TICA recognizes the Savannah as a domestic cat
from the very first cross. The goal of breeders of the Savannah is to
create a cat that will mimic the wild ancestor, the African Serval.
Creating a cat that looks wild cat but acts like a domestic is a long
and tedious adventure that is not undertaken lightly by breeders. Savannahs
are an extremely friendly,
talkative, very playful .
A curious cat by nature.
They are
considered the largest hybrid cat available at this time.
You might hear
terms such as F1 or F2 Savannahs. The "F" stands for filial and the
"number" refers to how many generation from the wild cat the Savannah
is.
F1= Serval Father
F2= Serval
Grandfather
F3= Serval Great
Grandfather and so on.
The first three generations of
males (F1, F2 and F3 )
are always sterile. As well and most of the F4 generation. It is
normally 5 generations or more
before there can be a Savannah to Savannah breeding. The TICA allowable outcrosses include
Oriental Shorthair, Egyptian Mau, Ocicat, and the Domestic Shorthair.
In 1996, Patrick
Kelly anf Joyce Scroufe presented
the Savannah
breed to the TICA board of directors .TICA
accepted the Savannah for registration as an experimental breed. The
Savannah has continued to evolve both in its development,
recognition and popularity of the
breed through The International Cat Association (TICA) and in the hearts
of cat fanciers around the world.
In 2001, TICA
granted evaluation status to this exciting new breed, which means that
you may see Savannahs of F3 or beyond being shown in the evaluation
rings at TICA shows. In February
2008, the Savannah advanced to ANB, Advanced New Breed. within TICA.
