What should I do when I take my kitten home ?

Answer: Keep your kitten quarantined away from other animals for at least 72 hours. Take your kitten to the vet for a general health check within the first 72 hours. When you take the kitten into your home for the first time take it to a quiet room and open the carrier the kitten is in. Do not pull the kitten from the carrier, instead, let it come out in it's own time and on it's own terms. Make sure to have a small sized litter box handy filled with an appropriate litter. The kitten was litter trained on Tidy Cat clumping litter which is available at all pet stores and we recommend using this as the kitten is used to it. Make sure to have food and water available to the kitten (read below for food requirements).

What are the food requirements of my new kitten ?

Answer: We recommend keeping the kitten on the same diet it was on while it was here at Duma Exotics. The kitten was fed Eukanuba Kitten (Chicken & Rice Formula) dry food and the kitten got a prepared raw chicken supplement each mourning. We feed the kittens two types of food so they have some variety and we are big believers in a raw supplement to their diet. We make our own raw chicken diet and do it by grinding chicken thighs with the bone and skin. To this we add grinded chicken hearts, livers, and gizzards. We then freeze this in containers and thaw as needed. When thawed we add taurine powder and water to the mixture before serving it. If you do not have the time to prepare the raw diet your kitten will do just fine on the dry food. If you do decide to supplement with a raw diet let us know and we can help you get setup for doing that and provide you with more specific instructions.

What kind of litter should the kitten use and where should the litter box be placed ?

Answer: We recommend Clumping litter and the brand we like is Arm and Hammer. Urine is absorbed into the litter and clumps into a nearly odorless rock-like ball. Fecal matter along with the rock-like balls should be cleaned out of the litter on a regular basis. We use a litter scoop and doggy poop bags for cleaning the waste items out of the litter box. This litter is available at all pet stores. The litter box should be placed in an area that is quiet and always accessible to the cat.

How soon can I introduce my kitten to the other animals in my house ?

Answer: We recommend keeping the kitten away from all other animals for at least 7 days. Then, when introducing them for the first few days just let them see each other but do not allow them to come in close contact. You do not want the kitten to become scared of the other animals; however, it is very normal for it to show fear during the first encounters. After the kitten and other animals have seen each other several times you can allow some supervised interaction. Hissing, etc. should be expected for the first few encounters. If at any time you think another animal may attack the kitten remove the other animal. It will generally take 3 to 14 days for your kitten to get used to the other animals.

Spaying Neutering my new kitten ?

Answer: Spaying or neutering should be done somewhere between 4 and 6 months of age. After the procedure is done the kitten should be quarantined until the incision is healed. The litter box should be filled with shredded newspaper during this time to avoid litter from getting into the surgical site and causing problems.

Vaccinations and Vetinarian care ?

Answer: Your kitten was vaccinated against panleukopenia (distemper), rhinotracheitis, calicivirus, and Chlamydia and will need a booster each year. Your vet can give you recommendations for the other required vaccinations. Never leave the vet with your kitten immediately after it receives a vaccination or medicinal treatment of any kind. Wait at least 20 minutes at the vet to guard against possible allergic reactions. Allergic reactions to vaccinations are rare but they do happen and if untreated could cause your kitten to die. If your kitten isn't eating or seems unusually lethargic then it is time to go to the vet for a quick check, better safe than sorry.

Anestesia and Savannahs ?

Answer: NEVER allow your vet to use Ketamine to anestetize your Savannah, serious problems and death can occur. The anestesia of choice for Savannahs is Isoflourane.

What precautions do I need to take around the house to protect my new kitten ?

Answer: Kittens will get into anything and everything. You may think that something on a shelf or a counter is safe, but it is not. Savannah cats are great jumpers and can easily get onto high objects at an early age. Do not leave anything out that the cat could accidentally ingest. Some examples are rubber bands, dental floss, fake foliage, and household cleaners. Remember that Savannah cats are very intelligent and they figure out how to get into areas that other animals can not get into.

How large do Savannahs get ?

Answer: A lot of factors go into how large a Savannah will be when it is full grown.  One thing that is a certainty is that it is impossible for anyone to tell you how large a Savannah will get when it is a kitten, it just depends on how much of the growth gene it picks up from the Serval lineage.  Another certainty is that male cats grow to larger sizes than female cats.  In addition, not all Savannahs grow to a large size.  If you look at 1000 F2 Savannahs a certain number of those will grow very large.  Then if you look at 1000 F3 Savannahs a certain number of those will grow large but the number that will grow large is smaller than the number of F2’s that will grow large in the sample of 1000 cats.  The same can be said for F4’s, fewer of the 1000 sample of F4’s will grow large when compared to the F3’s.  So the reality is that if you purchase an F2 you will have a greater probability for ending up with a large cat than if you purchase an F3.  There is also a very curious fact related to size.  One would think that the F1 generation would get the largest but experience has shown that the F2 generation produces the most large cats.

So what is a large cat in terms of a Savannah.  We know of one F3 that matured at 38 pounds!  This is an anomaly and not the norm.  Generally a large Savannah would weigh in somewhere between 20 and 25 pounds.  However, because a Savannah is very long and tall a person seeing a 20 pound Savannah would guess it to be around 30 pounds.

Can a Savannah cat be walked on a leash?

Answer: Yes, savannahs enjoy being walked and can be leash trained using a special walking harness. Several manufacturers make these harnesses. Do not try to walk a savannah with a regular collar as they will pull out of it.. Here is a link to one manufacturer who makes a nice walking jacket: Walking Jacket for Cats

What is the life expectancy of a Savannah?

Answer: The life expectancy of a domestic cat is about 14 years and the lifespan of a full blooded Serval is about 20 years. The lifespan of a Savannah will be somewhere between 14 and 20 years.

What types of things are poisionous to cats?

Answer: Almost ALL drugs made for humans are toxic to cats. For example one advil can kill an adult cat. NEVER give your cat any medication unless it is prescribed by a vetenerian. Many many plants are also toxic to cats. Here is a very good web link that has a search capability in case you have a specific question: Plants that are poisionous to cats