of Savannah cats.


How Much Does A Savannah Cost?

The price of a Savannah will vary depending on the quality of the individual cat. Following are average price ranges:
Males:
F1 $7,500-$22,000
F2 $4,500-$16,000
F3 $3,000-$6,000
F4 $1200-$3,000
F5 $950-$6,000


Females:
F1 $6000-$22,000
F2 $4,500-$14,000
F3 $3,500-$5,500
F4 $1,200-$4,500
F5 $950-$3,000

They cost as much as a car. Would you pay that kind of money for a F1 Savannah cat?

The biggest cats are F1 Savannahs and males of the F2 Generations. They get about 2 and a half times larger than regular house cats, with their weight from 15 to 28 pounds, and occasionally, over 30 pounds. F3 males are often still considerably bigger than a regular house cat. We have produced F3 males ranging in the lower twenties with their weight but rule is 15 to 18 lean pounds.

F3 females and all cats of further generations decrease in size but keep their long legs, big ears and the wild appearance. Savannahs need up to 3 years to reach their full size.


Source:
http://www.a1savannahs.com/savannahs.htm

Actually the price varies greatly. You can find f1's for less than $3,000. And it also seems to matter the definition of F1, F2, to the breeder in question. Maybe someone knows for sure how the terms are supposed to be defined in Savannah/cat hybrid breeding, but an F2 could be F1 x F1, F1 x serval, F1 x domestic, etc... And what would a F1 x F3 be? An F4? An F2? The F1's seem to be pretty consistent, serval x domestic cat, but even then, it depends on the "domestic" cat used in creating the hybrid. All this seems to add up in the charged price.

Is that $3,000 F1 on the "low end"? I wonder what make it cheaper compare to the more expensive ones.

Even at $3,000, it is still quite expensive for a cat. Will you get one for that price?

At the moment, no. I can't afford that. I guess you never know, if I could find one at a lower price I might in the future. All high end animal sales are still in the tank in the US, so you can wheel and deal with breeders if you have the cash to spend, as many of them need sales.

That's amazing, I love the cats already, but heck if I can ever afford one.

I want a couple of these so badly! Too bad they're so expensive =\ I would love an ocelot.

We considered buying a Savannah. We already have a Bengal and enjoy the unique characteristics of a cat that has some "wild" in it! One of my husband's clients has a couple Savannahs and they are just breathtaking! We changed our minds after doing some more research on the breed. They're so big and energetic and mischievous, I decided to pass. We have a houseful of fragile artwork and I wouldn't want to jeopardize my collection now. I remember when my Bengal was a kitten, how much she destroyed, and she's no where near as big as a Savannah. She chewed on the corners of our wood sofa table, chewed the ear off of a beautiful large sculpture of a deer, left bite marks on the bills of a couple wood ducks we had, etc., etc. She finally grew out of that phase, thankfully!

Most of our cats have been good at fetching. Even the DSH's. Our Bengal loves to fetch, and she likes getting in the bathtub and splashing around a bit. A Bengal is cheaper than a Savannah, so y'all might want to consider a Bengal instead. One thing I've noticed about *our* Bengal is she's very highstrung, skittish and more aloof than any other cat we've had. I don't know if it's part of all Bengal personalities, but when I talked my brother into getting a Bengal (he bought 2), he found them to be that way too.

To be honest I've never heard of Savannah cat's as a breed before and found this thread really interesting. I like the idea of a cat that has a personality a little more like a dog. I can't believe some people walk their Savannah cat's, I think it's really neat. Although I don't know if it's unusual or common for a Savannah cat? Perhaps that cat is the exception to the rule? I might do some more research on this breed. :-)

(06-09-2012, 05:02 AM)laurasav Wrote: We considered buying a Savannah. We already have a Bengal and enjoy the unique characteristics of a cat that has some "wild" in it! One of my husband's clients has a couple Savannahs and they are just breathtaking! We changed our minds after doing some more research on the breed. They're so big and energetic and mischievous, I decided to pass. We have a houseful of fragile artwork and I wouldn't want to jeopardize my collection now. I remember when my Bengal was a kitten, how much she destroyed, and she's no where near as big as a Savannah. She chewed on the corners of our wood sofa table, chewed the ear off of a beautiful large sculpture of a deer, left bite marks on the bills of a couple wood ducks we had, etc., etc. She finally grew out of that phase, thankfully!

Most of our cats have been good at fetching. Even the DSH's. Our Bengal loves to fetch, and she likes getting in the bathtub and splashing around a bit. A Bengal is cheaper than a Savannah, so y'all might want to consider a Bengal instead. One thing I've noticed about *our* Bengal is she's very highstrung, skittish and more aloof than any other cat we've had. I don't know if it's part of all Bengal personalities, but when I talked my brother into getting a Bengal (he bought 2), he found them to be that way too.

I guess it is a good reason not to get some over energetic and playful pets when you have fragile items all over your home lol. You can't have both.

Bengal cat was one of my favorite until I saw Savannah cat.
How does a Bengal cat react to water? Savannah cats seem to love playing with water.

(06-11-2012, 08:36 AM)tajnz Wrote: To be honest I've never heard of Savannah cat's as a breed before and found this thread really interesting. I like the idea of a cat that has a personality a little more like a dog. I can't believe some people walk their Savannah cat's, I think it's really neat. Although I don't know if it's unusual or common for a Savannah cat? Perhaps that cat is the exception to the rule? I might do some more research on this breed. :-)

From what I've read so far, it is a normal practice for Savannah cat owners to walk them like dogs. They are energetic and active enough, the long legs also allow them to walk long distance fine. They are a special breed of cats.

