Savannah cat moms, check in please

[Matata]

I have a deposit on a kitten and hope to have a new member of the family late spring or early summer. Now that some of you have had your savannahs for awhile -- how are things going? If you are a single animal household, how does the cat do being alone all day? Are they more destructive than domestic short hairs? Did you have to baby-proof the house? Do any of you feed either a raw or whole prey diet. My breeder feeds whole prey so I plan to continue that. Please share any special insights you have on being owned by a savannah & thanks!

 

[Aloros]

I was owned by a savannah for two years. He sadly contracted FIP and passed away in October. My life has not been the same since.

My experience was that they are DEFINITELY more destructive than domestic short hairs. You can''t really fault them for it. They are so intelligent and high energy that if they run out of stuff to do or things to play with, they will find something to play with (and it may not necessarily be something you want!).

I also have a domestic short hair cat, and though it took a while for them to get used to one another, they became best buddies. I''m not sure how my Amazu would have done on his own while I was away at work, so if you don''t have another pet, you may want to consider a buddy.

I gave up on the toilet paper after a while. I couldn''t remember or expect my guests to remember to keep the bathroom door closed. I put child locks on the cupboards. Garbage can with a lid is also a necessity, though he/she may figure that out after a while as well! I got used to never leaving food or anything food-like within reach. Amazu loved getting into flour or pasta or rice and I''d come home to find it spread out over the floor (hence the child locks)! He calmed down a bit at a year of age, and I trained him to sit when he wanted something, which helped. Still, I rarely ever failed to come home to a little bit of a mess. He even figured out how to open zippers! He always looked like he was having so much fun being mischievous that I could rarely get too angry about it.

Having said that, it was absolutely worth it. Servals are known to form intense bonds with their humans, and I think savannahs have that same trait. Amazu was glued to my side from the first night I brought him home. He came out of his carrier wanting to give me kisses and spent the night curled up in the space between my shoulder and my ear, purring me to sleep. He was very well socialized and LOVED strangers, but at the end of the night he always came to cuddle up in the crook of my arm, giving me head butts and purrs. In some ways he was more like a dog than a cat. He loved to go new places with me and wasn''t afraid of anything - not even the vacuum cleaner! And I''m not one to anthropomorphize animals, but he was such a smart little cookie that I sometimes found myself unintentionally talking to him. One day I will get another one, but my heart (and my wallet) just can''t take it yet.

I fed him raw for a little while, but ended up switching back to a high-quality dry food. He did just fine on that.

Hope this helps and good luck with your new addition! They are cute as pie as kittens, but it''s really tough to keep up with them! Amazu ran around biting everyone''s ankles when he was twelve weeks old, and it took me a couple weeks to train him out of that! Little devil...

 

[Matata]

Aloros, thanks so much for your reply. I almost didn''t make the post because I was worried that you might see it and that it would bring up sad memories. I really appreciate your generosity by replying. Actually, what you described doesn''t sound any worse than any kitten I''ve raised. I guess I''ve been lucky to pick the feisty ones. My first kitten was a Valentine''s Day present. I took a few days off work to spend acclimating her to my apartment. First day she was alone, I came home from work and all the drapes -- in the entire apartment -- were on the floor; the sofa was knocked over!!!! I never could figure out how an 8 week old kitten managed to knock over the sofa and it''s probably best that I never found out. An entire roll of paper towels and the toilet paper rolls from two bathrooms were shredded and scattered throughout and I found her happily snoozing under a pile of extra soft Charmin. By the time she was a year old she had whittled the sofa and one chair to the size of toothpicks. After that initial year of frenetic activity, she calmed down and I got to enjoy an entire night''s sleep without hearing things to bump in the night.

 

[portia]

Aloros, I''m so sorry for your loss. Hopefully one day you''ll be ready to create new memories with a new kitten. I know it takes time though to heal from the hurt.

Matata, our Zoe is an F2 Savannah and she''s about 1.5 yrs. I echo what Aloros says... they are highly intelligent and extremely athletic and active cats. It''s impossible for them not to get into things they shouldn''t. Zoe has been a bit destructive in the past but is much better now. She seems to be mellowing out a bit. I think you get that with any cat though - just goes along with kittenhood.

The only issue we have right now with with Zoe is that she won''t play nice with the other two cats. She''s a little rough on them - likes to pounce on them from high places... not good. I''m hoping she outgrows this behavior. We''ve tried to discipline her, but she''s not afraid of anything so the normal cat tricks don''t work. I''ve found the best way to discipline her is to give her a timeout. I put her in the bathroom with the light and fan on. She usually comes out much calmer and goes and lays down.

She has really good litter box habits (minus the occasional accident - DH cleaned both litter boxes at the same time once so they were out of commission - at least she did it on the mat). We feed all our cats ProPlan wet and dry food. Zoe gets two cans a day (we may cut down on that) and the other two get one can each. They always have dry food out so there is always food to eat. We have to feed Zoe in a separate room though because she eats so fast she eat all the food.

Just as Aloros says, Savannahs bond tightly with their owners. Zoe is constantly chattering and chirping at me. When she''s not chasing the other cats she likes to play fetch and loves to play in the bathtub (they love water). When we go to sleep, I pick her up and take her to bed with me. She lays down right away and goes to sleep. I''ve never had a cat do that before. In fact, if we''re up really late, she just sits there and looks at us with this sleepy face, like ''mom/dad put me to bed''. It''s really cute!

Keep us posted on your new kitten. Would love to see pictures when you get him/her!