Oh wow, I'm again surprised that it's fairly common for owners of Savannah cat's to walk them. They certainly are an interesting breed. I wonder why their personalities are so different from other cats? It is neat that have long legs that can walk longer distances than the average cat.

Ram, Bengal cats love water as much as the Savannah cats do. Ours goes in the tub for a bit of a splash when I let her. She'll come in the bathroom with me sometimes & meow for me to open the glass door to the shower so she can hop in. If I don't, she gets much more vocal & demanding, trying to open it herself. Bengals have a very raspy voice and they bark like a dog. Ours huffs too, which is pretty funny. She's completely different from any other cat we've had. Her breeder said she'd walk on a leash if we wanted to take her outside. But we never did try this. We keep all our cats indoors.

I remember seeing Savannahs on Animal Planet a while ago and falling in love. A Savannah is my dream cat, but they're pretty expensive so it could be a long time before I could ever afford one. They are absolutely stunning and I love how tall they are.

This is intriguing. I looked up Bengals and Savannahs just to see the differences. Here are two samples:

This is a Bengal cat.


This is a Savannah cat.

To my untrained eyes, the most obvious difference is the size and shape of the ears. The Savannah have ears which are distinctively different. Plus the Savannah has got longer limbs. The general outlook is not exactly cat-like. I mean cat-like as in domesticated cat-like. The Savannah looks more like a leopard.

One thing I noticed about the prices of the Savannahs is that the price drops as the you produce more generations. So buying an expensive Savannah doesn't necessarily mean that you can sell the kittens for the same price. From an investment point of view, I think I can get better returns breeding, say, the Persian.

I wanted to explain how the ears on that photo you found of a Bengal are not right, but I looked up more info before I said something. I knew the Bengal ears are supposed to be small and rounded, like on my Bengal. Here's a good explanation of what I'd wanted to say: http://solanaranchbengals.com/bengal-cat-type.html
The ears for the most desired Bengal cat, the wild "type," would be small and rounded, not like the cat in the photo you found. Unfortunately, it took after the domestic cat genes to get those ears shown in the photo. Actually, most of its characteristics look more domestic than the more desired wild asian leopard cat's type. One thing this site didn't mention was the Bengal nose. The nose should be big & broad in a perfect Bengal cat. My Bengal has a large nose in keeping with her more wild "type."

Thank you for the information and the link.

Now that I have a chance to study in closer detail the characteristics of a Bengal cat, I noticed one common feature. The underlying theme is "wildness". The writer of the article summed it up at the end as the Wild Essence.

Just curious. Does the wildness mean that the Bengal cat is less friendly than other domesticated cats?

(07-31-2012, 04:35 AM)Victor Leigh Wrote: Thank you for the information and the link.

Now that I have a chance to study in closer detail the characteristics of a Bengal cat, I noticed one common feature. The underlying theme is "wildness". The writer of the article summed it up at the end as the Wild Essence.

Just curious. Does the wildness mean that the Bengal cat is less friendly than other domesticated cats?

All breeders of Bengal cats that I've looked into claim that their Bengals are very friendly, loving and affectionate. I've not found that to be true though. My Bengal is very "stand-offish", skittish and is not a lap cat, like my other cats have been or are. I'm lucky if I can get her to sit beside me on the couch. She has never sat by my husband, ever. My brother had two Bengals and he ended up getting rid of them to a shelter (he is abusive and should never have any kind of pet!). They were very shy and unfriendly and wild, but he kept them at his 2-story office building, and they peed everywhere and he most likely beat them, though I can't say he abused them for sure as I didn't witness it personally. A friend in Canada had a Bengal, which she had to have put to sleep because he kept viciously attacking her, for no reason, and she was getting her scalp and face ripped apart, needing many stitches. She loved him very much, but her husband finally made her take it to the vet to be destroyed. The vet thought it might have been a brain tumor, but not sure, and they didn't take x-rays before killing the cat. That's my only experiences with Bengals. So I've not known them to be friendly for various reasons.

(08-01-2012, 06:32 AM)laurasav Wrote: All breeders of Bengal cats that I've looked into claim that their Bengals are very friendly, loving and affectionate. I've not found that to be true though. My Bengal is very "stand-offish", skittish and is not a lap cat, like my other cats have been or are. I'm lucky if I can get her to sit beside me on the couch. She has never sat by my husband, ever. My brother had two Bengals and he ended up getting rid of them to a shelter (he is abusive and should never have any kind of pet!). They were very shy and unfriendly and wild, but he kept them at his 2-story office building, and they peed everywhere and he most likely beat them, though I can't say he abused them for sure as I didn't witness it personally. A friend in Canada had a Bengal, which she had to have put to sleep because he kept viciously attacking her, for no reason, and she was getting her scalp and face ripped apart, needing many stitches. She loved him very much, but her husband finally made her take it to the vet to be destroyed. The vet thought it might have been a brain tumor, but not sure, and they didn't take x-rays before killing the cat. That's my only experiences with Bengals. So I've not known them to be friendly for various reasons.

This is somewhat worrisome. If what you said is true for most Bengals or characteristic behavior for most Bengals, then they would not make good pets at all. I just hope the cases you pointed out are just isolated cases. Does anyone else know of cases which show the other side of a Bengal?